Gervais had substantial buildings, and Labonte's description of his house and barn is very interesting. The house was about 18 × 24, on the ground, and was constructed of square hewed logs, of rather large size. There were two floors, one below and one above, both of which were laid with long planks or puncheons of white fir, and probably adzed off to a proper level. The roof was made of poles as rafters, and the shingling was of carefully laid strips or sheets of ash bark, imbricated. Upon these were cross planks to hold them in place. There were three windows on the lower floor of about 30 × 36 inches in dimensions, and for lights were covered with fine thinly dressed deer skins. There was also a large fireplace, built of sticks tied together with buckskin thongs, and covered with a stiff plaster made of clay and grass. The barn was of good size, being about 40 × 50 feet on the ground, and was of the peculiar construction of a number of buildings on early French Prairie. There were posts set up at the corners and at the requisite intervals between, in which tenon grooves had been run by use of an auger and chisel, and into these were let white fir split planks about three inches thick to compose the walls. The roof was shingled in the same manner as the house, with pieces of ash bark. There was a young orchard upon the place of small apple trees obtained from Fort Vancouver. At the time that the Labontes came to Chemaway, Etienne Lucier had not yet taken his own place, about three miles above Champoeg, at Chewewa, but was living, or camping, upon the place of Gervais, probably looking around the country and making arrangements for a permanent home. Lucier, therefore, was not the first settler upon French Prairie, but this honor belongs to Joseph Gervais, who must have gone there, according to Labonte's recollections, about 1828. William Cannon was a millwright, being an American by birth, from Pennsylvania, and at the time the Labontes came to French Prairie, was at Vancouver, building the gristmill. He afterwards built the Champoeg gristmill, as stated by Willard H. Rees. Dubruy settled subsequently about two and one-half miles south of Champoeg. Alexander Carson (Alex Essen, as pronounced by Labonte), was a trapper, and spent much of his time in the Yamhill country. He seems to have been a very independent man, but finally lost his life at a certain butte on the North Yamhill River (still called Alec's Butte) by the Twhatie (Tualatin) Indians, probably with the simple object of possessing themselves of his rifle and trappings. As to Champoeg, the historic point in Oregon history, this was originally a camping and council ground of the Indians. It was near the north boundary of the Calapooyas, and here various tribes came to trade, to play games of chance and skill, and not infrequently to intermarry.