Good times came to Sycamore Ridge in the autumn.

The dam across the creek was furnishing power for a flour-mill and a furniture factory.
The endless worm of wagons that was wriggling through the town carrying movers to the West, was sloughing many of its scales in Sycamore Ridge.

Martin Culpepper had been East with circulars describing the town and adjacent country.

He had brought back three stage loads of settlers, and was selling lots in Culpepper's addition faster than they could be surveyed.

The Frye blacksmith shop had become a wagon shop, and then a hardware store was added; the flag fluttered from the high flagstaff over the Exchange National Bank building, and all day long farmers were going from the mill to the bank.