Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/90

 son, James Thompson. The Buchanans appear to have had only one child, a daughter named Mary.

The executors appointed were John Buchanan, William Thompson, William Preston, and Silas Hart The last named declined to serve. Possibly he did not like the direction of the will, that any question arising between the executors about the estate should be finally settled by the minister and elders of Tinkling Spring congregation! The inventory of the estate shows that the testator was wealthy, independently of his lands.

It is unnecessary to say that Colonel Patton's request as to his burial place, was not complied with. It was impossible at that day to transport a corpse from Smithfield to Tinkling Spring. He was buried near the spot where he "resigned his last breath," and his grave was covered with loose stones. There is no slab or inscription. An idle report arose that a large amount of money was buried with the body, and the grave was desecrated a few years ago by vandals in search of the treasure.

Let us now briefly relate the adventures of Mrs. Ingles. On the third night out she gave birth to a female child, but was able to proceed the next day on horseback. She and the other prisoners were taken by the Indians to Ohio. Being a woman of extraordinary courage and tact, she ingratiated herself with the savages, making shirts for them and gaining their good-will in a hundred ways. Her two older children were, however, separated from her, and she then determined to escape, if possible. The narrative of her courage and sufferings on her trip home is almost incredible. She was absent about five months, of which time forty-two days were passed on her return.

With an elderly "Dutch woman," captured on the frontier of Pennsylvania and detained in servitude, Mrs. Ingles was taken by a party of Indians to Big Bone Lick, now Boone county, Kentucky, to make salt. This place was so called from the large number of mastodon bones found there—some of the ribs and tusks were so long as to be used for tent poles. She prevailed upon the old woman mentioned, whose name is not known, to accompany her in her flight. Her infant could not be taken along. It was therefore deposited in a crib and abandoned by its mother, whose grief may be imagined, but not described. Loading a horse with corn, the fugitives proceeded up the Ohio river. Before they reached the Big Kanawha the