BENJAMIN ELLEDGE, who brought his family overland from Harrison county, Indiana, to Griggsville in 1834, was born
near Boonesborough, Daniel Boone's famous fort on the Kentucky river, in the darkest year of Kentucky's history.
The day and month of his birth are variously given. In a family record in possession of his granddaughter, Mrs.
Charles W. Gruzebeck of Ironton, Minnesota, it is stated that "Benjamin Elledge was born January the 20th
in the year of our Lord 1782." On the other hand is the statement of Edward Boone Scholl, Pike county pioneer
and own cousin of Benjamin Elledge, that Benjamin was born "the night of the Blue Licks." The battle
of Blue Licks was fought on August 19, 1782.
Benjamin was probably the third child of Francis Elledge and Charity Boone. Jesse Elledge, the pioneer Pike county
preacher, was older than Benjamin, and Charity (known also as Sarah) was probably older than Jesse and likely the
first-born of Charity Boone's children. Charity Boone, the mother, was the oldest daughter of Edward Boone and
Martha Bryan, and a sister of Mary Boone, who married Peter Scholl, elder brother of Pike county Abraham and father
of pioneer Edward Boone Scholl.
Mourning was in nearly every home in Kentucky in the year that Benjamin Elledge was born. It was a year of disaster
for the whites. It was in this year that the women and children at Bryan's Station went out to the spring for water
under the glaring eyes of besieging savages hidden in the thickets, one of the bravest deeds in Kentucky history.
The siege of Bryan's was followed by Blue Licks, when Kentucky lost scores of her bravest in the most crushing
defeat suffered by the whites on Kentucky soil. This, "the last battle of the Revolution," was fought
on August 19. It was in this battle that Pike county Abraham Scholl, not yet 18, swam the Licking river and escaped
amid a hail of bullets. It was here that Abraham, as he escaped, saw Israel Boone, Daniel's son, sink to the ground
with a ghastly death-wound in his breast. It was here that Daniel's wise counsel was ignored as his comrades advanced
in to the Indian ambuscade of which the great scout had warned.
Benjamin Elledge and Catharine Reynolds, according to Mrs. Gruzebeck's family record, "were joined together
in the holy state of matrimony April the 10th in the year of our Lord 1806." The following month, May 14,
1806, Benjamin's sister Martha married her cousin, William Scholl, son of Kentucky Peter and elder brother of Edward
Boone Scholl. Two of Charity Boone's children therefore married two of Mary Boone's children, Mary and Charity
being sisters, and daughters of Edward Boone. The other "cousin" marriage was that of Martha Elledge's
brother Edward to William Scholl's sister Malinda. Benjamin Elledge and his sister Martha were both married, according
to Boone Scholl, "on the banks of Licking."
Boone Scholl relates that Benjamin Elledge married "a Virginia Runnels, of aristocrat family." Mrs E.
E. Boone of Hibbing, Minnesota, a granddaughter of Catharine Reynolds Elledge, recalls that her father always pronounced
"Reynolds" as "Runnels," giving it the old Southern pronunciation. Goodspeed's catalogue of
genealogies lists "Reynolds" and "Runnels" together, genealogically. Catharine Reynolds was
raised in the home of an aristocratic uncle by the name of Reynolds, a tobacco planter and very wealthy. Born a
great lady, with her own slaves to attend her as she grew to womanhood, she married a poor man against her uncle's
wishes, and with her husband shared the trials and hardships of a wilderness life to which she was unused. The
Elledge home near Griggsville was filled with beautiful things, relics of her affluent days.
Some time prior to the second war with Britain, Benjamin Elledge and his family left Kentucky and moved across
the Ohio river into then Indiana Territory, locating not far from Laconia, in Harrison county, about 25 miles northwest
of Louisville. Here most of Benjamin's children were born. Benjamin's brothers, Boone and James, also joined in
this exodus from Kentucky to that part of the old Northwest Territory, all locating in what is now Harrison county.
There Benjamin had a cooperage and Boone a store. Boone's store account book, still in a fair state of preservation,
and now in possession of Mrs. Lawrence Harvey of Griggsville, a Boone and Elledge descendant, throws much light
upon the Elledge settlement in Indiana.
The Elledges, in their migration to Indiana Territory, followed their kinsmen, Squire Boone and his sons, and the
sons of Samuel Boone, all of whom had located in the Territory about the time of Benjamin Elledge's marriage in
1806. At that time, present Illinois was a part of Indiana Territory. Dates of the Squire Boone settlement on Buck
Creek range in various chronicles from 1804 to 1806.
Squire Boone, disabled by wounds received in a battle with an Indian war party led by the renegade Simon Girty,
in 1781, at his station on Brashear Creek in Kentucky, was later honored by being sent to represent the county
of Jefferson, Kentucky, in the state legislature of Virginia, which then exercised dominion over the Kentucky land.
Eventually, however, Squire endured the same ill-treatment from Kentucky as did his illustrious brother Daniel,
and in 1804 or 1806 he left Kentucky with a heavy heart.
Boone Settlement, which he then founded on Buck Creek in Indiana Territory, was located about 25 miles north and
west from Louisville. With him in the new settlement were his sons, Moses, Isaiah, Enoch Morgan, and Jonathan;
also the five sons of his brother, Samuel Boone. Collins' History of Kentucky relates that Squire Boone, like his
great brother, Daniel, "left Kentucky with a sad heart."
At Boone Settlement on Buck Creek, Squire built a small grist mill on his son Isaiah's place and supplied the settlement
with meal; he also operated a sawmill on Buck Creek and made and repaired guns and cut stones out of the nearby
hills to build a house, "The Traveler's Rest," the name cut on stone to be placed over the front door.
This early Boone settlement grew eventually into a populous township, called Boone Township, which was the home
of many worthy Kentuckians and their descendants; one of them, John Boone, a native of Shelby county, Kentucky,
and a frequent customer of Boone Elledge's store in Harrison county during the 1812 War period, was a prominent
member of the convention which in 1816 framed the constitution of Indiana, and afterward became a member of the
new state's legislature.
Squire Boone died in his settlement on Buck Creek in 1815 of dropsy. He had made his own coffin, in a vault in
a natural cave near the summit of a lofty eminence that commanded a magnificent view. When he was dying, he made
his sons, Isaiah and Moses, promise that on the third night after his death they would visit his tomb, and if it
were possible for the dead to communicate with the living he would do so. The sons did as requested but received
no communication from their father's spirit.
Squire Boone was described as "a man of strong and earnest feeling and convictions; simple-hearted, religious
and patriotic."
One of Samuel Boone's sons who settled on Buck Creek was also named Squire. Through him occurred another of those
numerous involved relationships between the Boone and Scholl families. Squire married Anna Grubbs and they had
a son Thomas, who married Sallie Muir. Their daughter, Harriet Boone, married Nelson Scholl, a son of Septimus
Scholl and Sallie Miller. Septimus was a son of Pike county Abraham Scholl's brother, Joseph, who married Daniel
Boone's daughter, Levina. The name of Nelson is still perpetuated by the Pike county Scholl branch. Nelson Scholl,
a son of Silas and great grandson of Abraham, now lives in Kimberly, Idaho, with his wife, Emma T. Manker, daughter
of the late Anna Eliza (Manker) Wilson, who was a granddaughter of Abraham Scholl.
Another Samuel Boone, a nephew of the elder Squire and a son of George, also tarried for a time in the Boone Settlement
on Buck Creek. This Samuel was the one so often referred to by Pike county Boone Scholl in his letters. He was
present at the Battle of the Thames October 5, 1813, when Tecumseh was killed, and General William Henry Harrison
identified the body of the famous chief by a scar on the face and a wound on the wrist received in a skirmish the
day before. This Boone (Captain Samuel) settled in Missouri Territory in 1818, in what is now Callaway county,
and in 1820 assisted in building the Salem church, the first Baptist church in that county.
Samuel Boone (nephew of Daniel, Edward and Squire) had married in the fall of 1804 Miss Ann Simpson of Kentucky,
who was born about 1788. She was a sister of Mrs. Dorcas (Simpson) White, who married Samuel's brother Edward.
The Simpsons settled in Indiana Territory along with the Boones and Elledges, and later, soon after the Elledge
migration to Illinois, some of them came to the Illinois country and settled in Pike county, where
two of the Simpson daughters married two of the Elledge sons, Margaret Jane and Mary, daughters of Matthew Simpson,
marrying James H. and Thomas P., sons of Boone Elledge, in a double wedding ceremony February 11, 1847.
Boone Scholl wrote of having seen Samuel Boone in Callaway county, Missouri, in June, 1860. He was then living
near Williamsburg, in the same neighborhood with Joseph, Marquis and John Scholl. He was born at Hoy's Station
in Madison county, Kentucky, January 15, 1782, and died, probably in Callaway county, in September, 1869. His wife,
Ann Simpson, survived until February, 1873.
At Boone Settlement on Buck Creek, and near neighbors to Benjamin and Boone Elledge, lived also some of the early
American representatives of the Lewis and Woolfolk families, whose descendants, drifting westward, eventually settled
first in the old Missouri Territory and then, backtracking at a later date, in Pike county, Illinois. One of the
families in this early Boone and Elledge settlement in Indiana Territory in the early 1800s, in whom the Pike county
historian may well be interested, was the family of Joseph Holaday, whose name is so often mentioned in Boone Elledge's
old account book, which is a mixture of store account and personal diary and commentary.
Joseph Holaday was born in Fayette county, Kentucky, in 1791, being the fourth child of Stephen Holaday and Ann
Hickman, she a daughter of James Hickman and Hanna Lewis, the latter of Culpepper county, Virginia, and a member
of that far-flung Lewis family whose descendants settled at Pleasant Hill in Pike county, Illinois, in 1832.
Joseph Holaday married Sarah Woolfolk, kinswoman to the forebears of the Pike county Woolfolks, who in early times
intermarried with the Lewis family, the two families coming to Pike county, Illinois, from Missouri in early days.
Sarah Woolfolk, who married Joseph Holaday in Kentucky, lived with her husband in the Elledge neighborhood in Harrison
county, Indiana Territory, at the time of which we write.
Sarah Woolfolk Holaday was a daughter of John W. Woolfolk and Elizabeth Lewis. She was born in Spottsylvania county,
Virginia, and moved with her parents to Christian county, Kentucky, in 1811. Her mother, Elizabeth Lewis, was a
daughter of Dr. Waller Lewis who was born September 11, 1739, and who died in Spottsylvania county late in January,
1808. He was a son of Zachary Lewis and Mary Waller, and a brother of John Lewis, "the honest lawyer."
Dr. Waller Lewis married his kinswoman, Sarah Lewis, a daughter of Colonel Robert, known as "Robert of Belvoir,"
whose wife was Jane Meriwether, their marriage uniting two great families that we later find commemorated in the
historic name of Captain Meriwether Lewis, noted explorer and one of the heroes of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
John Lewis, a brother of Dr. Waller, also married a daughter of "Robert of Belvoir" and Jane Meriwether,
namely, the daughter Ann (listed also by some authorities as Mildred.)
John W. Woolfolk was born September 9, 1760, and was a son of John W., Sr., who was a son of Joseph W. John Woolfolk,
Sr., was born November 6, 1727, and died January 13, 1816. About the year 1750 he married Elizabeth Wigglesworth,
who was born March 23, 1732. John W. Woolfolk, Jr., and his wife, Elizabeth Lewis, emigrated to Christian county,
Kentucky, in 1811. There Elizabeth died, and in 1835 John W. moved to Boone county, Missouri, where he died October
11, 1843. He is buried near Deer Park on the farm then owned by his son, Waller Lewis Woolfolk, and which was later
owned by his grandson, Robert Henry Woolfolk.
Children of John W. and Elizabeth (Lewis) Woolfolk (they being great grandchildren of Colonel Robert Lewis of Belvoir
and Jane Meriwether) included Ann Waller Woolfolk, who in Kentucky in 1821 married Judge Benjamin Young of Callaway
county, Missouri; Waller Lewis Woolfolk, who in 1816 married his cousin, Maria Susannah Woolfolk, a daughter of
Elijah and Phoebe; Elizabeth Woolfolk, who in 1823 married Thomas Beazley and moved to Boone county, Missouri,
where she died September 30, 1852; Thomas B. Woolfolk, who married a daughter of Ambrose Carleton in Virginia and
who died eight miles south of Columbia, Missouri, July 11, 1879; Sarah Woolfolk, who married Joseph Holaday, as
related above; Dr. John Woolfolk, who was born in Virginia, moved to Kentucky, and died, unmarried, at St. Louis,
in 1834; Mary Woolfolk, who married Washington Mansfield in Kentucky and lived and died in that state; Charles
Woolfolk who married Polly Ann Payne and moved to Missouri, where his wife lived to an extreme age with a daughter
in Henry county; Alice Woolfolk, who married William Henry Tandy, who moved from Kentucky to Adams county, Illinois,
in 1833 and died there July 29, 1864, his widow surviving until February 8, 1878.
Richard Woolfolk, a descendant of these Virginia and Kentucky pioneers, settled in Missouri Territory and there
fathered James S. Woolfolk, who married Polly Amanda Haden in Ralls county, Missouri, April 13, 1858. James S.
Woolfolk was born in Missouri February 7, 1832, and died in Pike county, Illinois March 12, 1902. His wife, Polly
Amanda Haden, was born in Missouri December 18, 1838 and died in Pike county, Illinois, July 27, 1927.
James S. and Polly Amanda Woolfolk had a daughter, Lucy Winfred, who in Pike county on July 21, 1878 married Albion
Shinn, grandson of that Daniel Shinn who brought the first wagon into Pike county in April, 1820, 16 months after
the admission of Illinois into the Union. Albion Shinn was born in Pittsfield township December 2, 1848, a son
of William and Mary Jane (Lytle) Shinn. The father was born in Atlas township January 7, 1827, a son of Daniel
and Mary (Hackett) Shinn, natives of New Jersey, who removed from that state to Ohio and thence to Illinois, in
1820, arriving here a few months ahead of the Rosses. Daniel, bringing the first wagon onto the Military Tract,
had to cut and make a road for it for a distance of 40 miles to reach his destination in what is now Atlas township.
He helped open the first road between Pittsfield and Atlas and assisted in building the first courthouse and jail
at Atlas, both of logs. He reared 13 children and died in March, 1852, his wife having passed away about 1846.
Albion Shinn died September 25, 1911; his widow, Lucy Wolfolk Shinn living at the age of 77, her birthdate being
June 11, 1859. Her son, Claud J. Shinn, born May 7, 1881, married Elfie M. Dilender of Louisiana, Missouri, May
28, 1907. They had four children, Clyde E., born April 17, 1910, Russell A. born August 24, 1912, and Dorothy Alice,
born August 4, 1914. The eldest child, Clyde Emerson, died April 22, 1912.
Much Woolfolk family data, covering the period subsequent to the Missouri settlement, was obtained by the writer
from Lucy Winfred Woolfolk Shinn's old family Bible, in the home of her son, Claud Shinn, at Summer Hill.
Polly Amanda Haden, wife of James S. Woolfolk and maternal grandmother of Claud Shinn, was a daughter of Nathaniel
Haden and Lucy Barnard, pioneers in Missouri. The father was born August 31, 1813, and the mother, July 23, 1814.
They were married March 1, 1838. Lucy Barnard Haden died March 2, 1887 and her husband followed on June 20 the
same year. Abner Haden, a son of Nathaniel and Lucy, and a brother of Polly Amanda, is living in Frankford, Missouri,
in his 91st year. He was born November 2, 1846. The writer, visiting him in his Missouri home just before his 90th
birthday, learned from him much of the pioneer history of his family.
Clarence Woolfolk and his son Edgar are the only descendants of this noted line who now bear the Woolfolk name
in Pike county. Clarence is a son of Richard N., who was a son of James S., who was a son of Missouri Richard.
Richard N., a younger brother of Lucy Winfred Woolfolk Shinn, married Louisa Elizabeth Willsey, July 23, 1882,
and they had three children, namely: James Ray, who married Clara Belle Smith and resides in Plainview, Texas;
Dora, who married Thomas Jack and resides in New Mexico; and Clarence, who married Neva Hooper and resides in Pike
county. Edgar, son of Clarence, born in Wilmar, Arkansas, married Letha Browning, May 14, 1936, and resides in
Pike county. Thus there are two in Pike county who bear the name of the Woolfolks, a family associated in history
with the noted Lewises of Warner Hall, and with the Washingtons, Fieldings and Meriwethers.
And so we have seen in Harrison county in Indiana Territory, in the early 1800s, a considerable settlement of families
who were destined to play an important part in the future development of Pike county, Illinois.