Clermont County issued its first "amber alert" on July 13, 1804, when eleven year-old Lydia Osborne of Williamsburg went missing. Lydia and her younger sister Matilda went to retrieve the family cows which were grazing in the "big field". They didn't find them, but heard the "twinkling" of cow bells in the distance. The girls separated to pursue the cows. Matilda came home. Lydia did not.
The heart rending alarm "lost child" was raised throughout the community. According to Revernd James Finley, "Every heart was touched and soon in every direction torches were seen flashing their lights in the darkness of the forest. Bells were rung, horns were blown and guns were fired". But there was no response.
Cornelius Washburn, the famed backwoodsman, who was later killed by Indians in Yellowstone, arrived on the third day of the hunt with 500 volunteers. Within one week, the number had risen to 1,000, many of whom were from Kentucky. Washburn found Lydia's temporary campsite. Lydia's father, Ebeneezer, was distraught. Finley said, "sorrow drank up his spirits, and he refused to be comforted. When hope was rekindled he seemed like one frantic, and he flew in every direction calling most piteously the name of his child "Lydia! Lydia!"
On day 15, searchers crossed over White Oak Creek. They found footprints in the sand and followed the trail to a small shelter built of sticks and covered with moss. The searchers were hard bitten men, frontiersmen who had confronted "savages" and "wild beasts". They gathered around the shelter. Even for these men, the moment was too much. As Finley recalled, these men "whose hearts were never known to quail with fear...were melted to tears." Ebenezeer cried out, "Oh Lydia! Oh Lydia! My dear child, Are you yet alive? With that, a thousand hearts broke forth in uncontrollable grief."
Fanning out from "Lydia's Camp", the volunteers found footprints, horse tracks and then Lydia's bonnet . Later on that day, they discovered a several days old Indian camp . They came to the inevitable conclusion, underscoring a common saying of the day: "The lost were never found."
Years later, an old Indian trader told Lydia's mother he came across a white woman fitting Lydia's description living with a group of Delaware Indians near Muncie, Indiana. Lydia's brothers went to Muncie and found their sister, but not the one they had known. She had some trouble speaking English and was dressed as an Indian. Lydia was totally integrated into the tribe with friends, an Indian husband and children. Lydia was torn between two worlds. She wanted to see her family but refused to leave her Indian family. Shortly afterwards she moved with her tribe across the Mississippi River, becoming lost to history.
Lydia's father never overcame the loss of his daughter. He died a broken man a dozen years later.
Lydia's experience was not uncommon. For centuries American Indians kidnapped members of other tribes and adopted them into theirs. They continued this practice after European settlement. Often the captives were fully satisfied with their lives and voluntarily decided to stay with their new families.
