Excited about the prospect of having their own home, Ethan ignored Henry’s warnings about living in such a remote region and finally decided on an area that he thought would be suitable. The following weekend, Ethan and Epsey rode to the frontier area alone and spent two days exploring and trying to envision the best place for a house, barn, areas to be cleared for cultivation and grazing, and some woodlands suitable for livestock to browse. Earlier settlers had chosen the flatter and more productive land, which was where the trading center had developed. What was left was at the northwestern boundary of the county, and although much of the cultivatable land was hilly and bordered on two sides by swamps, the homesite was at least blessed with adequate springs and creeks to provide a year-round supply of good water.

Ethan then went to the courthouse, somewhat worried by Henry’s distrust of the officials and their issuing of land grants. In fact, they seemed eager to approve the one he had chosen and went out of their way to make the procedure easy for him. All that was required was a simple letter of agreement, signed by the county clerk, and a small plat of the land with boundaries described by the location of large trees, streams, a rock outcrop, and some corner posts of locust wood. A portion of the land had to be cleared, a home built, and crops planted, which was exactly what Ethan and Epsey planned to do.

As soon as possible, they loaded their belongings on two horses and two oxen they had bought, hauled them to their homesite, built a rough shelter under some pine trees on a small hill, and began clearing land. It would have been almost impossible to cut down the large trees, so Ethan girdled them by merely cutting through the bark all the way around the lower trunks. Each tree would die, still standing, but would no longer shade the crop or sap moisture and nutrients. He cut down straight trees, mostly ten or twelve inches in diameter, and dragged them with his oxen to the homesite to form the walls of their cabin. All the other undergrowth and tree limbs were piled and burned. Ethan realized that, for a few years, plowing would be difficult and that most of the cultivation would have to be done with hoes. He and Epsey worked hard on the farm, enjoyed the relative solitude of their home, and rarely visited their neighbors. Other than Henry’s customers, they met few people in Hillsborough other than the merchants from whom they obtained supplies and who would later be buying their farm products.