David is one of the earliest settlers in the Valens area having migrated there in 1834 with his wife and children from Dumfriesshire. He is reputedly a favourite amongst the early settlers and quite a poet.  As a young man he was a shepherd in Scotland.  During his diary, he and May live in a one-storey log house and are cultivating 150 acres of a 200-acre farm with their son-in-law.  He purchases a hawk and notes that the “Yankee” President Lincoln has been elected.  As David ages management of the farm passes to Hector.