We hired a railroad engineer to survey the town site and stake it into lots.

Also we ordered a big stock of the goods usually kept in a general merchandise store on the frontier.

This done, we gave the town the ancient and historical name of Rome.

As a starter we donated lots to anyone who would build on them, reserving for ourselves the corner lots and others which were best located.

These reserved lots we valued at two hundred and fifty dollars each.
When the town was laid out I wrote my wife that I was worth $250,000, and told her I wanted her to get ready to come to Ellsworth by rail.
She was then visiting her parents at St.Louis, with our baby daughter whom we had named Arta.
I was at Ellsworth to meet her when she arrived, bringing the baby.
Besides three or four wagons, in which the supplies for the new general store and furniture for the little house I had built were loaded, I had a carriage for her and the baby.