MOST NOTED HISTORICALLY, of the Scholl family in Pike county was Edward Boone, known in the early settlement as
"Boone" Scholl. This son of Kentucky Peter Scholl and Mary Boone bore the full name of his grandfather,
Edward (Neddie) Boone, who was a brother of Daniel. He came to Illinois in 1825, settling first in the Sangamo
country, in what is now Scott county. In 1831 he settled at what is now Perry, moving later to the town of Griggsville,
where he ended his days.
Boone Scholl was the founder of the present town of Perry, although the original plat was not known by that name.
The circumstances of the founding, hereinafter recorded, are from the recollections of the late William Dickson
as told to him by his father, Thomas Dickson, who had the story from Mearel E. Rattan, Pittsfield's first postmaster
and tavern keeper and early judge of the probate court.
One morning in the spring of 1834 (it was April 25), the slab door of Pittsfield's log postoffice creaked on its
wooden hinges and two men entered the sanctum of M. E. Rattan, postmaster, and justice of the peace. This rude
postoffice was southwest of the public square and just east of the present Episcopal church. Across one corner
of the log postoffice was a plank bar, over which Rattan sold whiskey.
The two men were dressed in a fashion that attracted attention even in those days when there was no fashion in
dress. One was dressed in a sort of mixture of ministerial and hunter's garb; the other in raiment suggesting the
old Virginia aristocracy. They were Jesse Elledge, the noted Baptist of the early valley, and his first cousin,
Edward Boone Scholl, who had come this day to the new county seat town of Pittsfield to file the plat of his own
town of Booneville, predecessor of the town which was later named for Commodore Perry.
Whether Jesse Elledge had anything to do with the founding of Booneville does not appear from the records, nor
from the Dickson recollections. It may have been that the two pioneers, kinsmen, both of Boone blood, had merely
chanced to ride to the county seat together, each bent on business of his own. At any rate, Boone Scholl appeared
in the entry of record as sole proprietor of the new town.
The plat of early Booneville, as surveyed by Charles Pollock, then county surveyor, at the direction of Boone Scholl,
is recorded on Page 51 in Volume 7 of the Deed Records of Pike county. Scholl's town comprised 64 town lots, each
66x139 feet, grouped around a great public square, labeled on the plat as "Publick Square." The town
was traversed east and west by Quincy, Naples, Johnson and Webster Streets and by Strawberry and Plum Alleys, these
being intersected at right angles by Illinois, Pittsfield and Rush Streets and by First, Second and Third Alleys.
The town was laid out on Section 21, in what is now Perry township, on land owned by Scholl.
Recording of the plat of Booneville in the deed record book is accompanied by the following official entry:
"This day personally appeared before the undersigned, a justice of the peace in and for said (Pike) county,
Edward Boone Scholl, who acknowledged the foregoing plat of the Town of Booneville, which is laid out on Section
21 Township Number 3 South, Range Number 3 West, on land owned by the said Scholl, to be a true and perfect plat
thereof for the use and purposes therein set forth. Given under my hand and seal this 25th day of April, A. D.
1834. - M. E. Rattan."
Booneville was platted on the SW 40 of the SE 1/4 of Section 21, on land which Boone Scholl entered in 1831 but
for which the government patent was not issued until November 20, 1835. Scholl later (September 28, 1835) sold
this 40 to Joseph S. King, including also "all the lots in the town of Booneville" situated thereon.
King thereupon became the proprietor of the new town, which was replatted and given the name of Perry.
Edward Boone Scholl was born in Clark county, Kentucky, October 11, 1801, the tenth child and seventh son of Peter
Scholl and Mary Boone. On July 18, 1826 he married Susannah Bentley, who was born in Indiana February 8, 1811,
a daughter of Joseph and Sarah Bentley, the former of whom was proprietor of the pioneer town of Williamsport,
on Sandy Creek opposite Meacham's, now Montezuma. On March 15, 1827, Joseph and Sarah Bentley deeded a tract at
Williamsport to their son-in-law, Edward B. Scholl, for a consideration of $1,000. On July 16, 1829, the Williamsport
boom apparently having subsided, Scholl deeded the same tract to William Sisk for $300.
Edward Boone Scholl was one of the famous Draper correspondents. Numerous of his letters, written at Griggsville
in the 1850s and early 1860s, are now kept with the other Draper Manuscripts in a steel vault at Madison, Wisconsin.
These letters were addressed to Dr. Lyman C. Draper, noted collector of Boone manuscripts and early secretary of
the Wisconsin State Historical Society, being in response to inquiries from Draper relative to the Boone and kindred
families. The correspondence between Draper and Boone Scholl covered a period of eight years and was continued,
after Boone Scholl's death, with one of his sons, William P. Scholl.
It was to Lyman C. Draper, in Wisconsin, in September 1855, that Col. John Shaw, the noted Pike county pioneer
and founder of the county's first justice seat at Coles' Grove, told his thrilling story of pioneer adventure,
related in earlier chapters of this history.
Unfortunately, Boone Scholl, who in his letters to Draper contributed thousands of words to Boone family history,
dismissed his own family biography in these brief notes, written at Griggsville under date of February 21, 1861:
‘Edward Boone Scholl, born October 11, 1801, married Susanna Bentley July 18, 1826, had six sons and four is dead
and two living in Griggsville, Illinois."
The closing paragraph of this letter to Draper reveals Boone Scholl's style of writing and also the deep reverence
of his nature:
"Please excuse my manner and bad spelling. I have not put this together properly. My parents and my brothers
and sisters all belong to the Baptist church except Peter and John (Boone Scholl's brothers, Peter Morgan and John
Scholl), the last who is Cemis or Reformed Baptist, as they say Peter died as he lived, and now dear brother my
heart rejoices when I think of meeting them all in heaven with my Blessed Saviour your friend and brother till
death, Edward Boone Scholl."
Boone Scholl's account of the killing and scalping by the Indians of his grandfather, Edward Boone, has been repeated
in a former chapter. Another interesting account is that Daniel Boone's fort at Boonesborough, on the Kentucky
river, where Edward Boone and his family, the family of William Scholl (including the sons Peter and Abraham) and
the family of Francis and Charity (Boone) Elledge arrived on Christmas Day, 1779. This account is from a letter
written by Boone Scholl at Griggsville August 25, 1854.
"On the first of April 1775 Boone and a small party of men commenced building a fort afterwards called Boone's
Borough and on the fourth was attacked by some Indians and lost one man. The Indians seemed enraged to madness
at the prospect of the whites building houses in their hunting ground. Mrs. Boone and her daughter (Jemima) was
the first white woman ever in the country on the 24th of December 1775. In the following July one of Boone's daughters
(Jemima, then 14) in company with a Miss Coloway (Misses Betsy and Frances Callaway) was amusing themselves and
a party of Indians suddenly rushed out and captured and took them off. The screams soon alarmed the friends. Boone
soon raised a company of eight men and pursued and recaptured both girls (there were three) safe. The Indians lost
two men. From this time until April 1777 the garrison was incessantly harassed by parties of Indians. While plowing
their corn they were waylaid and shot.
"On the 15th of April (1777) the enemy appeared in numbers. Boonsborough, Loganport and Harrodsburg were attacked
at one and the same time. Boonsborough sustained some loss as did the other stations but the enemies loss was great.
On the fourth of July following that they were attacked by 200 warriors and again repulsed. In 1778 Boone with
13 men was captured by 102 Indians while making salt at the Blue Licks. This was on the 7th of February. During
his capture he and his comrades were treated as prisoners. Boone learned the following summer the Indians were
about to invade Boonsborough and accordingly on the 16th of June made his escape and in four days made 160 miles
with one meal and immediately set about repairing the fort.
"Soon the fort was assaulted with nearly 500 Indians and French. They appeared in front of the fort and raised
the British flag (this was in the time of the Revolution) and demanded a surrender with a promise of food and good
treatment. Boone required two days to consider and during this time made all possible arrangements for an attack.
Boone then summoned all to discuss what they would do, surrender and suffer and lose all their property or fight
it out. Every man said fight the battle. It commenced in a furious manner and was fought nine days. The loss of
whites was two and the savage 37 and on the ninth morning, they raised the siege."
Edward Boone Scholl and Susannah Bentley had six children, all sons. Two died in childhood in Scott county and
are buried there. Their first child, Joseph D. Scholl, born at the pioneer town of Williamsport, in what is now
Scott county, October 1, 1827, died at Perry, April 18, 1847, in his 20th year. He is buried in Old Baptist cemetery
at Perry.
Another son, John Boone Scholl, born at Perry in 1840, died at Griggsville, November 13, 1853. He is buried beside
his parents in Griggsville cemetery. He died at the age of 13.
The two latest surviving sons were William P. and George W. Scholl, who married at Griggsville and were long residents
at that place.
William P. Scholl married Martha A. Shelley, a daughter of pioneer Abel Shelley, who settled in an early day near
the site of present Shelley schoolhouse, northeast of Griggsville. They were married December 25, 1851, with Charles
Harrington, early Baptist minister at Perry, officiating.
William P. Scholl went to the battle front in 1861 as a musician in a Union army corps, although he sprang from
a race whose sympathies were largely with the South. One of his letters to Draper, written after his father's death,
reveals the bitterness of those times, when even blood ties were broken. The letter, dated at Griggsville, May
30, 1862, follows:
"Mr. Lyman C. Draper - Dear Sir: I received yours of May 23rd directed to E. b. Scholl (my father) last evening
and as I am the oldest of his children I will answer your questions as far as my knowledge extends. But first let
me inform you of my father's death Sunday, March 19, 1862, after an illness of 8 days (lung fever). Our Mo. (Missouri)
connections I would like to visit much after peace in that state and rebellion is put down, but as things stand
there today I don't deem it prudent for me to visit all even of my blood kin as I know some of them are what I
call Rebels and a call from me might not be very agreeable to some as they know, or many of them do, that I have
been in the U. S. Army service for the past ten months from July 1st ‘61 to May 9th as a musician in a brass band
and was legally and honorably discharged on May 9th and returned home from camp. - Yours, Wm. P. Scholl."
George W. Scholl, another son of Boone Scholl and Susannah Bentley, married Jane Penny in Pike county, February
24, 1859, the ceremony being performed by Joseph McConnell. Some years after the Civil War, the sons of Boone Scholl
and their families emigrated to Missouri, to Callaway county, where numerous of their Scholl kin had long been
established and there they died and are buried.
Edward Boone Scholl died at his home in Griggsville March 9, 1862, at the age of 60. His widow, Susannah Bentley
Scholl, continued to reside in Griggsville and died there November 13, 1865, at the same hour that Boone Scholl's
sister, Malinda Elledge Jackson, died at her home in Pleasant Vale township.
The graves of Edward Boone Scholl and his wife are in Griggsville cemetery, whose also are the graves of Boone
Scholl's uncle, Abraham Scholl, veteran of the Blue Licks Defeat, and his wife Tabitha Noe. In the Boone Scholl
plot is also the grave of his son, John B. Scholl. The stone that marks the burial of this son of Mary Boone bears
this inscription: "E. B. Scholl — born in Clark Co., Ky. Oct. 11, 1801 — died in Griggsville, Ill. Mar. 9,
1862."
Only a few weeks before his death, Boone Scholl wrote to Lyman C. Draper of Madison Wisconsin, as follows:
"I live in Griggsville and would take great pleasure in seeing you at my humble cottage and would be pleased
to accompany you to my older sister in this county, Mrs. M. Jackson, Canton, Pike county, and one brother living
in Mo. There is in the immediate neighborhood of the brother in Callaway Co. (Mo.) 2 cousins, grandsons of Daniel
Boone and many of his grandsons you will do us the honor of your company and I remain your brother in Christ. -
E. B. Scholl."
The last communication from a Griggsville Scholl included among the Draper manuscripts is a brief note from William
P. Scholl, dated at Griggsville in April, 1868, wherein Mr. Draper is informed of the death of the Boone descendant,
Mrs. Malinda Scholl Jackson, whose first husband was Edward Elledge. The note reads:
"Your requests of the 13th just received and I hasten to reply. Aunt Linda died Nov. 13, 1865 at 9 P. M. and
my mother met her I think just about that same hour same date. - W. P. Scholl."
Boone Scholl told in his letters of having several times passed the place where his grandfather, Edward Boone,
was buried. Edward, killed by Indians October 5, 1780, was buried on a hillside on Hinkston, above the little grassy
valley where he was slain and scalped. Scholl related that his uncle, Abraham Scholl, who died at Griggsville on
Christmas Eve, 1851, was one of seven who went out to bury Edward and found a wildcat eating the corpse when they
came in sight.
In answer to an inquiry from Draper, Boone Scholl said he never saw Daniel Boone. He told however of Daniel Boone
having stopped at their house in Clark county, Kentucky, in 1801 (the year in which he was born), Boone being then
on his way from his Missouri settlement to visit his son, Jesse, at Point Pleasant, on the Great Kanawha in Virginia
(now West Virginia). Draper was seeking reliable data as to whether Daniel Boone ever returned to Kentucky after
he migrated with his family to Missouri in 1797. Boone Scholl replied as follows:
"My Uncle Abraham Scholl has told me that in 1801 D. Boone came to Kentucky and Joseph Scholl his son-in-law
went with him to Kanawha to see Jesse Boone and as they journeyed they stopped at a Frenchman's at Gallipolis,
that D. Boone was acquainted with, and while there J. Scholl said to the Frenchman ‘wont your meat spoil' pointing
to a ham of bacon hanging in the chimney. He put his nose to it and said ‘No - sweet as a nut.' It being the year
I was born I recollect it."
Edward Boone Scholl and his wife Susannah owned numerous tracts of land in Perry and Griggsville townships; also
in the region that is now Scott county. In 1850 Edward Boone bought the Banner Boone Elledge 80, lying just west
of the old Abraham Scholl homestead (now the Charles Myers place), north of Griggsville. Banner Boone, who had
moved to the then Territory of Wisconsin, sold this 80 to Richard Beall in 1848, and Beall and his wife Jemima
deeded it to Boone Scholl in 1850. Jemima Beall was a daughter of Neddie Elledge and was named for Daniel Boone's
daughter. Charity Beall, daughter of Richard and Jemima, married Robert Matthews, a son of John B. and Margaret
(Leach) Matthews and a brother of the noted Captain Benjamin L. Matthews and an uncle of the late Colonel Asa C.
Matthews. Charity Beall was named for her great grandmother, Charity Boone, the daughter of Edward. Robert A. Matthews
and Charity A. Beall were married in Pike county April 10, 1842, the Rev. Charles Harrington officiating.
Boone Scholl and Jesse Elledge, near neighbors in the early Pike county settlement, appear to have traveled much
together in those early days, attracting attention wherever they appeared upon the Military Tract. The pair, it
seems, traveled on horseback, threading the early trails, penetrating to remote settlements, one with an eye to
real estate investments, the other to officiate at pioneer weddings or to bring the gospel to out-of-the-way places.
A tradition of the early days recalled by the late William Dickson was that Jesse Elledge and Boone Scholl once
came near perishing on the old Fort Clark trail to Peoria when they attempted to ford a wild stream swollen by
a spring freshet. Swept from their horses, both men, seizing their horses' tails, were finally towed to shore by
their frightened steeds.
Jesse Elledge settled in Pike county in the early 1830s, having previously resided on the east side of the Illinois
river, in what is now Scott county. On October 21, 1830 he was granted a patent from the United States to the east
80 in the southwest quarter of Section 11, north of Griggsville. This he sold in 1833 to John M. McConnell. Elledge
also entered land in Fairmount township, while his wife (Elizabeth Philips) had an interest in the Philips lands
in Flint, where was the old Philips Ferry landing.
Hundreds of Pike county men and women are descendants of pioneer couples who were married by old Preacher Elledge.
There is record in the county clerk's office in the Pike county courthouse of 73 couples who were married by Jesse
Elledge, who signed himself as a minister of the United Baptist Church. His first weddings in Pike county were
on October 25, 1832, on which day he married two couples, namely, George Bright and Nancy Norris, and Ambrose Shelley
and Jane Wells. The bride, Nancy Norris, was a daughter of Jesse Elledge's sister, Nancy Elledge Norris, who had
later married Jesse Elledge's father-in-law, Nimrod Philips. From this date on, for a period of forty years, Jesse
Elledge figures in Pike county's marriage records, his last marriages being in 1872, shortly before he returned
to Kentucky, being then nearly ninety years of age.