The McCuens had two sets of twins in the 1880s, but sadly three of the children (two twin girls and a brother born later in a set of fraternal twins) did not survive.
The three homemade tombstones for the twins born to the McCuen family lie side by side at Blair Cemetery just outside of Sequoyah's Cabin State Historic Site in OK, close to other marked McCuen family graves in this tiny cemetery.
The McCuens lost two more infants and an older child between 1887 and 1904. All had homemade tombstones.
The twin's tombstones read as follows:
Baby McCuen
Boy Twin
B. 5 29 1887
D. "
Katie Twin
Baby McCuen
Twin Girl
B 10 27 1883
D " 31 "
Baby McCuen
Twin Girl
B 10 27 1883
D " 31 "
Nearby, the other McCuen children's graves in the same style:
Willis McCuen
B Dec 10 1887
D June '98
Betty McCuen
B Sep 16 1904
D Oct 1904
Rufus McCuen
B June 22 1892
D Aug 5 1892
There are several other McCuen family graves here, including George McCuen (1856-1906) and his wife Akie (also called Jane) (1861-1916). Blasterz think the homemade tombstones are connected to these two adults.
Our reasoning: This part of OK was given to the Cherokee Indians as their new homes after the Trail of Tears relocation in 1839-1841.
Several of the deceased children were born in Indian Territory before the Land Run of 1889 opened the area to white settlement. Others were born after the Land Run but before statehood.
Therefore, George and Akie McCuen are almost certainly Cherokee Indians whose respective PARENTS traveled on the Trail of Tears.
Here's a little more on that, from Ancestry.com message boards: (
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"The Blair Cemetery is located northeast of Sallisaw on the old Blair property that was purchased from the widow of Sequoyah in 1855 for $20 by George Blair and his second wife, Nancy Blythe. They came to the Cherokee Nation on the Trail of Tears.
George had married Nancy's half-sister, Sarah Blythe first. Sarah died on the Trail of Tears. George and Sarah had issue - James Blair who died young; Elizabeth who m. John Lowrey; Lewis Blair m. Polly Benge; Catherine m. Jesse McCuen; Lucy m. Samuel Houston Benge and Amy Blair disappeared.
. . . .
Buried in the Blair cemetery are the surnames Blair, Baldridge, Bitting, Chronister, Ferris, Lowe, Matheson, McCuen, Pressley, Smith and Sutton."
Jesse McCuen and Catherine Blair could be the parents of George McCuen.
We did find some information about Akie McCuen on Rootsweb: (
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"Misc. Testimony from Miller application # 12417-Akey McCuen-Atkins, Oklahoma Misc. Test. P. 3497
"That I (Akie McCuen) am 46 years of age. I am 3/4 Cherokee. My mother was 1/2 breed. My father was a full blood; both Cherokees. Don't know when my father was born but he died in the time of the war. He was about 25 years old when he died. My mother was in the fifties when she died. My father had a brother named Levi Walkingstick. My father had a sister named Che-wah-nih. Levi's Indian name was Gul-stoo-hus-kee. Jack Walkingstick was a cousin of mine; not an uncle. He was the son of one of my father's brothers, but I don't know which one. My mother's Indian name was Quatsey. Don't suppose she was married in 1851. My mother had a sister named Rachel (O.S. roll Group 79-mother Group 18 Flint). Ah-dee-tus-kee was the name of my father. Al-kin was the name of my father's mother. I have a sister named Sarah Foreman. She is sixty some odd years old. Her name before marriage was Ross. She is a half sister on the mother's side. I am the only child I know of on the father's side.
I am on the Dawes Commission roll (Cherokee roll 2609). Virgie (2613 Dawes), William ( 2614 Dawes), Sarah ( 2615 Dawes) are my children. My husband (George McCuen) is a half breed Cherokee.
Jack Walkingstick is a distant relation of mine-possibly a cousin. We call cousins uncles in Cherokee lots of times. My father went by the name of Drinker often. I don't know who Katy Drinker is. Ad-daw-nus-ky was the name of my father's father."
Signed Akey McCuen, Salisaw, Okla., September 19, 1908.
For Husband and children see Miller applicaton # 2822 (George McCuen-dead)"
We were unable to find the Miller Application for George McCuen and the children on line.
To check this information and try to tie these families together, we looked at the Dawes Rolls, a special census of the Five Civilized Tribes of OK taken between 1898-1906 to determine tribal affiliation in OK. If your ancestor is not on the Dawes Rolls, by law you cannot be considered a member of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, or Chickashaw) of Oklahoma.
On the Oklahoma Department of History website, we found the McCuen family listed on Card #964 of the Dawes Rolls: (
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George McCuen, 45, M, 1/4 Cherokee by Blood, Roll #2608
Jane McCuen, 41, F, 3/4 Cherokee by Blood, Roll #2609
Lewis McCuen, 17, M, 1/2 Cherokee by Blood, Roll #2610
Katie McCuen, 15, F, 1/2 Cherokee by Blood, Roll #2611
Mary McCuen, 11, F, 1/2 Cherokee by Blood, Roll #2612
Virgie E. McCuen, 8, F, 1/2 Cherokee by Blood, Roll #2613
William B. McCuen, 5, M, 1/2 Cherokee by Blood, Roll #2614
Sarah McCuen, 2, F, 1/2 Cherokee by Blood, Roll #2615
The McCuens are listed sequentially on page 350, which means they were a single family. This is the family of the children whose graves are waymarked -- recall the gravestone for the boy who died in 1887 -- "Katie Twin." Katie McCuen is on the Dawes rolls as age 15, which would be her age in 1902, the year that the Dawes commission used most often when enrolling tribe members. See: (
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"What kind of information will I find on the Dawes Rolls?
. . . . In most cases the ages indicated on the rolls are the age of individuals around 1902. Those listed as "newborns" and "minors" were born after the initial enrollment began in 1898, but before March of 1907."
It is clear from the similarity of the tombstones that the children are all related to one another. The Dawes Roll listing of Katie McCuen ties perfectly back to the date of birth of her twin brother, who died shortly after their births.
More evidence that the McCuen children in the homemade graves are related to the McCuen family found in the Dawes Rolls is gleaned from other graves in Blair Cemetery.
Louis McCuen, (listed as Lewis McCuen on the Dawes Rolls for the McCuen family) is buried a dozen feet away. The birth date on his tombstone (10 Dec 1884) matches his listing on the Dawes Rolls. Louis McCuen died on 8 Mar 1945.
Next to Louis we found a US Veteran's Administration headstone for William B. McCuen. Once again, William McCuen's birth date matches up with the information on the Dawes Rolls. William McCuen served as a private in the 11th Infantry during WWI. The VA tombstone is in addition to the family one, which is inscribed "Brother William B. McCuen, Dec 14, 1897 Mar 18, 1925, at rest."
Blasterz are therefore fairly confident that the children in the unmarked graves belong to the McCuen family listed on the Dawes Rolls, which is the same family buried here. We surmise that the George and Akie McCuen daughters are buried under their married names with their husbands. We are not sure if these McCuen daughters are here or not.
It is nice that so many of them are together in this small cemetery.