One log house, fifteen feet square, for a family of thirteen

They landed at Wallula in the last days of November 1873 and were hauled to Waitsburg on John Ruark's freight teams. They rented a house on Main Street for the winter.

The following June, Nicholas went on a land hunt and liked the Pataha Prairie. He bought the homestead right of a man named Rush — a hundred and sixty acres — and in September the family moved onto it. What stood there was one log house about fifteen feet square, for a family of thirteen. They spent the autumn cutting and hauling logs to build a second one before the hard winter arrived.

In the summer of 1882 a builder named Judkins put up a proper house. Mettie called it "among the best in the county at that time." That same year it was engraved for a county history — the only contemporary image of the place. The orphan who got one day of school was by then twice elected a county commissioner.