The Fort in the Wilderness by Edward Stratemeyer

Leaving Ira Sanderson to recover and tell his story to those at the Morris homestead, let us journey westward and learn for ourselves what had occurred at James Morris's trading-post during the months in which Dave had been absent.

The new trading-post, built on the bank of the Ohio River after the first post, located on the Kinotah, twenty miles away, had been destroyed, was a substantial affair of heavy logs. The main building now consisted of four rooms, and not far away was a storehouse of two rooms, to which was attached a horse stable of fair size. The post was built on a tiny bluff overlooking the broad Ohio, and close at hand was a small brook backed up by rocks. A strong palisade of sharpened logs driven into the soil ran around a portion of the grounds which was not protected by the water, and here was located a heavy pair of gates, ten feet wide, secured by two strong crossbars. At convenient distances loopholes were cut in the palisade, to be used for shooting purposes in case of an attack.