They and their slaves girdled the trees, planted tobacco and corn between, and floated their tobacco casks down Paint Branch to Blandensburg and on to England. The Indian trails along the way slowly blended into what is now Route One, although travelers passing through the lonely woods often lost their way until well after the American Revolution. Construction of the national campaign began in 1791, and a frenzy of land speculation extended along the routes leading into the city. Jon Ross, the proprietor of the Indian Queen Tavern in Blandensburg, bought land and in 1804 completed this structure, largely in the form to which it has been restored today. He called it Ross-Borough .
Tax assessments show it to have been one of the ten most valuable structures in the country.
Ross and four relatives managed the inn and the farm around it. Nineteen slaves lived in the cabins behind. They improved the road, set up tollbooths along the route, and established a regular stagecoach line. The stagecoach proceeded from Georgetown to Washington, to Indian Queen in Blandensburg, to the Rossborough Inn, to the White House Tavern in Beltsville, to McCoy's Tavern in Vansville, and on past other taverns to Baltimore. Many travelers of the day, including the great Marquis de Lafayette, wrote of stopping here.