Hooked on History: Boy, 8, lost in the forest on way to school in 1825
On the morning of July 23, 1825, Isaac Couts, an 8-year-old boy, left his home in Tuscarawas County to go to school, carrying his lunch wrapped in a handkerchief. The log schoolhouse was about a mile south of the Couts farm, a trip little Isaac had made many times. But this time, he never made it to school.
Isaac Couts got lost in the forest, a parent's greatest fear during the pioneer days in Ohio.
At that time, much of Ohio was covered by dense forests, and most pioneers lived in small, isolated clearings. Stories are told throughout the state of children getting lost in the forest.
Many were never seen again. Even for those who were eventually found, it was a disorienting experience. After being lost for several days, it was not uncommon for children to hide from searchers, as if they had become afraid of people while lost.
The Couts family lived on a farm on the Tuscarawas-Guernsey county line in Washington Township, about eight miles southeast of Newcomerstown, according to an article in the Uhrichsville Chronicle in 1907. Isaac's school was in Guernsey County, across Rocky Fork Creek from the Couts farm.
About halfway to school that morning, Isaac thought he saw a bear in the path in front of him. To avoid it, Isaac quietly slipped into a dense patch of laurel growing beside the path. He intended on coming out on the path beyond the bear.
He traveled through the laurel for some time until he finally found a path.
But he quickly realized it wasn't the path he normally took to school.
Isaac wandered for several hours through the laurel, before coming to a well-worn path. During this time, he lost the handkerchief containing his lunch.
He followed the path up a steep bluff until it came to a dead-end. Isaac now knew he was lost. He cried out for help, but there was no one to hear him.
Fortunately, Isaac Couts was a bright child. He had learned to read by age 4, and by the time he was 8, he had studied through a dictionary twice.
He knew he was lost, so he decided he must remain in that place until he was found. Isaac gathered some moss, and made himself a bed between two trees in a hole that was made by a tree having been uprooted.
That night, Isaac was too scared to sleep.
In the darkness, an unknown animal walked around him, but then ran off after making a loud snort. Isaac slept much of the time during the following days.
Meanwhile, one of Isaac's brothers had stopped at the school that Friday on his way to the mill. The teacher asked why Isaac was absent. Isaac's brother hurried home to tell his parents that Isaac hadn't made it to school.
Within a short time, Isaac's parents had alerted the whole neighborhood about his disappearance. Men left their work to search for the lost boy. They searched all day Friday and Saturday, but found no trace of him.
On Sunday, nearly 600 men and boys searched for Isaac, many coming from a great distance.
"Signals were agreed upon and hours appointed to return and report," the Chronicle said. "As time passed and groups returned, their sorrowful faces told the agonized relatives the sad story their lips refused to utter."
About 2 p.m., some searchers were pushing their way through the brush along a small creek about three miles from the Couts home. They thought they heard a weak voice call out, "Hello!"
They heard the voice again, coming from a bluff above them.
"Big Jim" Willis, a giant of a man, climbed up the bluff and gathered Isaac up in his arms. Willis then carried the boy home to his parents.
"The mother and a sister fainted away, and the excitement was so intense that strong men broke down and wept like children," the Chronicle said.
"Isaac protested that he was neither hungry nor thirsty, after having fasted from Friday morning till Saturday evening, yet he ate heartily all he was allowed to have," the Chronicle said.
"It was not known that Isaac experienced any evil effects from his bewilderment and fasting, yet his mother did not recover from the nervous shock for a long time."
When Isaac grew up, he became a surveyor and also owned a farm near his parents' farm in Washington Township. In 1843, he married Amanda McNamee, and they became the parents of 12 children.
In 1856, he was elected a Washington Township justice of the peace, and held that position for 39 years.
The Chronicle noted that he never sent a man to jail, and for 14 years he never imposed a fine on anyone. "With the business of this office, as with everything else, he was careful, considerate and discreet," the paper said.
Isaac Couts died at his farm on Feb. 9, 1907, two months short of his 90th birthday.
Jon Baker is a reporter for The Times-Reporter and can be reached at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: History: Boy, 8, lost in the forest on way to school in 1825
