The wagon train they traveled with—some seventy wagons grouped together for mutual protection—camped here on the night on July 29. Early the next morning, as Ringo climbed up his wagon, his shotgun went off in his own hands, killing him instantly. He was forty-five years old.

A friend, William Davenport, wrote: “He was buried near the place he was shot, in as decent a manner as was possible with the facilities on the plains.”

The family eventually reached San Jose, California, the home of Coleman and Augusta Younger, brother-in-law and sister of Mary Ringo. Mary Enna Ringo, daughter of Martin and Mary Ringo, became an outstanding teacher in the San Jose school system for over fifty years.

Buried next to Ringo is J. P. Parker. Parker’s tombstone tells all that is known of his life and death.