INDIANS WERE STILL numerous in this region when Abraham Scholl crossed the Illinois river at Phillips Ferry into
Pike county, Illinois, in the spring of 1825. On the same day that the Scholls crossed the river (May 18) the John
B. Matthews family also crossed at Phillips Ferry to settle in what is now Flint township. The two families were
to make common cause against the wilderness.
In the Matthews family was the boy, Benjamin L., then 19 years of age, destined to become the father of Colonel
Asa C. Matthews of Pittsfield, Speaker of the Illinois House in the 36th Assembly, noted leader in the Civil War,
brilliant attorney at the Pike county bar, and first comptroller of the United States Treasury under President
Harrison. The Matthews family came originally from the Boone country in Rowan county, North Carolina.
Captain Benjamin L. Matthews once recounted that when he came here in 1825, many remnants of the once powerful
Indian tribes still remained on their favorite hunting grounds. He said that five hundred Indians in a single band
was then not an uncommon occurrence. He had been born in Rowan county, North Carolina, December 15, 1806, and had
grown up in Christian county, Kentucky, and in White county, Illinois, to which the family emigrated from Kentucky
as early as 1816, Abraham Scholl having come to Illinois with them on a prospecting trip at that time. In White
county, when the Matthews family came, there were still remaining many visible evidences of the bloody Indian wars.
The Phillips Ferry road, over which came the Matthews and Scholl families, was sooner to become one of the most
famous of western trails. Over it moved the outfits of the early prospectors and the prairie schooners of the western
emigrants. On this famous trail, east of the Illinois river, in what is now Scott county, arose Oxville, now an
obscure hamlet but once a living place of considerable promise. At Oxville, in the old Pike hostelry, a motley
crowd was wont to assemble from the trail and great revels sometimes occurred there.
The late Judge J. M. Riggs of Winchester, in a history of Scott county written in 1903, had this to say of Oxville:
"Oxville is situated on the Phillips Ferry road, which in earlier times, before the introduction of railroads,
was a great thoroughfare, much traveled by prospectors and immigrants going west and returning again. In those
days it was a place of some prominence and had prospects of becoming a considerable town. There was business enough
in and travel enough to and through it in the pioneer days to demand a hotel and Daniel Pike built one — a two-
story frame sufficiently large to meet the demands of that time. In the second story he provided a commodious hall
for ‘balls,' which at that time was well patronized by the beaux and damsels of the frontier days. Empty glass
bottles, open and with the necks down, were built in the ceiling to aid the music."
The remains of the old Pike House still stands at the foot of the hill going east out of Oxville, but the second
story, with its glass bottle ceiling, was torn away some ten years ago.
Mrs. Scott Peak, 91 years old, of Exeter, one of the "dancing damsels of those pioneer days," has one
of the bottles as a souvenir of the place where she danced as a girl. Many souvenir hunters have tried to buy the
bottle, but in vain. In those days she was Ada Armitage, daughter of Elihu Armitage, who operated the famous Exeter
Mills, important in the early economic history of this region. Elihu Armitage was born May 27, 1796, and died February
17, 1879. Ada was the eldest of nine children, and today, at 91, is the sole survivor of her family, the rest of
whom are buried in the Exeter cemetery atop the hill behind the brick house in the outskirts of the village, where
she lives with her daughter. Her husband, Henry Scott Peak, died many years ago. Recently, in her home, she told
the writer of the happy hours she had spent in the ball room of the ancient Pike House on the old Phillips Ferry
road, where danced the early Elledges and Scholls and Bealls of the Boone kin.
Moving inland from Phillips Ferry, the Scholls came to the eminence on which Griggsville now stands. Here, on this
knoll, it appears the party halted, and here, from seemingly authentic accounts, Scholl proceeded to erect the
first log cabin on the site of present Griggsville. Why the Scholls halted at this point is not now known; how
long they remained there is likewise unknown. Henry Bateman came later in the year and located on the knoll.
Edward P. Scholl of Mt. Sterling, Illinois, a great grandson of Abraham Scholl, says it has always been his understanding
that his great grandfather built his first habitation where Griggsville now stands, which was likewise the first
improvement on the site of the modern town. In this he is confirmed by a letter written by Judge William Thomas
of Jacksonville to Marcellus Rose date of August 30, 1873, in which Judge Thomas said: "Judge Lockwood (Samuel
D. Lockwood), Mr. McConnell (General Murray McConnell) and myself, in attending Court at Atlas (the year I do not
recollect), passed the present site of Griggsville and saw the man, Mr. Scholl, raising the first log cabin on
that hill. I suppose the land had been laid out in town lots." Judge Thomas at a later time identified the
date as the late spring or early summer of 1825. There was not town survey or laying out of lots at this place
until 1834.
Later, the Scholl family moved north of present Griggsville to the east eighty in the northeast of Section 10,
Griggsville township, a log house having been built at this point on land which Scholl had staked out some years
before. This log house stood a short distance south and west of the present large frame farm house occupied by
Charles Myers. This is the old Scholl homestead, where the Scholl family lived for many years.
Abraham Scholl became a ‘squatter" on the land which he later entered. All of the early settlers in that section
appear to have "squatted" on the tracts they later preempted. There are no official entries recorded
prior to 1830. Scholl exercised squatter sovereignty over the entire northeast quarter (160 acres) in Section 10,
but when it came time to enter the land he perhaps found himself still short of cash, due to the robbery he had
suffered on the trail, and only the east 80 of the 160 was entered by him, this entry being made on September 20,
1830.
The patent, issued in accord with the preemption certificate and at the instance of Andrew Jackson, President,
dated October 10, 1833, was not recorded until July 25, 1840. The patent recites that Scholl had "deposited
in the general land office of the United States a certificate of the register of the Land Office at Edwardsville,
whereby it appears that full payment ($100) has been made by the said Abraham Scholl according to the provisions
of the Act of Congress of the 24th of April 1820 entitled an Act making further provision for the sale of the Public
Lands of the East half of the Northeast quarter of Section 10 in Township four South of Range three West of the
Fourth Principal Meridian in the District of Lands subject to the sale at Edwardsville, Illinois, comprising eighty
acres."
Scholl, on August 22, 1839, deeded the west forty of his eighty to his son, William Scholl, for a consideration
of $150. William Scholl evidently improved the forty for on April 9, 1842, William Scholl and his wife Polly (Dale)
deeded the forty to John Blythe for a consideration of $500. On February 6, 1849, Blythe deeded it for a like consideration
to Edward Boone Scholl, a nephew of Abraham.
On August 25, 1845, Abraham deeded his home forty to his son, Abraham, Jr., in consideration of "natural love
and affection" and $25. On March 3, 1849, Abraham Scholl, Jr., and his wife Diantha (Davis) transferred the
forty to his brother, Peter Scholl (who had lately married Eliza Jane Coleman), for a consideration of $400, the
tract thus transferred being the E1/2 of the E1/2 of the NE1/4 of Section 10, comprising 40 acres "situate,
lying and being in Cold Water precinct, County of Pike and State of Illinois."
Note: Cold Water precinct had been set up by the county commissioners' court sitting at Atlas on June 6, 1827,
and comprised present Perry, Flint, Chambersburg, Griggsville and the north half of Detroit and Newburg townships.
Abraham Scholl, Sr., joined with Abraham, Jr., in the transfer to Peter Scholl on November 15, 1849 and on January
14, 1850, Peter Scholl and his wife transferred their equity in the forty to his brother-in-law, Charles F. Gibbs,
who had married Elizabeth Scholl.
The rather remarkable story of the fertile Scholl "forty" selling at the door of the courthouse in Pittsfield
for $1.92 in 1846 is told by the official records. At the April term of the circuit court (1846) judgment against
the tract was obtained by the State of Illinois in the sum of $1.92, representing unpaid taxes for the year 1845
and interest thereon. Ephraim Cannon, then sheriff, on May 12, 1846, pursuant to a precept out of the circuit court,
exposed the land to sale at the door of the courthouse and the tract was knocked off to L. W. Ross for $1.92. Ross
assigned his certificate of purchase to Charles F. Gibbs, a Scholl son-in-law, and on September 6, 1850, Daniel
D. Hicks, then sheriff, executed a deed to Gibbs. Gibbs, on February 26, 1851, deeded the property to Elijah Stagg
for $1000. Stagg, in 1860, deeded the place to Thomas Bradbury and he to Nathan Bradbury, and in 1867 (August 16),
the property came into the possession of Perry Harshman and was owned in turn by Peter Harshman and by Wayne and
Dwight Harshman. It is now owned by Charles Myers.
Banner Boone Elledge, Abraham Scholl's kinsman, who had entered the west eighty of Scholl's "squatter quarter,"
October 27, 1830, later located in Grant county in Wisconsin Territory, and on March 13, 1846 deeded his eighty
to Richard Beall for $700. Beall was a son of Zachariah H. Beall, who died in Scott county (then Morgan) in 1826,
and had married Jemima Elledge, a niece of Banner Boone and daughter of Neddie Elledge and Malinda Scholl, and
who was named for Daniel Boone's second daughter, Jemima. Beall and his wife Jemima on March 5, 1850 transferred
title to Jemima's uncle, Edward Boone Scholl, who had laid out the town of "Booneville" on the present
site of Perry.
The Elledge eighty finally came into possession of Archibald S. Allen, who later, for the benefit of creditors,
assigned 160 acres of land in Section 10 (this 80 included) to R. P. Allen, John Lasbury and Samuel Reynolds, and
they, at public sale in 1865, sold the combined property to Peter Harshman for $6,240.
In the quaint transfer deed of August 5, 1845, where in Abraham Senior passed title in the home 40 to Abraham Junior,
the deed recited as follows: "Abram Scholl the elder and Abitha his wife for and in consideration of the natural
love and affection which they bear unto said Abram the youngest, and the sum of $25" do transfer, etc. The
instrument was signed, sealed and delivered in Pittsfield in the presence of James Ward, C. L. Higbee and Lindus
Foote.
Few of the women and not all of the men concerned in these various transfers were able to write their own names,
the various instruments being frequently signed by mark, this being true of a majority of the instruments of the
period. Tabitha, the wife of Abraham, Polly, the wife of William, and Jemima, the wife of Richard Beall, all signed
by mark, as did Peter Scholl.
Tabitha Noe, Abraham's wife, was 38 when she settled in Pike county. She was Abraham's second wife. Nellie Humble,
the first wife, who came out to Kentucky in 1781, died, and on December 15, 1803, in Kentucky, with David Barrow,
early Baptist clergyman, officiating, Scholl married Tabitha Noe. Tabitha Noe did not write her own name and on
various documents of record in Pike county her name is signed Tobitha, Abitha and Bytha. On her tombstone in Griggsville
cemetery, her name appears as "Tobitha."
Tabitha Noe was born in 1787 in Hagerstown, Maryland, about 60 miles northwest of Baltimore. There is a will of
record in the office of the county clerk of Clark county, Kentucky, executed by one Peter Noe, who mentions a daughter
"Bytha Noe." to whom he gives five shillings and no more. This Peter Noe is supposed to have been Tabitha's
father. The will is dated January 16, 1802 and was probated November 22, 1802. Peter Noe must, therefore, have
died between those dates. He mentions other children in the will, as follows: James, the eldest son; Pryor, Sarah
Treacy, Sibba Tracy, Elizabeth Kincaird, Quile Noe. The latter may have been Aquilla Noe, who is of record in Scott
county in the 1820s, and Elizabeth Kincaird may have been Elizabeth Kinkaid or Kincaid, wife of an early Scott
county Kinkaid who claimed an uncertain relationship with the Scott county Scholls.
Tabitha Noe Scholl was a little woman of iron nerve who grappled barehanded with the wilderness. It was said in
those days that a Kentucky girl "could whip her weight in wildcats." The saying had some foundation in
fact. Newspapers of August; 1869, recounted the story of Eliza Colyer of Apple River, kinswoman of the early Kentucky
Colyers in Pike county, who went to the assistance of her watch dog which had been attacked by a wildcat, assaulting
the wild beast with a broken-tined pitchfork for a weapon. The cat, abandoning the dog, turned in fury upon the
nervy Kentucky housewife who met the attack with the unbroken fork tines. In the rough and tumble encounter, the
plucky woman drove one of the tines through one of the beast's eye sockets, penetrating the animal's brain and
paralyzing it.
Dr. W. H. Saunders of Council Bluffs, Iowa, a great grandson of Abraham Scholl and Tabitha Noe, relates that his
great grandmother used to ride horseback from north of Griggsville to Atlas to secure supplies for her loom. He
says his mother (Amanda Wilson Saunders) told him of Tabitha having to swim her horse across some intervening swollen
stream or streams across the Atlas trail. In those days, there was but one house on the Atlas trail between the
site of present Griggsville and Colonel Seeley's, three miles from Atlas. This was Joel Moore's log house on Bay
Creek, less than two miles north of the present Pike county courthouse.
A number of Tabitha Scholl's descendants are positive that two of her freed slaves accompanied her to Illinois
and that the former slaves, dying in the early-day smallpox epidemic, are buried in the yard of the old Scholl
homestead north of Griggsville. The burial spot is said to be just a few yards south of the present residence occupied
by the Myers family. Two of the Scholl children, Joseph and Wesley, who died young, and who are reputed to have
been carried off by the same plague, are also said to be buried there. No sign of human burial exists there today.
Dr. Saunders, a descendant of Abraham Scholl's daughter Matilda, says: "Abraham Scholl brought two colored
slaves to Pike county from Kentucky, probably freed, who died and are buried in the yard of the old Scholl farm
north of Griggsville." Miss Mary Gibbs, librarian at Griggsville and a descendant of Abraham Scholl's daughter
Elizabeth, also remembers her forebears telling of the slaves being buried in the yard of the old Scholl homestead.
A. K. and John Wilson, descendants of Matilda Scholl, have like recollections.
On the other hand, the late Adaline Scholl Cochran of Mt. Sterling, Iowa, wife of John Cochran and a daughter of
Abraham and Tabitha Scholl's son Peter, writing to A. C. Barrow of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, on September 12, 1920,
stated that Tabitha's two slaves insisted on coming to Illinois with her but that they were finally left behind
and died among some of the other Scholls in Kentucky. Mrs. Cochran died in 1923 at the age of 71, her birth having
occurred at Griggsville July 18, 1852. On the subject of the slaves, she wrote:
"Grandfather (Abraham Scholl) never owned a slave; he didn't believe in it. He was one time in Winchester,
Ky. (county seat of Clark county) and some slaves were being sold; the prices were low. The owner of a bright 12
year old girl offered Grandfather the girl for what he called a chunk of a black mare that he was riding, but he
didn't take her, as he had said he never would own one, though he said he was somewhat tempted at the time.
"My grandmother (Tabitha Noe) had two slaves, a man and wife, which had been given her. Grandfather never
had much to do with them. They were expert weavers of cotton and flax. Grandmother had a house built for them and
they wove almost constantly; when Grandmother's weaving was done they wove for others, web after web of cloth and
most beautiful counter-panes.
"When they (grandfather and grandmother) left Kentucky, they left them, though they begged to go along; said
they would learn to spin and weave wool, etc., but the old man's eyes were failing and Grandmother said it would
be a hardship for them in a new country; so Uncle Ben and Aunt Jane were left, I think with some of the Scholls
on the plantation.
Peter Scholl, Abraham's elder brother and father of seven came to this region, was a slaveholder and a champion
of the institution of slavery, which Abraham hated. Of this Peter Scholl, Adaline Scholl Cochran wrote as follows:
"Peter Scholl was said to be a hard master; tied one nigger Jake to a tree, bared his back and whipped him
cruelly. Jake hollowed for Mars Abe (that was Grandfather). He went in a hurry, as the farms joined. He interfered;
told his brother if he struck Jake another lick the next lick would be his. It made Peter so mad he never got over
it and Grandfather said they didn't bid each other goodbye when Grandfather left for Ill."
Of her grandmother, Tabitha Noe Scholl, Adaline wrote: "Grandmother Tabitha Noe Scholl was born in Maryland
(Hagerstown). She said she was only 16 years old when she married Grandfather. He was a widower and had six children.
I am of the opinion that William Scholl's wife (Abraham's mother) was a Morgan, as the name descends through several
generations. I know Uncle Morgan Scholl, father's half-brother, said he was named for relatives, though as to positive
proof of William Scholl's wife's name I can't say."
Note: Mrs. Cochran was right in supposing her great grandfather William Scholl's wife's name was Morgan. She was
Leah Morgan and William Scholl's mother is believed to have been Jane Morgan, and a sister of Sarah, mother of
Daniel Boone.
