By 1797, supposedly the year for first settlement in this town site area almost none of the surveyors were using magnetic compass readings for N to lay out a baseline from which to draw all the other surveying for an area ~ but in the 1500s and early 1600s there were parts of Spanish North America there were using magnetic compasses!
This was part of Spanish North America back before the mid 1700s and as late as the Revolution there were Spaniards in the region who felt that way ~ and probably still do.
let me suggest this site began quite a bit earlier, the Indians didn't do all the collecting, and there are probably still some Spanish design grinding wheel segments buried in the soil thereabouts. That would be for the grist mill for grinding corn to make mash to make alcohol to boil off in a still and use as a trade good with the indians.
To the degree possible these European settlements with stills were uphill. That way if the Indians down hill got to whooping and hollering you were relatively safe.
Why use a magnetic compass when you have the sun and stars? Magnetic north is quite different from True North.