Shortly after the Revolutionary war stick-back gigs were introduced. If a woman were in the vehicle and unattended, the waiting man rode another horse, keeping along side of the shaft horse and holding the check rein in his left hand. When his master held the lines, the servant rode behind. Men often went armed to church for fear of the Indians. The country was filled with game. Ducks and wild geese in innumerable quantities frequented the rice-fields. Wild turkeys and deer abounded. Bears and beavers were found in the swamps, and buffalo herds wandered at no great remove to the southward and northward. There was no lack of squirrels, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, snipe, wood-cock, and quail. Wildcats and hawks were the pest of the region, while the cougar was sometimes heard and seen in the depths of the vine-clad swamps. The waters which they held were alive with fishes, alligators, terrapins, and snakes. Such, in a few words, was the condition of the swamp region of the Midway District when the town of Sunbury was located. Responding to the trust reposed in them by the conveyance from Mark Carr, Messrs. James Maxwell, Kenneth Baillie, John Elliott, Grey Elliott, and John Stevens, with due dispatch set about laying off the town upon the “westermost bank” of Midway river. The plan, as matured and carried out by them, embraced three public squares,—known respectively as _King’s_, _Church_, and _Meeting_,—and four hundred and ninety-six lots. These lots had a uniform front of seventy feet, and were one hundred and thirty feet in depth. Lots numbers one to forty, inclusive, fronting on the river, were denominated _Bay Lots_, and carried with them the ownership of the shore to low-water mark. Four lots constituted a block, bounded on three sides by streets, and on the fourth by a lane. The streets were seventy-five feet broad, and the lanes twenty feet wide. The plan of the town was entirely regular. The streets in one direction ran at right angles to the river, and were, at right angles, intersected by the cross streets and lanes. From north to south the length of Sunbury, as thus laid out, was 3430 feet. Its breadth on the south side was 2230 feet, and on the north, 1880 feet. Within a short time substantial wharves were constructed, the most marked of which were subsequently owned and used by the following merchants: Kelsell & Spalding, Fisher, Jones & Hughes, Darling & Co., and Lamott. That Sunbury must rapidly have attracted the notice of the colonists and quickly secured a population by no means insignificant or destitute of influence in that day of small things, is evidenced by the fact that as early as 1761 the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of his council, established and declared it to be a port of entry, and appointed Thomas Carr, Collector, John Martin, Naval Officer, and Francis Lee, Searcher. These appointments were confirmed by the Commissioners of his Majesty’s Customs.[178]