Socrates Elmer Ingle was born in 1871 at what was known as the County Home section of Leicester, Buncombe County. He was the son of Jasper M. Ingle (1852-1915) and Mary M. Foster Ingle (1852-1912). The Ingle farm was located on the site of Erwin High School. Mary Ingle was reading a book called “The Song of Socrates” at the time Uncle Scrate was born and that is how he received his name. It should be of no surprise to anyone that he did not go by the name Socrates. He always signed his name S.E. Ingle and went by the nick name of Scrate. My grandfather Henry Harrison Ingle Sr. (1884-1973), did not even know that his oldest brother was named Socrates until I told him twenty years after his brother’s death.
Uncle Scrate was his mother’s favorite child. A mother’s pet usually turns out to be the most uncontrollable child in the family, and Scrate was no exception. He and his best friend Will Miller were behind most of the neighborhood’s trouble.
One day Uncle Scrate noticed a small country church was having a revival meeting. He remembered seeing a large hornet’s nest hanging from a low limb of a tree. Scrate and Will went to the barn and found a burlap sack. They took the sack and slide it over the hornets’ nest and closed the top. Uncle Scrate headed straight for the church. Small country churches usually had doors that opened outward, giving the church building several extra square feet of usable space. Scrate and Will found a couple of old chestnut fence posts; which they propped against the church door to keep it from being opened from the inside. Uncle Scrate grabbed the burlap sack and crept up to an open window of the church. Just as he threw the hornet’s nest in the window; he heard the preacher say “and the Lord is here”! Someone near the window said “yes and they’s hornets here too”!  Everyone in the church dashed for the door. It wouldn’t open and the building began to shake on its foundation. People were frantic; everyone dashed for a window, tromping on each other in the process. The children had no trouble crawling out the windows, but he adults were often too large around the middle to get through. People were trying to squeeze out the windows while others on the inside were pulling their legs in order to get them out of the way so they could crawl out the window themselves. Uncle Scrate and Will Miller were lying on the ground laughing from a safe distance. Uncle Scrate decided it would be wise to head home. He trotted home laughing. Mission accomplished.
Scrate’s Uncle Newton Ingle (1850-1900) guarded prisoners while they worked on roads, bridges etc. Uncle Newt apparently got Uncle Scrate a job guarding a prisoner. The prisoner asked Scrate why they didn’t go get drunk. Scrate thought it was a great idea, so they went to Asheville and got them a bottle of liquor. They soon were feeling good and decided to go down on Southside to Gail Ander’s whorehouse. The two men soon fell out and got in to a fight, and Uncle Scrate cut the prisoner with a knife. Scrate thought he had killed the man. He rushed home got his things and headed out for Brasstown on the Clay- Cherokee County line, near the Georgia state border. The Hampton family had moved from Leicester to Brasstown several years earlier. Scrate knew them and was sure they would let him stay with them. Scrate lived at Brasstown six months to a year. The man he cut with a knife lived.
Scrate’s mother Mary Foster Ingle was the granddaughter of Captain Thomas Foster. Foster had married Ora Sams, the daughter of Anne Nancy Young Sams. These Young family descendants had run the Buncombe political machine from around 1800 until the 1980’s. County Commission Chairman Coke Candler, Congressman Roy Taylor and Congressman Lamar Gudger, who held office in the 1960’s and 70’s, all belong to this Young connection. Scrate’s mother sent her husband to the County Court house to pay off the machine, and Scrate was able to come back to Buncombe County.
Upon returning home to Leicester, Scrate Ingle decided to open up a grocery store. He built a store on Mt. Carmel Road bordering the Erwin High School property. It would be one of many grocery stores that Uncle Scrate would run.
Ingles seem to always be attracted to the grocery store business. Bob Ingle’s grocery store chain is fifty years old this year. Bob’s dad Elmer Ingle (Uncle Scrate’s first cousin) ran a grocery store. Elmer’s dad Uncle Frank Ingle (1855-1940) ran a grocery store as well as a furniture store, and two of Uncle Scrate’s grandsons, Joe and Jim, also ran Safeway stores in the Midwest.
Uncle Scrate’s grocery store built up a good business rapidly. He also laid off the liquor and stopped pulling wild pranks. It looked as if he had straightened up his life and was on the road to success. Then one day a drunk came by as Scrate and his mother Mary Ingle were standing in front of the store. The drunk went up to great grandmother and said some very vulgar and rude things to her.
Scrate Ingle started smiling. Grandfather said that if Scrate started smiling at you, run, because he will kill you. Scrate kept the smile on his face as he gradually walked toward the drunk. His mother stepped in front of the drunk to try and protect him. Scrate pulled out his knife and reached over his mother’s shoulder and stabbed the man in the top of the head. It did not kill the drunk, but it never did him any good either.
The machine said Scrate would have to leave the county and not come back, but they agreed not to try and arrest him as long as he wasn’t in Buncombe County. Scrate Ingle packed up his belongings and headed back to Brasstown. He never set foot in Buncombe County again.

Local historian Bruce Whitaker documents genealogy in the Fairview area. Contact Mr. Whitaker by phone at 628-1089 or email [email protected].