THE STORY of Abraham Scholl's capture by the Indians is more or less traditionary among his descendants. Some of
the Scholl descendants had never heard of Abraham being in captivity among the Indians, although they had heard
of his being in battles with them. Others remembered having heard their forebears speak of the captivity but remembered
nothing of the circumstances. Among others the capture was a mere family tradition.
That Abraham Scholl was captured by Indians (probably in the year 1787) and that he was for some time a captive
among them seemed incontrovertible. The fact of his captivity appears to have been considered one of the outstanding
incidents in his life history at the time of his death in 1851, as witnessed by the brief obituary notice appearing
at the time in John G. Nicolay's "Pike County Free Press," containing a briefly worded resume of events
in the life of the deceased, as follows:
"Abraham Scholl — born Aug. 24, 1764, died Dec. 24, 1851 — native of North Carolina — came to Kentucky with
Daniel Boone — in battle of Blue Lick — captured by Indians and escaped — settled near Boone's Fort — came to Illinois
in 1825 — leaves a numerous family."
The foregoing brief obituary notice contradicts other informants as to Abraham Scholl's birthplace, nearly all
agreeing that he was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. There is of course the possibility that the Scholls
dwelt for a time in the Yadkin country of the Boones in North Carolina and that Abraham was born during the sojourn
there. In this connection is another penciled statement, found among the numerous Scholl manuscripts in the possession
of Dr. William Howerton Saunders of Council Bluffs, Iowa, which bears out the obituary statement as to the birthplace
but disagrees as to the birth-date, being as follows:The John B. Matthews family crossed the Illinois river at
Phillips Ferry into Pike county in the same year as did the Abraham Scholls (1825). The two families became very
intimate. William H. Wilson (who married Abraham Scholl's daughter Matilda) and John B. Matthews' son Ben became
partners in a flatboat venture from Phillips Ferry to Galena. John B. Matthews removed to Schuyler county, Missouri,
in 1856, and died there in 1857. Ben Matthews, who became the father of the noted Colonel Asa C. Matthews of Pittsfield,
had been born in the Boone country in Rowan county, North Carolina, in 1806 (the same year in which William H.
Wilson was born), and was 19 when he came with his father to Pike county and located near the Scholls, within the
borders of what is now Flint township.
"Abr. Scholl born Dec. 15, 1765 in Rowan Co., N. C. (This was in the Boone county). Enlisted 1781 in Fayette
Co. Va. (Kentucky was then a part of Virginia) serving several short terms in the Va. troops under Capt. Wm. Hays,
John Courtand, Charles Hazelrigg and John McDowell with Cols. John Todd, Benjamin Logan, Daniel Boone and Trotter
— applied for pension refused."
On Abraham Scholl's tombstone in Griggsville cemetery is this inscription: "Abraham Scholl - born in Kentucky
- aged 82 years - also his wife Tabitha - born in Kentucky - aged 78 years - Father and Mother of Mrs. Elizabeth
Gibbs." On the reverse side of this: "Elizabeth, wife of Chas. F. Gibbs, Aug. 23, 1862, aged 41 yrs.
9 mos."
The tombstone inscription is known to be erroneous. Neither Abraham Scholl, nor his wife, Tabitha Noe, was born
in Kentucky. Tabitha Noe was born in Hagerstown, Maryland. Neither is Abraham Scholl's age correctly given in the
inscription. He was 87 years and 4 months old at the time of his death. Some family records give his birth-date
as 1765 but his own sworn testimony designated 1764 as his birth year.
We find A. C. Barrow of Mt. Sterling, Ky., (a great grandson of Abraham Scholl), in preparing a history of the
Scholl family in Kentucky in 1920, writing to Mrs. Adeline Cochran of Mt. Sterling, Iowa (a daughter of Abraham
Scholl's son Peter, now deceased) as follows: "I have it that Abraham Scholl was once wounded by the Indians
and also once captured by them. Surely you have heard your father say something about that."
Mr. Barrow, however, seemingly failed to unearth anything bearing upon this affair with the Indians.
Abraham Scholl is known to have related the story of his capture to several of his Pike county contemporaries among
the pioneers. His story was related in the early Burlend home and was remembered by the late Hannah Dalby of Griggsville,
a daughter of the Burlends who died in 1913 in her ninetieth year, who recalled how thrilled was her brother John,
a rash, impetuous boy who drank in Scholl's tale of Kentucky adventure and then staged his mimic warfare in the
neighboring forest. She remembered also having heard School relate the story of Daniel Boone's capture, and that
of Stephen Ruddle, pioneer Christian minister who preached the first sermon in North Pike county in his friend
Scholl's home in 1826; also, she remembered Scholl telling of the capture by Indians of another Kentucky friend
by the name of Burbridge, a brother of an early Pike county preacher.
In an April, 1868, issue of the Pike County Democrat is found a brief obituary notice of Father James Burbridge,
who had died March 31 that year, at 84, which says: "Came with father, Rowland Burbridge, from Virginia to
Kentucky and fought with Indians — 7 boys and 3 girls in family — one boy captured and held five years, escaped
with health impaired and died a few years later."
While Mrs. Dalby's recollections (taken down 30 years ago) in most instances are exceedingly clear, there is no
doubt that her recital of Scholl's story of his own capture is confused in certain major particulars with his narrative
of the capture of Daniel Boone. There are features of the recital, however, that evidently do not derive from the
Boone adventure.
Doubtless the most authentic version of Scholl's adventure with the Indians is found in the narrative of the late
William C. Dickson of Pittsfield, who not only remembered as a small boy hearing Scholl himself relate the story,
but who also heard it at a much later date from Captain Benjamin Matthews, Civil War veteran, to whom Scholl had
also related the adventure.
The John B. Matthews family crossed the Illinois river at Phillips Ferry into Pike county in the same year as did
the Abraham Scholls (1825). The two families became very intimate. William H. Wilson (who married Abraham Scholl's
daughter Matilda) and John B. Matthews' son Ben became partners in a flatboat venture from Phillips Ferry to Galena.
John B. Matthews removed to Schuyler county, Missouri, in 1856, and died there in 1857. Ben Matthews, who became
the father of the noted Colonel Asa C. Matthews of Pittsfield, had been born in the Boone country in Rowan county,
North Carolina, in 1806 (the same year in which William H. Wilson was born), and was 19 when he came with his father
to Pike county and located near the Scholls, within the borders of what is now Flint township.
From the various recollections of Abraham Scholl's narrative, it appears that Abraham and two of his brothers (probably
Peter and Joseph) went hunting one day in the direction of the Blue Licks. Suddenly in a dense canebrake bordering
a creek, they were set upon by wild Shawnees. All three, at the crack of the savages' rifles, dropped to the ground
and started worming their way toward the creek, retreat in any direction being cut off by the savages. Nearing
the creek (which was at a very high stage, this being the flood year in Kentucky), they were forced to break cover
and dash through an open clearing to the water's edge. The two brothers reached the bank safely and plunged in
and swam to the other side, holding their guns and ammunition above their heads. Abraham, not so fortunate as his
brothers, was struck in the groin by a ball just as he started to plunge in and fell head-long into the water.
Only slightly wounded, he regained his feet and attempted to stand off the savages with his gun, which, however,
had got wet and was useless. Under a withering fire from his brothers on the opposite bank, he was captured and
dragged into the thicket.
Abraham, it appears from the remembered narrative, was for some time in captivity; how long is not known. He evidently
was treated with some consideration by his captors. Recovering from his wound, he was put to work by the tribe
into whose hands he had fallen, after being taken across the Ohio into the fastnesses of the Indian territory in
the Ohio country. His chief task was at the salt licks, where he worked under the watchful eyes of his captors.
Scholl was a Baptist (some say a Dunkard) and was a strict observer of the Sabbath. There is a tradition in the
Wilson family, descendants of Scholl, that he introduced an observance of the Sabbath among the Indians. Abraham
Key Wilson of Lincoln, Nebraska, a great grandson of Abraham Scholl, says that he always understood that his great
grandfather taught the Indians this observance while he was a captive among them. He remembers having heard it
related that when the Sabbath came and the Indians ordered him to work, he made them understand by signs and by
pointing to the heavens that there was a Power above that forbade work on the Sabbath. So impressed were they with
the revelation that they themselves thereafter refrained on the Sabbath day from their wonted tasks.
Like Stephen Ruddle, who was captured at the fall of Ruddle's Station in Kentucky in 1780 and who escaped after
14 years among the Indians, Abraham Scholl eventually eluded his captors and returned to his family in Kentucky;
but the manner of his escape, except that it was effected when he was sent to one of the licks to make salt, is
a matter of conjecture. The story of the escape as remembered by Mrs. Dalby was that Scholl blinded his guard one
day by throwing a handful of powdered tobacco leaves he had managed to secrete in his pocket into the Indian's
eyes, taking advantage of the savage's momentary discomfiture to dispose of him and make his escape. This may or
may not have been confused in Mrs. Dalby's recollection with a somewhat similar adventure of Daniel Boone in making
his escape from a party of Indians who surprised him in his tobacco shed.
That the capture took place in the year 1787 is suggested by a reference in the story to the unusually high waters
prevailing in Kentucky at the time, the waters having risen to unprecedented heights in that year. That the time
was 1787 is further indicated in Mrs. Dalby's recollection that Scholl told of his own capture having taken place
shortly after he had returned from joining in a pursuit of a band of savages that had murdered some settlers and
carried away a young female whom they killed on the trail when warned by the baying of a dog that the pursuers
were close at hand. This doubtless refers to a massacre related by McClung as occurring in the spring of 1787,
and Abraham Scholl must have been one of the pursuing party under Captain Edwards; at any rate, the McClung narrative
is a fit commentary upon those bloody years in Kentucky after 1782, in which 1500 whites are said to have been
murdered or captured by the Indians.
"On the night of the 11th of April, 1787," says McClung, "the house of a widow in Bourbon county
became the scene of an adventure which we think deserves to be related. She occupied what is generally called a
double cabin, in a lonely part of the country, one room of which was tenanted by the old lady herself, together
with two grown sons and a widowed daughter, at that time suckling an infant, while the other was occupied by two
unmarried daughters, from sixteen to twenty years of age, together with a little girl not more than half grown.
The hour was eleven o'clock at night. One of the unmarried daughters was still busily engaged at the loom, but
the other members of the family, with the exception of one of the sons, had retired to rest. Some symptoms of an
alarming nature had engaged the attention of the young man for an hour before anything of a decided character took
place.
"The cry of owls was heard in the adjoining wood, answering each other in rather an unusual manner. The horses,
which were enclosed as usual in a pound near the house, were more than commonly excited, and by repeated snorting
and galloping announced the presence of some object of terror. The young man was often upon the point of awakening
his brother, but was as often restrained by the fear of incurring ridicule and the reproach of timidity, at that
time an unpardonable blemish in the character of a Kentuckian. At length hasty steps were heard in the yard, and
quickly afterward several loud knocks at the door, accompanied by the usual exclamation, ‘Who keeps house here?'
in very good English. The young man, supposing from the language that some benighted settlers were at the door,
hastily arose, and was advancing to withdraw the bar which secured it, when his mother, who had long lived upon
the frontiers, and had probably detected the Indian tone in the demand for admission, instantly sprung out of bed,
and ordered her son not to admit them, declaring that they were Indians.
"She instantly awakened her other son, and the two young men seized their guns, which were always charged,
prepared to repel the enemy. The Indians, finding it impossible to enter under their assumed characters, began
to thunder at the door with great violence, but a single shot from a loophole compelled them to shift the attack
to some less exposed point, and, unfortunately, they discovered the door of the other cabin, containing the three
daughters. The rifles of the brothers could not be brought to bear upon this point, and by means of several rails
taken from the yard fence, the door was forced from its hinges, and the three girls were at the mercy of the savages.
One was instantly secured, but the eldest defended herself desperately with a knife which she had been using at
the loom, and stabbed one of the Indians to the heart before she was tomahawked.
In the meantime the little girl, who had been overlooked by the enemy in their eagerness to secure the others,
ran out into the yard, and might have effected her escape had she taken advantage of the darkness and fled; but
instead of that, the terrified little creature ran around the house wringing her hands, and crying out that her
sisters were killed. The brothers, unable to hear her cries without risking everything for her rescue, rushed to
the door and were preparing to sally out to her assistance when their mother threw herself before them and calmly
declared that the child must be abandoned to its fate; that the sally would sacrifice the lives of all the rest,
without the slightest benefit to the little girl. Just then the child uttered a loud scream, followed by a few
faint moans, and all was again silent. Presently the crackling of flames was heard, accompanied by a triumphant
yell from the Indians, announcing that they had set fire to that division of the house which had been occupied
by the daughters, and of which they held undisputed possession.
"The fire was quickly communicated to the rest of the building, and it became necessary to abandon it or perish
in the flames. In the one case there was the possibility that some might escape; in the other, their fate would
be equally certain and terrible. The rapid approach of the flames cut short their momentary suspense. The door
was thrown open, and the old lady, supported by her eldest son, attempted to cross the fence at one point, while
her daughter, carrying her child in her arms, and attended by the younger of the brothers, ran in a different direction.
The blazing roof shed a light over the yard but little inferior to that of day, and the savages were distinctly
seen awaiting the approach of their victims. The old lady was permitted to reach the stile unmolested, but in the
act of crossing received several balls in her breast and fell dead. Her son, providentially, remained unhurt, and
by extraordinary agility effected his escape.
"The other party succeeded also in reaching the fence unhurt, but in the act of crossing were vigorously assailed
by several Indians who, throwing down their guns, rushed upon them with their tomahawks. The young man defended
his sister gallantly, firing upon the enemy as they approached, and then wielding the butt of his rifle with a
fury that drew their whole attention upon himself, he gave his sister an opportunity of effecting her escape. He
quickly fell, however, under the tomahawks of his enemies, and was found at daybreak, scalped and mangled in a
shocking manner. Of the whole family consisting of eight persons when the attack commenced, only three escaped.
Four were killed upon the spot, and one (the second daughter) carried off as a prisoner.
"The neighborhood was quickly alarmed, and by daylight about thirty men were assembled under the command of
Colonel Edwards. A light snow had fallen during the latter part of the night, and the Indian trail could be pursued
at a gallop. It led directly into the mountainous country bordering upon Licking, and afforded evidences of great
hurry and precipitation on the part of the fugitives. Unfortunately a hound had been permitted to accompany the
whites, and as the trail became fresh and the scent warm, she followed it with eagerness, baying loudly and giving
the alarm to the Indians. The consequences of this imprudence were soon displayed. The enemy finding the pursuit
keen, and perceiving that the strength of the prisoner began to fail, instantly sunk their tomahawks in her head
and left her, still warm and bleeding, upon the snow.
"As the whites came up she retained strength enough to wave her hand in token of recognition, and appeared
desirous of giving them some information with regard to the enemy, but her strength was too far gone. Her brother
sprung from his horse and knelt by her side, endeavoring to stop the effusion of blood, but in vain. She gave him
her hand, muttered some inarticulate words, and expired within two minutes after the arrival of the party. The
pursuit was renewed with additional ardor, and in twenty minutes the enemy was within view. They had taken possession
of a steep narrow ridge, and seemed desirous of magnifying their numbers in the eyes of the whites, as they ran
rapidly from tree to tree, and maintained a steady yell in their most appalling tones. The pursuers, however, were
too experienced to be deceived by so common an artifice, and being satisfied that the number of the enemy must
be inferior to their own, they dismounted, tied their horses, and flanking out in such a manner as to enclose the
enemy, ascended the ridge as rapidly as was consistent with a due regard to the shelter of their persons.
"The firing quickly commenced, and now for the first time they discovered that only two Indians were opposed
to them. They had voluntarily sacrificed themselves for the safety of the main body, and succeeded in delaying
pursuit until their friends could reach the mountains. One of them was instantly shot dead, and the other was badly
wounded, as was evident from the blood upon his blanket, as well as that which filled his tracks in the snow for
a considerable distance. The pursuit was recommenced, and urged keenly until night when the trail entered a running
stream and was lost. On the following morning the snow had melted, and every trace of the enemy was obliterated."
Whether Abraham Scholl participated in this pursuit cannot be stated with absolute assurance. From Mrs. Dalby's
relation, it seems probable that this adventure related by McClung was that in which Scholl had taken part shortly
before he fell into the hands of the Indians.