A young narrator recounts leaving New England with an organized land company to settle in the Ohio country, tracing the group's formation, surveying and purchase of territory, and the hardships of overland and river travel. The narrative details building a fortified riverside village, clearing land, erecting mills and community institutions, encounters and cautious diplomacy with Native peoples, and everyday trials of frontier life. Interwoven with practical descriptions are personal episodes of labor, friendship, moral lessons, and the boy's growing sense of responsibility as the settlement develops into a permanent town.