WITH THE SCHOLLS TO ILLINOIS in 1825 came William Howerton Wilson, Virginia born and Kentucky reared, founder of
the Wilson family in this region. Young Wilson, then 19, left a sweetheart in Kentucky, a girl by the name of Martha
Lincoln, descendant of that Abraham Lincoln who had come out to Kentucky with the Boones and Scholls in 1779, and
cousin of that later Abraham who was to become President of the United States. When William and Martha parted in
Kentucky, it was with the understanding that when he should become located in the Illinois country he would return
for her.
Came a day in 1826 when young Wilson was ready to go for his bride. She was to let him know when to come. He walked
from the site of present Griggsville to the log postoffice in the new town of Quincy to get the letter from the
Lincoln girl. The letter was there for him. He opened it. She had changed her mind, the letter said; he needn't
come. She didn't care to hear from him any more.
Years afterward, William Wilson, then happily married to Matilda Scholl, visited the old home in Kentucky. He looked
up Martha Lincoln. "Why didn't you come?" were Martha's first words when she met him at the door. "Come?"
said he; "why, because you told me not to." ‘I did nothing of the kind," retorted Martha. Then these
two, picked up the broken threads of their romance, traced them back to the discovery that Martha's brother (who
didn't like young Wilson) had substituted a letter of his own writing for the one written by Martha. And so it
was that William Wilson married a Scholl instead of a Lincoln.
When the Lincoln family in Kentucky bade farewell to William Wilson when he started for the Illinois country with
the Scholls, they urged him to stop on the way at the home of Thomas Lincoln, then living in Indiana. In the Thomas
Lincoln home there was then growing up a lank, gangling lad by the name of Abe. The route taken by the Scholls
to Ford's Ferry lay so far south of the Thomas Lincoln settlement that they did not feel justified in going so
much out of their course to visit the Lincolns. John Wilson of Baylis, recalling the story as he heard it from
his grandfather, William H. Wilson, says:
"When they were leaving Kentucky to come to Illinois they (the Lincolns) told Grandpa to Cousin Abe and told
him to stop and tell them (the Thomas Lincolns) how they all were. But they didn't go past the Lincolns', which
was off the road, and Grandpa was always sorry they didn't stop, because, he said, if they had he would have had
a chance to see the coming man of the times."
"The Lincolns were as good people as ever was," John Wilson remembers his grandfather saying; "but
they were not poor people; they were well to do."
Edward Boone Scholl, writing from Griggsville under date of January 5, 1856, said of his grandfather, William Scholl,
father of Peter, Joseph and Abraham: "William Scholl brought to the state (Kentucky) a wife and nine children,
6 sons and 3 daughters. Daniel and Edward Boone came with their families together and William Scholl and wife with
nine children fell in company with several others in Powell's Valley and came to Boonesborough and there remained
together (at Boone's Station) until after the death of Edward Boone (killed by Indians October 5, 1780)."
Of the nine Scholl children who came with their father to Kentucky, the eldest was William Scholl, Jr., born (probably)
in 1752. Of the life of this William, there is no authentic record. Edward Boone Scholl says that William, Jr.,
was killed in Braddock's Defeat but this is obviously an error, as Braddock's Defeat was in 1755 and the eldest
of the Scholl children was born after 1750. It is possible that Edward Boone Scholl meant to refer to St. Clair's
defeat in 1795.
Edward Boone Scholl lists John as the next born after William. He says John married a Miss Morris in Virginia,
and they had two children, John, Jr., and Leah, and that John "went in the war for our glorious Independence
and died of smallpox." His death occurred while he was stationed at Point Pleasant at the mouth of the Great
Kanawha river, then in northwestern Virginia, now in Mason county, West Virginia. Boone Scholl relates that his
father, Peter Scholl, brother of John, had the smallpox at the same time but he recovered and came home from the
Revolution and married Mary Boone.
Peter Scoll, next after John, was born September 15, 1754. Inasmuch as seven of the children of Peter and Mary
(Boone) Scholl are identified with the history of this region, the story of this colorful member of the Scholl
family will be related more fully in another chapter.
Joseph Scholl, next after Peter, was born in 1755 and died in 1835. (Edward B. Scholl says in the Draper Mss. That
he was born in 1758 and in one manuscript gives his death date as 1833 and in another as 1828.) He married Levina,
Daniel Boone's third daughter, born in 1766. Joseph died in Clark county, Kentucky. He was the father of five sons
and three daughters, as follows: Jesse Boone Scholl, born October 17, 1791, married Elizabeth Miller September
7, 1824, settled in St. Charles county, Missouri; died in Callaway county, Missouri, in 1841; Septimus, married
Elizabeth Miller's sister, Sallie (they were daughters of Joseph Miller), died in Jackson county, Missouri, in
1849; Marcus, who was twice married, and died in Callaway county, Missouri; Selah (or Celia); Marcia, who married
a Holloday (probably James) March 31, 1808; Leah, Daniel Boone and Joseph, Jr., the latter of whom was twice married,
his first wife being Rebecca Van Meter Miller, and his second, Eliza Ann Broughton. All of Joseph's children died
prior to 1868 except Joseph, Jr., who was born June 15, 1800.
Joseph was doubtless the first of the Scholls to penetrate into this western country. Joseph is known to have made
a trip into the Illinois country and as far west as St. Charles county, Missouri, as early as 1803 or 1804. He
had married Levina Boone about 1785. Levina's parents, Daniel and Rebecca Boone, were located in what was then
St. Charles county. With Scholl on this trip were Jesse Bryan Boone, David Denton (who had married Joseph's and
Abraham's sister Rachel Scholl) and one Van Bibber. It is recounted that Joseph Scholl on this trip had a fine
new rifle made for him by Daniel Bryan (nephew of Daniel Boone), a famous rifle maker in his day. While Scholl
was visiting the Daniel Boones in St. Charles county. Daniel's son, Daniel Morgan Boone, borrowed this gun from
Scholl to take on a hunt he and his father were planning in the fall, promising to return it the next summer when
he went out to Kentucky on a visit. While on this hunting trip an Indian stole the gun from Daniel Morgan Boone;
we are not told whether Joseph Scholl, the gun's owner, ever got his hunting-piece, but we may surmise that he
did from the relation of his son, Joseph Scholl, Jr., who thus concludes the narrative as chronicled in Mrs. Spraker's
Boone book: "As the Indian departed with his illy-gotten prize, Daniel Boone asked his father for his gun,
saying he was not disposed to lose his fine rifle."
Levina Boone, Daniel Boone's daughter and Joseph Scholl's wife, died in Clark county, Kentucky, April 6, 1802,
at the age of 36 years, 15 days. The foregoing death date, however, which is generally accepted, is challenged
in another statement of record to the effect that Rebecca (Boone) Goe, Daniel Boone's youngest daughter who married
Philip Goe, died July 11, 1805 in Clark county, Kentucky, at the home of her sister, Levina Boone Scholl. Philip
Goe died in Nicholas county, Kentucky, in March, 1805. Daniel Morgan Boone, who in 1800 had married Sarah Griffin
Lewis, relative of the pioneer Lewises at Pleasant Hill, took his orphaned Goe nephews and nieces (all except the
oldest and youngest) and brought them back to Missouri with him.
Of Isaac Scholl, another of Abraham's brothers, little is known. E. B. Scholl (in Draper Mss.) Says he married
Jane Morgan, probably a relative or descendant of James Morgan (first known Morgan ancestor who lived in Bucks
county, Pennsylvania), and possibly named for a supposed daughter of James and sister of Sarah Morgan, who, according
to one account, married Jacob Scholl, grandfather of Abraham. Isaac Scholl, according to E. B. Scholl, moved to
the Duck River county in Tennessee and had a large family. According to another Scholl genealogist, Isaac Scholl
married Charity Elledge and moved to Williams (Williamson) county, Tennessee. This Charity Elledge was a sister
of Francis Elledge, who married Charity Boone in North Carolina in 1778 and later settled in Scott county, Illinois,
and many of whose descendants now reside in Pike county. (Note: Duck River is in Hickman county, which adjoins
Williamson. It is probable that Isaac Scholl was twice married and that Charity Elledge was his first wife.)
Jacob Scholl, first born of William Scholl's children and named for his grandfather Scholl, died in infancy. He
was born about 1751; buried in Virginia, in the valley of the Shenandoah.
Some Scholl genealogists name two others as sons of William Scholl, namely, Aaron and Magnus (sometimes spelled
Magnes). Jesse Procter Crump in Mrs. Spraker's book, "The Boone Family," mentions Aaron Scholl as a brother
of Abraham. There is a record in Kentucky of Magnus (or Magnes) Scholl having married a Patsy Martin. Abraham Scholl
therefore had either nine or eleven brothers or sisters, according to the differing accounts.
All authorities agree as to Abraham's three sisters, Sarah (or Sally), Elizabeth and Rachel. Sarah married Samuel
Shortridge and moved to the neighborhood of Lafayette, Indiana. They had eight children: Kesiah, who married Samuel
Black; Leah, who married Samuel Stark; Celia, who married Arnold Drewery; Elizabeth, who married Griffin Treadaway;
James, Morgan, Samuel and John. Sarah and her husband both died in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, and are buried there.
Elizabeth married Arnold Custer, paternal grandfather of General George Custer, who with two of his brothers and
a nephew fell in the famous Sioux massacre on the Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876. Jacob E. Scholl of Chicago, a
great grandson of Abraham Scholl, says the Custer relationship had been established to a certainty. Elizabeth and
her husband both died near Madison, Indiana, across the Ohio river from Kentucky, and E. B. Scholl of Griggsville,
writing in 1861, said their family was still living near Madison at that time.
Rachel, born in March, 1773, married David Denton and settled in Barren county, Kentucky. The Dentons were among
the earliest adventurers into Kentucky with Daniel Boone. A David Denton was among those who joined Boone in Powell's
Valley in the ill-fated attempt to reach Kentucky in 1773. David and Rachel Scholl Denton's son, D. B. Denton,
is among the contributors to the Draper collection of Boone manuscripts, as is also his mother, Rachel.
Of the seven sons and three daughters of William Scholl who are enumerated by E. B. Scholl, he says: "Peter,
Sarah, Elizabeth, Rachel and Isaac were all Baptists and most of their families. They were all (including Abraham)
born in Virginia. John was married in Virginia; all the rest married in Clark county, Kentucky."
Note: Abraham's war record obtained from the official files in Washington, D. C., states that Abraham was born
in Rowan county, North Carolina, as does also the brief obituary notice published in the Pike County Free Press
at the time of his death in 1851. In various family records his birthplace is given as Virginia (Shenandoah Valley).
In one of the Scholl genealogies it is suggested that Leah Morgan (mother of Abraham Scholl) was probably a relative
of General Daniel Morgan, American Revolutionary general (1732-1802). A. C. Barrow, a Scholl historian, believes
that Leah Morgan may have been a sister of General Daniel Morgan. He also suggests that Sarah Morgan, mother of
Daniel Boone, may have been a sister of both Leah and General Daniel, saying that he has seen it authoritatively
stated that Sarah Morgan was a sister of the General.
Mr. Barrow may be justified in concluding that Leah Morgan and the General were brother and sister but they could
hardly have been the brother and sister of Sarah, inasmuch as she did not belong to their generation. Sarah, according
to incomplete and unsatisfactory genealogy of the Morgan family, was a sister of James Morgan, Jr., who was the
father of General Daniel (and possibly of Leah). It is believed in view of Mrs. Hannah Dalby's recollection (heretofore
recorded) of Abraham Scholl's statements as to his relationship with the Boone family, that James, Jr., Thomas
and Sarah (sons and daughter of James Morgan, Sr., first known ancestor, of Bucks county, Pennsylvania), had a
sister, Jane Morgan, who married Jacob Scholl, the grandfather of Abraham. In this event, William Scholl's mother
would have been an aunt of General Daniel Morgan; it is of course possible that William Scholl and Leah Morgan
(his wife) were cousins, and that she was a sister of the Revolutionary soldier.
General Morgan's father was James Morgan, who died in 1792. His mother was Elnora (last name unknown). General
Morgan was born in 1732 (some say 1736), left home at the age of 16 to follow his cousin, Daniel Boone, and lived
at the home of his uncle, John Morgan, in Berkeley county, Virginia. Sarah Morgan, sister of his father, married
Squire Boone in 1720; and they became the parents of Damiel Boone. Thomas Morgan, a brother of James and Sarah,
was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, married Rebecca Alexander, and had one child (probably others) called Ann
(Nancy), who was born in North Carolina in 1744, and died in Henderson, Kentucky, in 1840; buried in Hart graveyard,
Henderson county (she has Revolutionary service), married Benjamin Hart, son of Thomas, and grandson of another
Thomas Hart who came from England to New Kent county, Virginia, in 1635. Several kinsmen of these Harts settled
in an early day in Pike county, Illinois. The foregoing is practically all that is known of the Morgan family with
which both the Boones and Scholls were connected.
A. K. Wilson of Lincoln, Nebraska, relates that when his great grandfather, Abraham Scholl, came to Pike county,
Illinois, he left five children in the south and brought 13 with him. The five left in Kentucky included two sons
and three daughters. They were children of Abraham by his first wife, Nellie Humble. Morgan, the first born of
this family, accompanied his father to Illinois.
Achilles Scholl, second of the sons, appears to have been lost sight of by the other Scholls and of him there is
no available record. J. E. Scholl of Chicago has a dim recollection of having heard his grandmother, Eliza Jane
Scholl, say that Achilles located in Grant county, Wisconsin, and that he died there at the home of his half-sister,
Sally Scholl Key. There is a tradition in the family that Achilles (generally known as Kallice or Killis) stole
his wife, but who the heroine of the Lochinvar tale was or what were the circumstances of her theft are unknown.
Uriah Scholl, the third son, married Arsley Hardesty in Kentucky, February 28, 1816, and settled at Madison, Indiana,
near which place dwelt his aunt, Elizabeth Scholl Custer, and her family. Uriah was a tobacconist in Madison.
Annie, Celia and Rachel Scholl, Abraham's daughters by Nellie Humble, all lived, married and died in Kentucky.
Annie married Nickleberry Daniel; Celia married (probably) Jilson Martin. Rachel, on June 9, 1810, married Hinchea
Gilliam Barrow, a son of David Barrow, noted Kentucky Baptist minister and anti-slavery advocate. Rachel was the
maternal grandmother of A. C. Barrow, the Scholl historian who has been frequently quoted in these chapters.
Adaline Scholl Cochran, daughter of Abraham's son Peter, writing in 1920 of her father's half-brothers, Morgan,
Achilles (Killis) and Uriah, said they were all young men before her grandparents left Kentucky. Said she: "I
was told that Grandfather (Abraham Scholl) went security for his three oldest boys who were young men before they
left Kentucky. They were Morgan, Killis (Achilles) and Uriah. I heard father (Peter Scholl) say they rode the finest
horses in Kentucky and thought nothing of paying $50 for a saddle and bridle. Grandfather may have been security
for others; be that as it may, he became discouraged and came to Ill. He had means to get land and make a good
living there."
Note: Love of fine horses is still strong in some of the Scholl descendants. J. E. Scholl of Chicago has owned
some of the finest racing stock in the west and is an outstanding judge of horseflesh as well as of real estate.
Morgan Scholl, Abraham's oldest son, coming with his father to Pike county, was long a resident here. He was known
among the younger Scholls as "Uncle Maud." He was said to have a sweetheart in Kentucky by the name of
Fannie Hardesty, possibly a relative of Arsley Hardesty, who married his brother Uriah. Morgan, born in 1788, did
not marry until late in his life, being 74 years of age when, in Brown county, Illinois, on March 17, 1862, he
married Katy Ann Ellison, who was nearly as old as he. The marriage service was said by B. D. Stout, long an Elder
of the Christian church at Mt. Sterling, Illinois. The marriage is of record in the courthouse at Mt. Sterling,
county seat of Brown county. Morgan and his wife lived together only a short time. Morgan then went to Grant county,
Wisconsin, and died there at the home of Abraham Key, a son of Marshall and Sally (Scholl) Key.