(One account of this visit indicates that he purchased a sizable portion of the land he explored in the area from the Indians who had served as his guides on his journey.)

The entire Eves family arrived the next year, in 1772, and began tilling the fields adjacent to the cabin as soon as they could be cleared.

In 1774, the Eves family received a deed for their 1,203-acre (4.87 km2) property in the valley, the largest land holding at the time in what would later become Columbia County.

Title for the land, originally obtained by William and Elizabeth McMean in 1769, was passed to Reuben Haines, and then to John Eves.

An Indian uprising, the Battle of Wyoming, in mid-summer of 1778, caused the Eves family to flee their home in the valley and take refuge at a stockade near Washingtonville.

Upon their return in 1785, they found their cabin burned and their fields overgrown, but immediately set about to recreate their homestead.

They were accompanied or were soon followed by several other families, including Masters, Kisner, Battin, Parker, Lundy, Lemon, Oliver, and Rich.

With 17 children and 104 grandchildren, John Eves looked after the building of homes for the family, a gristmill that was to stand for 100 years, and later a sawmill and several other essential structures.

Thomas Eves succeeded his father in ownership of the grist mill and built the first house in what is now Millville Borough.

In the early years of the community, services and classes were held in the homes, but in 1785, a school was started in Millville and a two-room meeting house was erected in 1795.

The town experienced considerable growth in the years following construction of this roadway because the community now had adequate access to markets and other transportation links in Bloomsburg.