The OHIO
HISTORICAL Quarterly
VOLUME 68 ?? NUMBER 3 ?? JULY 1959
The Apathetic Foxes
By ALONZO FINLEY KERCHEVAL*
FOXES ARE LIKE HUMANS in many ways. Few folks rea-
lize that foxes once lived in this
country under organized
governments of their own and attended
their own schools and
churches just like human folks.
Many years ago the first red foxes were
brought to Amer-
ica to supply the hunting needs of
wealthy Virginia planters.
The red fox thrived and multiplied and
soon Virginia became
overcrowded with red foxes. So, on one
warm and sunny
day during April 1795, a few families
of red foxes left their
Virginia dens and started for the Ohio
country. They had
often listened to wandering fox scouts
when returning from
far trips into the western forests tell
of the abundance of
fat rabbits, partridges, and delicious
game of many kinds.
"Enough to feed a million
foxes," they boasted.
When the Virginia foxes reached the
Ohio country they
discovered beautiful Pawpaw Ridge
hidden deep in the wilder-
ness. Here they did find food in
abundance. And then and
there they voted to make Pawpaw Ridge
the capital of their
newly founded fox commonwealth. More
and more foxes
continued to arrive from Virginia until
there were firmly
established red fox commonwealths all
through the Ohio
Valley.
* Reprinted through the courtesy of the
author, known also as Erasmus Foster
Darby and as Dave Webb, of Chillicothe.