Killing of Frederick Mongle

By Emory L. Hamilton

From an unpublished manuscript, Indian Atrocities Along the Clinch, Powell and Holston Rivers, page 33.

"On one occasion in the year 1776, two men and three women were pulling flax near Black's Fort, (Abingdon, VA) with Frederick Mongle, (Mangle) stationed as a sentinel to give the alarm should Indians make their appearance. The enemy, who had concealed themselves in a chinquapin thicket stealthily approached, wounded and scalped Mr. Mongle, but the persons in the flax patch, by dodging from tree to tree, finally reached the fort in safety. The men in the fort sallying out, reinforced by a number in the vicinity who had heard the firing, attacked the savages and drove them off with considerable loss.

Mr. Mongle survived his injuries but a short time and his relatives claim that his, and not Henry Creswell's, was the first grave in the old Sinking Springs Cemetery." (1)

The Mungle family were early settlers on the North Fork of Holston River near Abingdon. The Washington Co., VA, land entry records show that both Jacob and Daniel Mungle owned land there with a settlement date of 1773. Jacob Mungle was the father of Col. Abram Mungle who related the above details of the killing of Frederick Mungle to Charles B. Coale of Abingdon, VA.

Frederick Mungle who was slain by the Indians served in Capt. Evan Shelby's militia company at the Point Pleasant Campaign, October 7, 1774. (2)

(1) Charles B. Coale, "Wilburn Waters," reprinted in Summer's, "Annals of Southwest Virginia and Washington County," page 1578.
(2) Draper Mss 2 ZZ 37-38



This file contributed by: Rhonda Robertson


visitor since May 15, 1998


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