Samuel knew when he came to the new country he would need a place to live and he had no intention of living out of a lean or a tent. He had the luxury of money and the house was planned during his first stay in Arkansas.  There had been two trips to the new territory and these had allowed Samuel to put together his plans for the future. 

Land had been scouted, finding all the waterways and creeks that could be used to improve the land and also needed for transportation to the main waterways of the country.  Samuel had come into area first by boat and traveled up the white river until there were no longer any signs of human population and then he took to the woods and started searching for the place he could call the center of his farm.  He spent days just walking through the country looking at all the places he might build his new house.

Finally he found the right spot and then set out to buy the land from the government.

He first bought five thousand acres on the banks of the White River to insure he would always have a right of way to move the future goods and produce from his farm.  Having ready money put him in the position of getting the choice land he wanted.

After the first plot of land had been purchased he set about again walking his new holdings to make a plan for the future and what he would need to buy to get the placed started.  The time spent in New York had filled his mind with what he wanted. Walking the streets of the city he wandered to places of new construction and talked to the carpenters, bricklayers and stonemasons to find out the cost of building a house and barns.

He knew how to build a house or a barn for that matter but he had no intention of spending years working and slaving on building a house when he could be busy building a working farm by working the land. He intended to have the house, main barn and out buildings built the first year by taking the people needed to the site and have them build while he was buying stock and clearing land.

There would be needed a saw mill to mill the logs he would have brought to the mill.  As the land was new and never settled there was a virgin growth of pine, popular, chestnut oak and walnut trees that stood 3 feet thick at the base and many were larger than that.

A stream close to where the main house would stand had a set of falls that would be plenty strong enough to run the new mill he would bring into the country.  The first year would be spent with building the mill, the house and clearing the land. The second year he would start laying out the fields and bringing in the livestock.

Samuel had hired the best carpenters and stonemasons he could find in the cities and promised them good pay and a bonus if the work was completed on time.  He had bought the mill and had it shipped from England.  Supplies had been bought and stored until it was time to move them down the rivers to the Ohio and then out to the Mississippi and up the White river to the farm site.

Never a man to think small even when working his father’s farm he had planned the venture well and with money not being an issue he soon had everything executed and moving toward his new home.

There had been rumors of war with England and he had been approached by men who had discovered he was rich and wanted him to help with the war effort or at least fight on the side of the colonist.  Samuel was proud of the country he had been born in and would do all he could to help the cause but he knew in the long run the best thing for him to do was to stay focused on the dream.  He gave money to help with organizing the small militia but was never activity involved.

Floods had been a problem in Kentucky and he knew by looking at the banks of the white river and the small feeder streams that floods had happened here too.  His father had lost everything the second year on his farm by building the house to close to a small creek.  The flow of water in the small creek had been constant with very little loose during the dry months.  Being new to the country and not knowing the area was subject of intense rains in different years his father made a mistake and Samuel was going to make sure the house he built would never be flooded. He had searched for weeks until the right place had been located.  The house site was on a small rise almost a hundred yards from a good sized feeder creek.  It was ideal for what Samuel wanted.  The house was built on the slight rise with lots of level land in front and to the left of the rise for the barn and outbuildings.  The rise was large enough to allow for a large truck garden for feeding the residents of the farm.  Water would be hard to obtain since the house was not close to the creek but he had already laid out a plan to have part of the creek diverted to supply the house and barn with fresh running water at all times.

   The house was build of native rock cut from a small quarry he had started less than a mile from the new house site.  Since he intended to build only one house and build it all at one time he worked up the plans with his carpenters and masons before the first tree had been cut.   It took a lot of planning and a lot of arguing since Samuel was thinking about how large his future family would be.  The size of the house was by anyone’s standards huge for that time and the workers thought the man was crazy for building such a large house in the wilderness.

But Samuel was determined to have a home that would stand for many generations and serve the needs of his family.  The entire house was first constructed of large blocks of solid rock 24 inches long, 12 inches high and 12 inches thick.  The foundation was laid to include a fireplace on each side of the house. This would allow for even heat during the long winters the area was noted for.  While the rock was being laid Samuel had his carpenters working on the new sawmill located over a mile from the house site at the falls he had discovered on his first trip to the area.  The sawmill was one of the most important aspects of the farm, as he needed lots of lumber for the house and barns.

Since there was a huge forest at his back door the sawmill would solve the lumber problem and also be a source of income for him later on.  Rock and wood were the building blocks of a new home and Samuel made the most out of their use.  Within a year the house had been finished, the barns were up with all the outbuildings and he also had four smaller houses built farther from the main house for the workers to live in.  Samuel knew he was not able to work the place himself and would need people he could depend on to help make the place a successful home.  Treat people with dignity and provide them with a clean safe environment and they would help him, treat them as lowly workers and they would provide him with trouble.

Part of living with people was treating them as you would want to be treated and Samuel was not only a keen observer of land but also he had inherited a knack from his mother to always observe his fellow man and treat him with respect if it was warranted.  He also would waste no time on people who were after his money or were too lazy to give a good days work for a good days pay.  There was little trouble from the people he had hired to build his farm and several had wive’s and children who came west with the group never intending on returning to the settled lands but looking as Samuel had been looking for a new land and future they could build to suit themselves.

In the fall of 1765 the new house was finished along with the barns, outbuildings and the workers who had elected to stay had finished the houses they were to live in.  Each was a home in its self as it had a large area for a truck garden; smaller barns for the workers livestock and each had a hand dug well to furnish water for each house.

It was time now for one final trip north for furniture and livestock for the farm.  The workers had taken the time to plant gardens during the early summer and the livestock they had brought with them was multiplying enough for winter food.  Fields had been cleared and native hay had been harvested to supply the livestock for the winter. Samuel informed the workers he was taking a trip north and would be gone for over three months. 

He had appointed an overseer to take care of things while he was away.  He helped the people who were returning north to pack up their tools and belongings and started down the white river to start the journey by water back to New York City.  This was to be the final trip for several years and he intended to have some of his money transferred closer to home and the rest would be put in trust for his future heirs.  He had used the money wisely and had no thoughts of returning the remaining money.  Since there was no one to return it to he had began to think of it as his own.

He was going to return with everything he would need to complete his dream so there would be no reason to ever leave his farm and the state of Arkansas again.