The early settlers were hunters, indian fighters and land speculators.   In wartime they would join the army as scouts, in peacetime they'd hunt beaver and make land claims. 

Land was claimed by marking trees on the boundaries of the claim with an axe (a 'tomahawk claim') or by burning the bark with gunpowder.

Usually they would sell the claim to new settlers.   Sometimes they would build a cabin on the claim and grow a plot of corn, this helped reinforce their claim to the land, because the courts gave preference to land claimants who demonstrated they were settling and developing the land. 

The Tomlinson brothers (Samuel and Joseph) claimed the Williamstown area in 1770.

Also in 1770, their sister Rebecca's (age 16) first husband was killed by Indians.   The next year Rebecca joined her brothers in Williamstown as a housekeeper.   She would be alone in the cabin for weeks while the brothers were hunting.

The Tomlinson family owned their own private fort in Moundsville, WV.   In 1777 Indian raids were so intense the family retreated to Moundsville and then to Redstone PA.   Samuel Tomlinson stayed behind to defend Wheeling and was killed.

Joseph Tomlinson owned the original 400 acre 'tomahawk' claim, and also claimed an adjacent 1,000 acres (a 'premption claim'.

Joseph gave the original 400 acre claim to his sister Rebecca as payment for her services as a housekeeper.