| Notes |
- "Here, too, (meaning the Benjamin Elledge Burying Grounds-kr) undoubtedly is the dust of Charity Elledge, mother of Benjamin Elledge and an own daughter of the Boones. While there is no conclusive proof, it is probable that Benjamin's father, Francis Elledge, is also buried here. No fragment of stone found at this place bears any lettering that could be connected with Francis Elledge, but the writings of Edward Boone Scholl indicate that Francis and Charity were buried together near Griggsville, while the late Samuel Peake of Winchester remembered distinctly having been told that old Jesse Elledge's mother was buried across the river in Pike county. A small fragment of stone found on the cemetery site bears the last three letters of the name "Charity," doubtless being a fragment of a stone erected at the grave of "Charity, wife of Francis Elledge."
Francis and Charity both lived to a great old age. Francis Elledge was born in North Carolina in March, 1749. Both he and Charity, according to Boone Scholl, "lived past 95." Francis must, therefore, have died about the year 1844. Records left by descendants of his daughter, Mary Elledge Alcorn, indicate that he was a son of William Elledge and Sarah Kindred, pioneers in the Shenandoah Valley, in the county of Augusta, Virginia, where the William Scholls, parents of Pike county Abraham, challenged the ancient wilderness. It is probable that the early Scholls and the early Elledges came together out of the Shenandoah Valley into North Carolina.
Charity Boone, eldest daughter of Edward (Neddie) Boone and Martha Bryan, was born in October, 1758. She died about the year 1853. Mrs. Spraker in "The Boone Family" says: "Charity Boone married Francis Elledge or Ellege or Willege. They followed their children into Illinois, settling near Winchester, where they both died— he first, and she later, about 1853." It is likely that Francis and Charity lived for a time with some of their children in Old Morgan, now Scott county, coming later in their old age to the home of the son near Griggsville. There is no mention, however, of either of them in records of Old Morgan or in Scott county, erected therefrom in 1839.
Francis Elledge and Charity Boone were married in North Carolina in 1778, in the time of the Revolution. They came out to Kentucky with her father, Edward Boone and his family, in a pack train headed by Daniel Boone, in 1779, reaching famous Fort Boonesborough on the Kentucky river on Christmas Day, 1779.
During that first winter in Kentucky, they suffered the hardships common to all the settlers in that new land. That winter was the bitterest in 18th century Kentucky history. While the patriots of the Revolution were suffering awful agonies in the huts of Morristown, the settlers of Kentucky faced famine in an inhospitable land. The cold had set in early. Deep snows, crusted on top, filled the wilderness. Game was gaunt with hunger. There was only one consolation, the bitter cold kept the Indians at home. Boone hunted, going far afield, seeking to relieve the suffering. The wolf was at the door of nearly every cabin in Kentucky.
Boone divided his corn, to the last few grains, with the newcomers. When spring came, and the sap began to flow, the lean buffaloes came into the sugar camps and could with difficulty be driven away, so starved were they. Amid such privations, Francis and Charity established a home in the Kentucky land.
In 1781, Francis and Charity appear to have been at Squire Boone's Station on Brashear Creek; at least there is record of Francis Elledge being wounded in an Indian ambuscade during the retreat of the whites from this station in September that year. Two or three of Francis and Charity's children had then been born.
In an early chapter the writer suggested that Francis Elledge and Charity Boone had other children than the eight who were then definitely known. There was considerable evidence that three others associated with the history of the Illinois country derived from the same parentage. A recent discovery of an old record at Maysville in the home of William Riley Willsey, 83-year-old descendant of the Boones, proves that Francis and Charity had in fact 11 children.
This record of Charity Boone's children was handed down to Mr. Willsey by a grandson of Mary Elledge Alcorn, daughter of Francis Elledge and Charity Boone and a sister of Benjamin, Boone, James and Jesse Elledge of early Griggsville. This record was written down by Mr. Willsey in an old account book and is as follows:
"Francis Elledge born 1749 - Charity Elledge born 1758 - father and mother of Mary Elledge, James Elledge, Benjamin Elledge, Boone Elledge, Patsy Elledge, Nancy Elledge, Edward Elledge, Charity Elledge, William Elledge, Jesse Elledge, Jemima Elledge. Record given me by Cousin Willie Alcorn, son of Uncle Jesse." (Note: Charity, named above, was also known as Sarah, and Jemima, who married William Scholl, was known also as Martha.)
Mr. Willsey's mother, Malinda Rogers, was a daughter of David Redmon and Fanny Alcorn Rogers, she being a daughter of Robert (Robin) Alcorn and Mary Elledge. Three of Mary Elledge's sons, William, Benjamin and Jesse Alcorn, were prominent in early Pike county.
Much confusion exists among descendants of Charity Boone as to whose daughter she was. Numerous of them were brought up in the belief that she was a daughter of old Daniel, whereas she was the eldest daughter of Daniel's younger brother, Edward. Mr. Willsey is one of Charity Boone's descendants who long believed that he descended directly from the famous Indian fighter. In his old account book, the writer found this entry:
"My Grandmother, Fanny Rogers (nee) Alcorn, said to me that her mother was a daughter of Daniel Boone.
-W. R. Willsey." Also this entry:
"Benjamin Alcorn said Charity (Charity Boone Elledge) was a daughter of old Daniel Boone, the great hunter."
Benjamin Alcorn, born in Kentucky in 1814, is buried in the old Shinn cemetery near Summer Hill, which contains also the dust of Pioneer Daniel Shinn. Jesse Alcorn is buried at Griggsville. William's burial place is unknown.
In W. R. Willsey's library is a copy of W. H. Bogart's "Daniel Boone and the Hunters of Kentucky." In this book is a picture of Daniel Boone, clad in hunting costume and coonskin cap. Underneath this picture, Mr. Willsey has written: "My Great Great Grandfather."
Mr. Willsey states that at a later time he was informed by Jesse Alcorn, who was a younger son of Charity Boone's daughter, Mary, that Charity was a daughter of Edward Boone and a niece of Daniel.
Among the Alcorn records is an old woodcut representing the artist's conception of the killing of Edward Boone by the Indians in Kentucky on October 5, 1780. This picture is from an original drawing from the "Life of Daniel Boone," by William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), published in 1888. It is entitled "The Killing and Scalping of Boone's Brother." It shows six Indians, bedecked with war paint and feathers, three mounted, three on foot, one of them lifting the hair of the fallen Elledge ancestor with his left hand while in the other gleams the scalping knife at the victim's scalp. The scene is a bit of grassy meadow in a Kentucky valley, where Edward and his brother Daniel had paused to graze their horses, Edward falling under the fire of hidden Indians as he sat against a tree cracking hickory nuts on a stone in his lap. Daniel on this occasion escaped the redskins after killing their pursuing dog, described by Edward's Pike county grandson, Edward Boone Scholl, as a "smell hound.""
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1750 - 1827 (77 years)
[1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8] 
