Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-01-29
FACTS CONCERNING LOST CHILD
Neighbors Make Statement Setting
at Resi- Unfounded RumOrs.

tor Keowee Courier: Please EuDlish
this article which / am sending you
in the earliest issue Of your journal
practicable and greatly oblige the
undersigned.
The distressing circumstances at
tending the death Of the five-year-old
motherless son Of John r. Owens, Of
Pine Mountain, Ga, has attracted
widespread attention, and as many
mistaken and some cruel rumors
have been circulated concerning the
case, we, the near and lifelong
neighbors of Mr.. Owens, have
thought best to send you this state
ment, that the friends and relatives
of the family may know the facts.
The child was lost on December
"a, 1912, when he went about 200
yards from his home, just outside of
the cultivated field, with a brother
Of six years and an uncle Of eight,
to play and drive up the COWS late
in the afternoon.
About 4.30 p. m. the two other
children came with the cows and
went back to play again. About
p. m. they were called to supper, and
the family saw that little Leroy was
not with them. The older children,
on being questioned, said that when
they were bringing the COWS Leroy
would not cross the branch outside
the field; that he wanted them to
put a log for him to cross SO that he
would not wet his feet. They told
him to go to another place where he
could cross on a log, and that he re-
fused, saying with childish pctulance
that he was going to Grandma
Darr's Ga great aunt, who lives about
a mile from the Owenss, on the
north). Neither Of the families live
on the public road, which lies about
half way between the two places,
plain trails from each place going
direct to the public road. Previ-
ously to this Leroy had twice tried
to run away to Mrs. Darr's, and
knew the way. AS soon as the older
children had told their story Mr..
Owens hurried to Reuben Darr's and
found, to his CONSERVATION, that the
child had not been there. Going
back to where the older children
had last seen the lost child he search
ed in this (opposite) direction, the
whole family Joining in the search.
messages were sent around the
neighborhood requesting assistance
1t was a bright moonlight night, and
about thirty-five men and women
searched through the night. The
next day fully one hundred people
Joined in the search through the
almost impossible, rocky, noun
famous woods, which are in many
places greatly obstructed because of
dense thickets and the tops, logs and
brush, the result Of the extensive
numbering operations Of the Three
State Lumber Company few years
back, much brush, with briars and
vines, having grown up among the
refuse OF the lum DorlnS.
The third day Of the search at
least one hundred and fifty persons
were engaged in same, some coming
as far as twenty miles away and
from three States (North Carolina,
SoulN Carolina and Georgia.
For seven days the large forces
OF men worked faithfully with no
result. Then many gave up des-
pairingly, but the families and i'm
mediate neighbors still kept up the
search. A reward was offered, but
with little hope-and indeed no re-
ward could have gotten more ready
and active assistance than was given
free by the public, their record in
this respect having perhaps never
been equaled in the history of noun
tain philanthropy.
On January 13, 1913, Arthur
Owens, a siXteen-year-old boy, a cou-
sin Of the lost boy, was following his
dog, tracking a coon, in a spot which
had been searched around over and
over again on account Of high cliffs,
rocks, briars and brush. Arthur
went in from an opposite direction
from any taken by the searcherS,
going towards the Owens home in
stead Of from it. He found the body
Of the child, which was lying partly
submerged in the mouth of a small