LITTLE OF AN AUTHENTIC NATURE is known of the Scholl family back of William Scholl, father of Abraham, Peter and
Joseph. A Peter Scholl and his wife, Sarah Colyer, are known to have resided in the Raritan district of New Jersey
from 1714 to 1731, when they disappeared, leaving no trace. She was of Scotch descent and apparently Peter's second
wife. To them were born two children, Deborah in 1728 and William in 1731. This William is believed by some investigators
of Scholl family history to have been the William Scholl who married Leah Morgan and became the father of a large
family of children, among them Abraham, Peter and Joseph. There is also some record of a Peter Scholl in the Shenandoah
Valley as early as 1742 (possibly 1738), according to data collected by H. G. Schull of Easton, Pennsylvania.
The weight of evidence, however, seems to point to one Jacob Scholl as the immediate ancestor of William Scholl
and the paternal grandfather of Abraham, Peter and Joseph. The same evidence points to the Peter Scholl of the
above reference as a brother of Jacob. Jacob Scholl came to the New World in a very early day, coming either from
Germany or Holland. Abraham Key Wilson of Lincoln, Nebraska, a former Pike county schoolteacher and a descendant
of Abraham Scholl, remembers his father's uncle. William Scholl the third, telling him that Jacob Scholl was from
Holland.
Edward Boone Scholl, son of Peter Scholl and Mary Boone, who died at Griggsville in 1862, once gave to Lyman C.
Draper, famous early secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society at Madison, Wisconsin, an interview in which
he said: "Jacob Scholl was born in Germany, came to America in an early day, married an intergan Scotch lady;
they had but one child which they called William; he was born in Virginia. He was married and lived until he had
ten children."
The above statement of Edward Boone Scholl, who came to Pike county 103 years ago (the year that Pittsfield was
founded), is to be found among the Draper manuscripts, now in the Wisconsin State Historical Library at Madison,
this noted collection of Boone and allied family data being a prolific source of information regarding these early
families. This is the same Lyman C. Draper, LL. D., of the Wisconsin State Historical Society to whom Colonel John
Shaw, in his blind old age in 1855, dictated his thrilling story of Indian war and adventure on the Pike county
frontier during the second war with Britain in 1812-15, which story, transcribed by Draper, appeared in earlier
chapters of this history.
Edward Boone Scholl's statement to Draper disagrees with another statement by an Abraham Scholl descendant, that
of Mrs. John Cochran of Mt. Sterling, Iowa, a now deceased granddaughter of Abraham Scholl, that "Grandfather's
father had two brothers." E. B. Scholl says that Jacob Scholl and his "intergan" Scotch wife had
but one child. It will be noted that Scholl descendants often disagree as to material points in family history
but, even so, there are enough unquestioned mile posts by which to chart the course of this remarkable family.
A. C. Barrow of Auburn, Alabama, a great grandson of Abraham Scholl says: "The records of Augusta county,
Virginia (this county in the Shenandoah Valley was the birthplace of Abraham Scholl) show that there were lots
of Scholls there about 1750, and that one was named Peter and he was a colonel, and another was named William and
he was a captain, but both too old to be Kentucky Scholls."
The ancestry of Leah Morgan, mother of Abraham Scholl, is as obscure and debatable as is that of Abraham's father.
A. C. Barrow, the great grandson above referred to, is quite sure that his great great grandmother, Leah (Morgan)
Scholl, was a sister of General Daniel Morgan of Revolutionary War renown. Mr. Barrow has made much inquiry into
the history of the Scholl and Morgan families, in connection with a history of Kentucky, and is convinced that
the Scholls and Boones were closely related through the intermarriage of both families with the Morgans. Squire
Boone, father of eleven children (among them Daniel), married Sarah Morgan who, Mr. Barrow believes, was a sister
of Leah Morgan, who married William School, father of Abraham.
Says Mr. Barrow: "Elizabeth Scholl Denton, daughter of William Scholl, says that Joseph Scholl (son of William
and brother of Abraham) and Levina Boone (daughter of Daniel Boone) were so closely related that there was objection
on the part of their families to their marriage. They must have been first cousins>"
(Note: This same degree of relationship would then have existed between Peter Scholl and Mary Boone, the daughter
of Daniel's brother, Neddie)
Mr. Barrow says further: "It is my theory that Leah Morgan was a sister of General Dan Morgan of the Revolutionary
War, as I have seen it authoritatively stated that Daniel's mother was a sister of the General." He adds:
"One of William Scholl's descendants makes a specific statement that Daniel Boone and William Scholl were
first cousins."
This last reference by Mr. Barrow is especially significant in that it confirms a positive recollection of the
late Hannah Dalby of Griggsville that "Daniel Boone's mother and Abraham Scholl's paternal grandmother were
sisters." The Burlend family, of which Mrs. Dalby was a member, appears to have been very intimately associated
with the Scholl family in the 1830s in Pike county, and the Burlends recollections of Abraham Scholl and his Kentucky
adventures are invaluable in the preparation of this history.
According to these recollections, Abraham Scholl's paternal grandfather and Daniel Boone's father married sisters,
Jane and Sarah, whose last name the narrator did not know or did not remember. If this is correct, Jacob Scholl's
"intergan" Scotch wife must have been Jane Morgan, a sister of Sarah Morgan who married Squire Boone
in Berks county, Pennsylvania, September 23, 1720. This theory of the Scholl-Boone relationship seems to click
better than any other as to time. Sarah Morgan married Squire Boone in 1720. Leah Morgan did not marry William
Scholl prior to 1750 and possibly not before about 1760, since there is some evidence that Leah Morgan was a second
wife of William Scholl. Leah Morgan, a reputed relative of General Daniel Morgan, who was probably a brother of
Sarah Morgan (and also of Jane, if the above reference is correct), may have been a cousin or of some degree of
relationship to William Scholl prior to her marriage.
Doctor W. H. Saunders, dentist, 2301 West Broadway, Council Bluffs, Iowa, a descendant of Abraham Scholl through
Amanda Scholl Wilson (granddaughter of Abraham Scholl), who married Charles Saunders, has the manuscript of a Scholl
family. In this family record, Isaac Scholl, a son of William and Leah (Morgan) Scholl and a brother of Abraham,
is recorded as having married Jane Morgan, who may have been named for and related to the Jane Morgan of the Burland
recollections. The statement in this record is:
"Isaac. Married Jane Morgan, moved to Duck River, Tenn., had a large family." In other Scholl genealogies,
Isaac Scholl is reputed to have married Charity Elledge and removed to William county, Tennessee. He was possibly
twice married.
Doctor Saunders also says, in reference to the Boone-Scholl relationships: "I have heard my mother (Amanda
Scholl Wilson) say that there was some opposition to the marriage between the Boones and Scholls account of being
cousins." The evidence therefore suggests, according to one theory, that the mother of Abraham Scholl and
the mother of Daniel Scholl were sisters, or, according to another and seemingly more likely theory, that Abraham
Scholl's paternal grandmother and Daniel Boone's mother were sisters.
There is also some evidence that William Scholl was twice married and that Abraham Scholl did not have the same
mother as Peter and Joseph. It is stated by some that William Scholl's first wife (mother of Peter and Joseph)
was a Van Meter. It appears that this first wife may have been a sister of Mary Van Meter, who married John Hinton,
and who later, widowed, became the famous "Widow Hinton" of Kentucky annals. Mary Van Meter Hinton later
married William Chenoweth, who came out to Kentucky from Virginia in a very early day and participated with the
Boones in many a bloody border encounter. Mary Van Meter Hinton became the mother of Jacob, Abraham and James H.
Chenoweth, great Pike county pioneers who followed the Scholls to Pike county and located near them. It is likely
the two families were related by intermarriage with the Kentucky Van Meters.
In the Scholl genealogy possessed by Dr. Saunders is this notation: "William (Scholl) may have been married
twice, the first wife being a Van Meter. William Scholl's grandson, Joseph, says that the mother of Peter and Joseph
Scholl was a Van Meter."
The Boones, Scholls and Elledges, all closely inter-related at a very early date, frequently intermarried at later
dates, cousin often marrying cousin.
Here, for instance, are some of the intricate and puzzling relationships evolving from the intermarriages of the
Boones and Scholls:
Harriet Boone, a great great granddaughter of Squire and Sarah (Morgan) Boone, married Nelson Scholl, a great great
great grandson of Squire and Sarah (Morgan) Boone and a great great grandson of Daniel Boone. The Harriet Boone
of this marriage was a daughter of Thomas and Sallie (Muir) Boone, he a son of Squire and Anna (Grubbs) Boone,
he a son of Samuel Boone and Sarah Day, Samuel being a brother of Daniel. Nelson Scholl was a son of Septimus and
Sallie (Miller) Scholl, he a son of Joseph Scholl, Jr., and his second wife, Eliza A. Broughton, Joseph being a
son of Abraham Scholl's brother, Joseph Sr., and Daniel Boone's daughter, Levina. The name of Nelson Scholl has
come down from generation to generation in the Scholl family and is now repeated in the name of Nelson Scholl of
Kimberly, Idaho, a great grandson of Abraham Scholl, who married Emma T. Manker, a daughter of Anna Eliza (Wilson)
Manker, 87 years old, of Florence, who is a granddaughter of Abraham Scholl.
Lydia Ann Scholl, a daughter of Abraham Scholl's brother, Peter, and Daniel Boone's niece, Mary Boone, married
her cousin, Boone Hays, a grandson of Daniel Boone, he being a son of William Hays and Susanna Boone, a daughter
of Daniel. Lydia Ann Scholl was a daughter of Mary Boone, daughter of Edward, brother of Daniel.
Celia Ann Scholl, a daughter of Joseph Scholl, Jr., who was a son of Abraham Scholl's brother, Joseph, Sr., married
Henry Crump, a great great grandson of Daniel Boone, Celia Ann Scholl being also a great granddaughter of Daniel
Boone. Celia Ann was one of the younger Joseph Scholl's children by his second wife, Eliza A. Broughton, young
Joseph Scholl being a son of Daniel Boone's daughter Levina, and Abraham Scholl's brother Joseph. Henry Crump was
a son of Thompson S. Crump and Louisa Hays, she a daughter of Boone Hays and Lydia Ann Scholl (who were cousins),
Boone Hays being a son of Daniel Boone's daughter Susanna.
Levina Scholl, a granddaughter of Daniel Boone's daughter Levina, and Abraham Scholl's brother Joseph, married
Thompson S. Crump, Jr., a son of Boone Hays' daughter Louisa, and a great grandson of Daniel Boone.
Jesse Proctor Crump of Kansas City, Missouri, who has contributed much data to the Boone and Scholl family histories,
is descended on both his father's and mother's sides from the Boones and Scholls. He says: "My paternal ancestry
comes through Boone Hays who married Lydia Ann Scholl, daughter of Peter and Mary (Boone) Scholl. My maternal ancestry
comes through Joseph Scholl who married Levina Boone." Mr. Crump has contributed a splended sketch of "Daniel
Boone, the Pioneer," to Mrs. Hazel Atterbury Spraker's book, "The Boone Family."
Relationship puzzles even more complex will be discovered later, arising from the intermarriages of both the Boones
and Scholls with the Elledges, noted early day Griggsville family.
Scholl family historians disagree as to the year in which the Schools came out to Kentucky. Some say that the Scholls
were with Daniel Boone on his first attempt to take his family into the Kentucky wilderness in 1773.
In the Draper Manuscripts at Madison, Wisconsin, for instance, is the following, which is an excerpt from a letter
addressed to Mr. L. Draper by Edward Boone Scholl, a son of Peter Scholl, dated at Griggsville, February 25, 1861:
"Daniel Boone and Ed Boone with others Started For Ky. — got as far as Powels Vally (Powell's Valley, below
Cumberland Gap), was attaced by the Indians. Daniel lost his eldest son; they then returned to the settlement until
they could recut their strength — there W. Scholl with others came up with them: And they all came threw together
— the Boones from the Yadkin --the Scholls from Virginia: That took place in "73 (1773). I will give my reasons
as Abraham Scholl has told me he was 73 years in August; they moved in the fall; he dyed at 86 and 4 months; from
86 leaves 73."
While there is much of historical accuracy in the foregoing it seems certain that Mr. Scholl was in error as to
the Scholl migration into Kentucky in 1773. This migration undoubtedly took place in 1779, with Boone on his last
trip out. Abraham Scholl was only nine years old in the fall of 1773, having been born August 24, 1764. In a court
document to which he subscribed in Clark county, Kentucky, October 10, 1805, he stated under oath that he was then
41.
Mr. Scholl's statement as to Daniel Boone's attempt to move his family into Kentucky in 1773 is correct, as is
also his statement that in that attempt Daniel lost his eldest son and that Boone's party was forced to turn back
to the settlement, which they did, settling temporarily on the banks of the Clinch river. His statement that they
got as far as Powell's Valley is also correct. Edward Boone, however, is not known to have been with Daniel on
this adventure in 1773 but was with him on Daniel's last trip out in 1779.
Boone, on September 25, 1773, with his wife and children and accompanied by his brother Squire, set out on his
journey to the west; the Boones taking with them cattle and swine with a view to stocking their farms when they
should arrive in Kentucky. Their bedding and other baggage was carried by pack horses.
At a place called Powell's Valley, the little party was reinforced by another body of emigrants to the west, consisting
of five families and no less than forty able-bodied men, well-armed and provisioned. They thus advanced until the
sixth of October when they were approaching a pass in the Appalachians called Cumberland Gap. Says Hartley:
"The young men who were engaged in driving the cattle had fallen in rear of the main body, a distance of some
five or six miles, when they were suddenly assailed by a party of Indians, who killed six of their number and dispersed
the cattle in the woods. A seventh man escaped with a wound. The reports of the musketry brought the remainder
of the party to the rescue, who drove off the Indians and buried the dead. Among the slain was the oldest son of
Daniel Boone."
This eldest son of Daniel and Rebecca Boone, who was thus "killed and sculped," as Daniel Boone put it,
in the Clinch mountains of Virginia, was only sixteen years of age. He was buried on the spot where he was slain.
Following this dreadful massacre, a council was held to determine a course of action. Boone, in spite of his son's
death, was for proceeding to Kentucky, in which opinion he was sustained by his brother Squire and some of the
others. Most, however, were so disheartened that they insisted on returning, and Boone and his brother, yielding
to their wishes, returned to the settlement on the Clinch river in the southwestern part of Virginia, about forty
miles from the scene of the Indian attack. Here the Boone family remained until they were taken out for the first
time by Boone to his fort on the Kentucky river in 1775.
This delay doubtless was providential, for in consequence of the brutal murder by whites of the family of the Indian
chief Logan, a terrible war, known in history as the Dunmore War, was impending, which broke out the following
year and extended to that part of the west to which Boone and his party were proceeding.
It is of course possible that William Scholl and his family came up with the Boones while the latter were halted
at the Clinch river settlement in southwestern Virginia in 1773-1775, as related by E. B. Scholl to Lyman Draper.
It is also possible (indeed there seems to be some evidence) that William Scholl and possibly some of his older
sons helped Daniel Boone hew out the Wilderness Road into Kentucky, a trail that was destined to carry a great
emigration to the west. By deftly linked old buffalo and Indian trails and the footpaths of the early hunters into
the old Warriors' Trail, a road was opened into the wilderness that for its grades, fords and selection of mountain
passes became a testimonial to Daniel Boone's engineering skill.
There is also a possibility that Abraham Scholl followed the Wilderness Road into Kentucky, driving stock, prior
to the Scholl family's migration into the new land in 1779. A. C. Barrow says: "The Scholls came to Kentucky
in 1779 and arrived at Boonesborough December 25 and crossed the river (Kentucky river) and went some miles on
their way to Boone's Station. This is certain. I have reasons to believe that Abraham Scholl came to Kentucky summer
of 1778, driving stock."
Pack trains on the Wilderness Road met with many mishaps. In the dense woods the pack horses were always getting
wedged between trees, turning their saddles and twisting their loads. At river and creek crossings, they often
were forced to plunge down rotten and slippery bank and flounder in mud at the bottom. Sometimes they had to be
unloaded and the baggage floated across streams on rudely constructed rafts, the horses being swum over. One account
tells of fifty crossings in a single day, by "very bad foards." At night the pack animals had to be unloaded
and turned loose, generally hobbled, to graze. Oftentimes, after eating their fill, they would wander long distances
from camp, necessitating much weary tramping next day in search of them. Sometimes the pack horses were stampeded
at night by Indians; more often they were stampeded by butting into nests of yellow-jackets that beset the trail.
Abraham Scholl, on the Wilderness Road, experienced these various mishaps. A somewhat amusing account of the trials
and tribulations experienced on Boone's Trace has been left by one William Colk, who kept a rude diary of one of
these trips out to Kentucky. The "Abram" mentioned therein is said to refer to the boy, Abraham Scholl,
whose first name appears frequently in Kentucky annal and Pike county record as "Abram." A leaf from
Colk's diary, as transcribed by White, says:
"I turned my horse to drive before me and he got scard ran away threw Down the Saddel Bags and broke three
of our powder goards and Abram's beast Burst open a walet of corn and lost a good Deal and made a turrabel flustration
amongst the Reast of the Horses. Draik's mair run against a sapling and nockt it down we cacht them all again and
went on."