Eligah Auxier

"Little Lige"

Daniel Auxier and some of the older brothers were going out to take a drove of hogs to the acorn forest, when some distance from home and near the mouth of Miller's Creek, they noticed the their little brother, Elijah, was following them. There was a dense canebrake along their route, but a swath had been cut out leading from the house to the forest, so the older brothers told Lige to keep on the track and return home to his mother. Thinking that he would, they continued their journey. They were gone all day, and at night, when they returned home, their mother inquired concerning Elijah, She, confident that he was with his brothers, had been contented about him all day. Imagine her feelings when told that they had sent him back that morning and had supposed him safe at home. The horror-stricken family at once began a search and also sent a messenger to Damron's Fort in Pike County, to the little settlement near Prater, and over to the Station on Licking River, notifying men that little Elijah was lost in the Blockhouse Bottom. Without delay, these kind neighbors rushed to the scene of distress, and joined in the search, which continued for more than a week. The woods were scoured in every direction, but no trace could be found of the lost child. Whether he was drowned, destroyed by a wild beast, or stolen by the Indians, was a matter of mere conjecture. The mother lived and died without any evidence concerning the fate of her child, yet it is said that she always had a hope that to some of the family in after years, the mystery would be made known. But perhaps it will never be known until the graves give up their dead. Near his mother's door little Elijah had a cotton patch that he called his own. After he was gone from her sight forever, she would sit through the sad autumn days looking at the little cotton patch, and weep for her lost darling. Agnes Auxier written circa 1908

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