The Stolen Child of Appalachia

In 1792, Caty Sage was five years old and was taken from her home in Elk Creek, Grayson County, Va. Caty's story has also been referred to as ¨The Lost Girl of Grayson¨.

Her parents were James and Lovis Sage, and Caty had 12 siblings. The morning of Caty's disappearance was a usual day on the farm. Lovis prepared the family breakfast, and James was ready to work on the harvest.

Due to serving in the war, James had acquired a land grant of 400 acres as payment. The family was one of the pioneer families in the area and surrounded by natives. It was a wild country and hard living, and it was hard work, and the big family helped.

That day, Caty was to help her mother with the laundry and household chores. Caty and her mother returned to the creek with an iron kettle to collect water and start the laundry. Caty was walking around collecting branches to start a fire, and when the fire was started, Lovis left Caty to watch the fire.

Caty agreed; however, shortly after her mother left, Caty began walking to the woods to chase butterflies. Caty's mother watched the child run to chase the butterflies but did not think anything of it until she returned, and Caty was nowhere to be found.

However, neither Caty nor her mother knew someone was hiding in the woods that morning, watching Caty. Once her mother was out of sight, a man captured Caty, and she could not scream for help. He also threatened to kill her and her mother if she screamed.

She remained silent, and the outlaw took her away from her home, and her family would never see her again. When Lovis returned to the creek, she could not find Caty and went to get James from the field to tell him what happened. They began searching all over for Caty but were unsuccessful.

The following day, the search began. The neighbors joined in this time, and yet again, they were unsuccessful; Caty was gone. The man took Caty deep into the woods and was over 8 miles from her woods. He was familiar with the woods.

They continued even deeper into the mountains, and during the night, the man tied her hands together, as well as tied a blanket around her, so she could not escape while he slept. Once the morning came, they continued and eventually reached a Cherokee Trading outpost in Tennessee.

The outpost was an area where the Indians traded with the Pioneers, and her kidnapper then traded Caty to the Cherokees in exchange for a horse. Caty did not speak Cherokee, and even though she was fed, she was in a land she did not recognize and the only white child.

In the morning, the group continued traveling once again and headed north. They made it to the Ohio River, where the Nation of the Wyandot Indians. She was brought to the Wyandot Chief, who was fascinated by Caty, her blue eyes and blonde hair.

She was then offered as a gift from the Cherokee warriors, and Caty was given a new name, Yourowquanins. She was now one of them and treated as one.

However, Cathy's family continued to search for her; they were devastated by her disappearance. James neglected his crops and spent all his time searching for Caty. He even consulted a mountain witch, Granny Moses, in North Carolina.

Granny Moses told him that Caty was alive, but you would never see her again. But one day in the far future, your wife will learn of your daughter's fate and her location, but she will never see her again, too.

All hope was given up.

After a few years, Caty, now Yourowquanins, had a new life, and that of her childhood before being kidnapped was gone. She forgot them, was treated well, and was admired in the group. When she was 17, she married Chief Tarhe, Chief of the Wyandots.

She was now Queen of the Wyandot Nation. She lived her entire life with them, and when she was 28, she became a widow and remarried a Wyandot warrior named ¨Between the Logs¨. After his death, she again married a warrior named ¨Frost¨. Unfortunately, he died two years later.

In 1817, she was granted a portion of the land by the United States government in the Treaty of the Wyandot and became a respected leader within the Wyandot Nation. However, as the pioneers continued to steal land from the natives, the Wyandots were forced to leave Ohio in 1843 and fled to Kansas.

As she was now a leader in the nation, however, on March 10, 1848, she was approached by a Wyandot interpreter. The interpreter told her he met a white man who looked similar to her, even with an equal voice. The man had told the interpreter that his sister had disappeared when she was a child, and he had never seen her again.

The man ended up being Charles Sage, Caty's brother. He was working for a large company and was taken out west. She was shocked as she got rid of the memories from her childhood, could barely remember her family, and did not speak English.

Yet she wanted a meeting with him, and with the interpreter present, they met. She knew a white man had kidnapped her, and Charles knew it was his sister. Charles then returned home to visit with her other brother, Samuel. He knew it was her immediately, and they told Caty that their mother was still alive and lived in the exact location in Virginia.

They told the mother Caty was alive, and Caty's mother wanted to see her, and the men arranged to bring her back to Virginia. Yet when Caty spoke, she stated:

I have two families, one that got me into this world and loved me, and I loved them, but I lost them long ago. It is impossible for me to do as you ask. I must stay here with my people, for they are my children, and I Yourowquanins their grandmother.

Ultimately, the Granny Witches' prediction came true, as her father died before learning that Caty was alive. Caty's mother never saw her daughter again. She died on January 21, 1853, and she was 66 years old. She is buried in Kansas City, Wyandot County, Kansas.