Ephraim’s job as a surveyor required him to travel for extended periods of time, leaving Martha to run the house alone. Surveying, however, was not as easy as it may sound. Ephraim and his team were often assailed by flies, mosquitoes, and inclement weather. Occasionally they also met with hostile settlers that resented the surveyors for claiming the land for their companies when the settlers believed that it should be free. Some of the settlers resorted to violence to frighten away the surveyors, thereby preventing their companies from seizing the land. Once when Ephraim was out surveying he was held at gunpoint by men demanding his surveying papers and other equipment. Ephraim escaped unharmed and fled to the Joneses house, but he lost all