At the foot of the falls a team of horses halted before a crude wagon loaded with household goods and rough farm tools. A man and a woman and two small boys stood and talked in earnest tones.
James Sage was moving his little family across the mountain into the rich, beautiful Elk Creek Valley. Settlers were already in the valley but they had come by other routes.
Now the waterfall blocked his way. But there was no turning back for this courageous little man. He had met and conquered bigger foe. Didn't he carry in his hand-bound notebook a discharge from Captain Montgomery's Company, Colonel Crockett's Regiment? Hadn't he fought the Redcoats at Monmouth and Brandywine? And he had been among those who had thrown their hats in the air when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. This little waterfall on the Dry Run was not going to block his path.
His sturdy German wife, Lovis Ott, accepted his decision and, with the boys, picked up a load of their gear and started up the mountainside to the head of the falls. Time after time they made the steep climb. When the wagon was unloaded, the three sat awhile to rest. Not so James Sage. Instead, he set about dismantling the wagon. Piece by piece it was carried around the falls and there reassembled.
On land he had purchased on Elk Creek, James and Lovis built a cabin, planted a garden and settled down. James soon became a horse breeder, for he had been able to buy a fine stallion. Soon word spread through the hill country that fine horses were to be had in the bluegrass grazing lands of Grayson. Unfortunately, with the legitimate buyers came thieves. Those horses were a temptation.
July 6, 1792, dawned bright, and the Sage family members went about their chores. James and the older boys, Samuel and James, went to the corn field. Mary, the oldest daughter, took charge of the little ones and Lovis gathered the laundry and went to the creek, where she had a fire going under the old iron washpot. Five-year-old Catherine was left to her own devices as she happily chased butterflies in the garden that bordered the path to the creek.
Returning to the cabin later, Lovis noticed Caty was missing. A check in the house proved she had not returned there. Mildly alarmed, they hunted and called. When no answer came, their alarm grew. The family searched every inch of ground near the house. The search was widened. Neighbors came to help, and for days, then weeks, the search went on. No trace of the little girl anywhere.
Where? How? Why? No Indians had been seen in the area. No sign of wild animals! No sign of a struggle!
In the mountains of North Carolina lived an old woman who claimed to have great powers as a fortune teller. There James Sage took himself to learn if "Granny Moses" could shed any light on the fate of Caty Sage. He told his story to the old woman. After deep thought, Granny Moses said, "Yes, little Caty is alive and well. She is far away and you will never hear from her. When they are both old, your wife will hear from Caty, but it is written in the stars that they will never meet this side of heaven.”
Onward through life went the Sage family. Other children came. Thirteen in all grew up and went their ways—but the fate of little Caty remained a burning question in the minds of the family.
On a spring day in 1820 while James Monroe was president, James Sage was laid to rest in the Sawyers Cemetery at Elk Creek. His headstone bears this inscription: "James Sage, Private 7th Va. Regiment - Revolutionary War." (Subsequently the DAR placed their own special marker there, also.)
Lovis remained at the home place with her youngest daughter, Betsey Sage Delp, and her husband Jacob.
Her other children were scattered here and there. Sampson who was barely five months old when Caty was lost, became pioneer of a bluegrass valley in the Cumberlands. Esther married John Cooper and went with him to Tennessee. It is said that she became the mother of a Union general in the War Between the States. Samuel and Charles inherited the venturesome spirit of their father. The West had been opened up by Lewis and Clark and that far country called to them. Both settled in Missouri.
In 1848 the aged Lovis received a surprising message. It was a letter from Charles mailed from Van Buren County, Missouri (near Independence). He said he had been in Ft. Leavenworth and there had met a Wyandot Indian. This man, after observing Charles closely, told him that there was a white woman living with his tribe who resembled Charles in both looks and voice. When Sage told the Indian of the strange disappearance of his sister Caty, they both became convinced that the Lost Child of Grayson must have been found.
For several months letters crossed and recrossed the country trying to establish the true identity of this woman Charles believed to be his sister.
From a letter describing Caty: "She is perfectly ignorant of her origin herself, but the oldest Indian in the nation told me that between 50 and 60 years ago the Cherokees, in one of their annual visits to their country, brought her to them as a present, as was usual in that day with the Indians. When they got her she could not talk (the Indian language) ... Now I will describe her as near as I can. She is about the height of Sister Esther. Her hair is yellow like Esther's. She has a large nose like Sister Betsey. She has a foot and toenails like Mother's and walks with a kind of a swing as Mother used to do with going from you."
Shortly thereafter, Samuel joined Charles and together they went again to see this mysterious white woman. Samuel was about 11 when Caty was last seen at Elk Creek and he had some recollection of her. He asked her through an interpreter if she had a burn scar on her thigh. She replied that she did and that she once asked the woman who reared her how it got there and was told that it had always been there. Another mark that Lovis described between her shoulders was found to be there.
Known to the Wyandots as "Sally," Caty Sage had lived a full life. She was
married three times. Her first husband, Crane, was head chief of the nation. They had one child who died in infancy.
Her second husband was Chief Betweenthe-Logs, and her third husband's name was Frost.
The brothers then began elaborate plans to bring Caty to see her mother. They had to get Caty's consent to take the long journey. At first she refused, but later decided that she would go.
In the winter of 1850 another letter came from Charles Sage. It told of an epidemic of cholera that had taken many lives.
Still another disease had devastating effects among the Indians—sore eyes. Without medication many were becoming blind, and among those was Caty Sage.
Brother Charles made numerous efforts to have a Wyandot Indian write a biography of Caty Sage, but was not successful.
Finally a letter arrived from Charles dated April I5, 1853. It brought Lovis Sage the sad news that on January 21, 1853, Sally Frost, nee Catherine Sage, had died of pneumonia.
Caty Sage, Lost Child of Grayson, had gone home.
Note: These archival articles are presented exactly as they appeared at the time of the issue in which they appeared. As such, all quotes, as well as references to temporal facts, artifacts and other items are contemporaneous to the date of original publication.