pried it up, launched it, and was soon floating and paddling in it down toward the junction of the Tioga and the Susquehannah.

Shortly he felt his tired feet being submerged in cold water. Stooping to investigate, he found that the log was leaky and rapidly filling with water. He also found an old woolen firkin, a small barrel, that he at once began making use of, bailing the water, alternately paddeling, steering and bailing. He continued down the stream, keeping near the shore as possible, in case the old dug-out should get the best of him. The second day he heard "Hello, there, will you take a passenger?" from a man on shore. "Yes, if you'll help bail, steer, and row." "Barkis is willin", came the reply, so there were two in the log canoe.

Then they made better time. Nearing the confluence of the rivers, they saw a boat preparing to leave the dock for a trip up the Susquehannah, a primitive stern wheel packet of those early days (1831). He and his passenger applied themselves to their paddling, bailing and steering, signalling the boat to wait; just as she started he drew near enough to leap from the dug-out to her deck.

A free boy! For now he was sure pursuit would not overtake him. His passenger called "What shall I do with this canoe?" "Keep her or let her float" shouted Cox. (If the owner of that dug-out will send in his bill for damages, O.S. Cox's children will cheerfully settle.) As for food on this trip with the canoe, game was plentiful and he was a good shot. While on this boat, he must have worked his passage, for he had no money.

On board that boat with a Cargo of Southern Produce, he, for the first time in his life, saw an orange. He remained on this little river packet some distance up the river, then lended and found lucrative employment at lumbering and logging, and sometimes at the blacksmith's forge. Soon he had the good luck to find his two brothers, Walter and Augustus, rafting logs down the river. He was an expert at this himself.

Now he learned that his mother, and her younger children, Amos, Harriet, Mary and Jonathan had gone to Ohio under the care of his older brother, William U., via the great world famous Erie Canal; (at that time the largest canal in the world.) So by slow degrees and hard work he began to work his way toward Ohio. Usually he worked for lumber companies. His two brothers did likewise. They literally walked wall the way through the forests, the whole length of the state of New York. Finally they were united as a family in Nelson, Portage Co. Ohio, the former home of his future wife, Elvira, although she was at that time an emigrant in Missouri. The eight Cox boys continued their westward course; some of them reached California during the gold stampede. Charles B. Cox was elected Senator from Santa Rosa Company for a number of terms. William U. had put his property in a concern called the Phalanx and was defrauded by the officers of every cent and left in debt $3000.00, an enormous sum for those days. Orville's mother Lucinda, and her family went to Missouri. Walter had receive the gospel in Ohio previously. Orville heard terrible stories of the outlawry of those "awful Mormons"; but he became personally acquainted with some (Among them a Sylvester Hulet). He decided they were sinned against. He lived in Jackson County for a time, and ever after Jackson County Missouri was the goal of his ambition; He believed to his dying day that he should one day return to that favored spot.

Orville met and loved Elvira in Far West, but was not baptized. He said he didn't propose to turn Mormon to procure a wife. When the Saints were driven from Missouri, he located near Lima, Illinois, with a group of Mormons and helped build the Morley settlement.

Nearing his 24th birthday, he was a thorough frontiersman, forester, lumberman, a splendid blacksmith, a natural born engineer; in short a genius and an all around good fellow. He was six feet in his socks and heavy proportionately.

While here he won the heart of the orphan girl, Elvira P.