The Lost Children of the Allghenies

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by asoapymessromances

by asoapymessromances

The Lost Children of the Alleghenieswere two missing brothers from the Appalachia region of the UnitedStates in 1856. George and Joseph Cox, then aged seven and fiverespectively, disappeared from their home in Pavia, Pennsylvania, onApril 24, 1856. Their dead bodies were found several days later inthe surrounding woods and they were buried in the Mount Union UnitedMethodist Church cemetery in nearby Lovely.

There is a small memorial to them inthe Spruce Hollow forest in Blue Knob State Park, Pennsylvania.

Behind the story

George, 7, and Joseph, 5, were the sonsof Samuel and Susannah Cox. The Cox family lived in a cabin built bySamuel for his wife and kids. At this time old-growth logging had notyet begun in this area of Pennsylvania and the area was still heavilyforested.

During the morning of April 24, 1856,Samuel Cox heard his dog barking in the forest and thought that itmust have treed a squirrel. Samuel retrieved his rifle and headedinto the woods. It is thought that while Samuel was gone, the boysmust have strayed from home to follow their father. Susannah thoughtthat Samuel had taken the boys with him. It was only when Samuelreturned without them that they realized their children were gone.They called for the boys, but received no replies. Samuel went forhelp from his nearest neighbors and by that evening more than onehundred men were searching for the children. Fires were lit in theforest in the hope that the boys would see one and approach. Nearly athousand people showed up to search the next day. A nearby stream,Bob's Creek, was surging with spring snow melt and it was thoughtthat there was no way the boys could have crossed to the other sidewithout drowning. A search of the creek was performed but the boyswere not found.

On April 26, suspicion fell on Samueland Susannah Cox. It was thought that they might have murdered theirchildren in the hope of gathering donations from a sympatheticpopulation. The Cox cabin and garden were searched but no bodies werelocated. The searchers went so far as to bring in a dowser and awitch from Somerset County. The dowser found nothing and the witch,despite claiming to know the children's location, led a search teamthrough the woods for hours without turning up anything.

A local farmer, Jacob Dibert, heardabout the missing children and remarked to his wife that he wished tobe able to dream of the boys' location. On May 2, 1856, he had adream in which he walked a path through the woods past a dead deer, achild's shoe and a fallen birch tree and eventually to a copse ofbirch trees in a small ravine. Here he found the bodies of the Coxboys. The dream reoccurred on the two following nights. Dibert toldno one but his wife about the dream; however, he felt that the dreamwas prophetic and on May 7 he told his brother-in-law HarrisonWhysong. Whysong recognized elements from Dibert's dream and the twomen decided to make a search, culminating in the discovery of thebodies just as the dream had described - under birch trees in a smallravine reached along a track with a dead deer, a child's shoe, and afallen birch.

After the Tragedy

In 1906, for the 50th anniversary ofthe event, the community of Pavia took up donations for a LostChildren of the Alleghenies Monument to honor the Cox family. In1910, they erected the monument at the spot where Joseph and GeorgeCox were found over 50 years earlier.

Alison Krauss released a song writtenby Julie Lee and John Pennell about the story entitled "Jacob'sDream".