The story of how he laughed, along with others, at William King when he dug and dug and did not find the salt spring is often told. But when William's men had dug for one hundred and ninety feet the "bottom dropped out" and the salt water gushed forth. William made thirty thousand dollars a year out of his salt business and left a fortune to his many nieces and nephews.
Roanoke is the gateway through which the visitor continues down the famous Valley Pike, Route Eleven. From every curve in the road one sees the beauty of nature. One learns bits of early history from the numerous historic signs along the route—for every footstep of the brave pioneers was bitterly contested from here on.
These first settlers were "a remarkable race of people for intelligence, enterprise and hardy adventure." They had come partly from Botetourt, Augusta and Frederick counties and from Maryland and Pennsylvania. They wanted liberty and freedom to worship God as a man's conscience dictated. They were a strong, stern people, simple in their habits of life, God-fearing in their practices, freedom-loving and good neighbors, yet unmerciful in their dealing with their enemies. Who were the trail blazers for these Scotch-Irish and Germans?
Dr. Thomas Walker qualified as a surveyor of Augusta County in 1748. He later set off with Colonel James Wood, Colonel James Patton, Colonel John Buchanan, and Major Charles Campbell, some hunters and John Finlay to explore southwest Virginia.
They were followed as far as New River by Thomas Ingles (or Engles) and his three sons, a Mrs. Draper and her son George and her daughter Mary, Adam Harman, Henry Leonard and James Burke. They were pioneers in search of new homes in the wilderness. Lands were surveyed for all of them on Wood's River and they made the first settlement west of the Alleghany Divide.
Draper's Meadow
In 1748 Thomas Ingles and his three sons, Mrs. Draper, her children and James Burke moved westward to find a new home for themselves beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. They chose a lovely spot on a high level plateau in what is now Montgomery County. They called their new home, "Draper's Meadow," and soon their new log cabins were built and their first crops were planted and such a harvest as they reaped that first year! Other neighbors and relatives from their old homes came to join them and for some time all went well in the little settlement. James Burke had been restless and had pushed on down into the southwest and settled in a valley enclosed for almost ten miles by the huge Clinch Mountain. This he called "Burke's Garden" and in telling others about it the old settler said "I have indeed found the Garden of Eden."
The Indians were very friendly and passed and repassed the settlement without molesting them.
Then came the trouble with the French which has been referred to before. The Indians swooped down upon Draper's Meadow without warning and killed or wounded most of the settlers. Those whom they did not murder, they carried off into captivity. Among the latter were Mrs. William Ingles (née Mary Draper) some of her children and another woman. They were forced to march for days at a time until they finally reached the Indian towns on the Ohio River. During the trying days, Mrs. Draper did her best to keep in the good graces of the Indians. She tried to help them, even after they took her sons from her. When they reached Big Bone Lick she helped to make salt for the Indians and made shirts for them from cloth which had been bought from the French traders.