[6]: 99–101  During the first few years of its existence, Indians frequently attacked the farm and ferry,[7]: 84–93 [5]: 7–8  and Ingles constructed a small stockaded blockhouse, which he named Fort Hope, to protect his family and neighbors.

[8]: 3 With the help of his brother-in-law John Draper, William completed construction of the Ingles Ferry Hill Tavern and blacksmith shop on the Pulaski County side of the river in 1772.

[9][6]: 99–101  The tavern was a popular meeting place for travelers, with Daniel Boone,[10] Andrew Jackson and George Rogers Clark among its patrons.

[9] In April 1797, Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and future King of France, crossed the river on the ferry, but did not stop at the tavern.

[14] On 8 May 1779, Lord Henry Hamilton, a British prisoner of war, was being escorted under guard to Williamsburg and spent the night at the home of William and Mary Ingles.

[19] After the American Revolutionary War, thousands of immigrants poured through the New River Valley on their way to the newly opened territories in Kentucky and Tennessee.

[12]: 13  In 1805 William's son John Ingles and Andrew Lewis Jr. sponsored a bill before the Virginia General Assembly authorizing the Allegheny Turnpike (now known as the Valley Pike), so that tolls could be collected to support the maintenance of the road and the ferry, "because the cost of maintaining the previous public road in good condition had proved too great a burden."

Geographer George William Featherstonhaugh observed a caravan of 300 slaves crossing the river at Ingles Ferry in 1834.

[5]: 114 In 1842, Thomas Ingles built a covered bridge across the New River at a cost of $17,000, but he continued to offer a ferry service until 1847.

[12]: 16  By 1848, the bridge tolls added up to nearly $1,900 a year, but Ingles stated that "a large portion of the county people are permitted to cross free of charge.

[12]: 16 [9] Revenue dropped after the construction in 1855 of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad bridge, about two miles downstream from Ingles Ferry.