Sequoyah was the creator of the Cherokee Alphabet. He was born probably in Tennessee or Georgia, then moved with his family to Cherokee lands in Arkansas in the 1790s. By 1829 he had moved into a one-room cabin on a large parcel of land he had purchased in Indian Territory (modern day Sequoyah County Oklahoma).
Sequoyah arrived in Indian Territory a decade before the US Government force-marched the rest of the Cherokees here between 1839-1841 -- The Trail of Tears.
Sequoyah died around 1843 in Mexico. In 1855, Sequoyah's widow sold the 1-room cabin they had lived in and the land on Big Skin Bayou surrounding it to George Blair, a fellow Cherokee and survivor of the Trail of Tears. The price: $20.00
The Blair family lived in the cabin and later platted a small cemetery nearby. George Blair and his wife, the purchasers of Sequoyah's cabin, lived there until they died in the 1890s. They are buried in Blair Cemetery.
From Ancestry.com, some genealogy of the Blair family: (
visit link)
"George BLAIR Cherokee Name Oo-di-qua-no-si
b. 1789 Cherokee Nation GA
d. Feb. 28,1887 of Pneumonia in Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, OK
buried Blair Cemetery by his cabin that he bought from "SEQUOYAH" wife for $ 20.00 in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma
Son of James Hays or Hayes BLAIR (Jim) and Sarah or Sally ?
Lived Tusquilty Ck., Clay Co., NC
Henderson Rolls
Individuals that were paid by the Cherokee Nation for positions held
during the Trail of Tears 1838-1839." George Blair was paid on the Richard Taylor detachment as a "Supplier of Team"
note from the Trail Of Tears Assoc., Richard Taylor's group" left NC,
Sept.20 1838 and arrived in Oklahoma March 23 1839.
George stayed in Nashville area when 1st wife Sarah BLYTHE BLAIR and his sister Jennie BLAIR SWEETWATER and her family all were to sick to go on. Sarah, Jennie, and husband George SWEETWATER and their 4 children died and are buried together near Nashville, TN. Hard times in the area attributed to the national depression of 1837.
Malaria,cholera, smallpox frequent epidemics.
George and his children with his sister-n-law Nancy arrived in Oklahoma after the Richard Taylor group.
Cherokee Almanac
Government of the Cherokee Nation 1855 page 21
Executive - John Ross, Principal Chief
James Brown, Joseph Vann, A. Campbell, Executive Council
David Vann, Treasurer
Flint District - W. A. Duncan, Sam'l Chambers - Committee
George. Chambers, John Keith, George Blair - Council
2 Cherokee marriages, (to women who were) who were 1/2 sisters by their father Jonathan BLYTHE.
(Marriage No.) 1. Sarah BLYTHE b.1791 died on the "Trail of Tears" 1838 near Nashville, TN (6 children)
1. James BLAIR
2. Samuel BLAIR
3. Margaret "Juda" BLAIR m. William Richard Henson
4. Jenny BLAIR m. George SWEETWATER they had 4 children and all died at the same time as Sarah BLYTHE BLAIR on the "Trail of Tears".)
5. Joel Dyer BLAIR
6. Anne Blair(1792-1854) married Joseph Terrell (cousin to William Terrell Lewis)
(Marriage No.) 2. Nancy Ann BLYTHE b. abt 1806 Cherokee Nation (9 children)"
George and Nancy Blair's son Thomas Blair continued to live there until 1932, when he died. His daughter then deeded the 10 acres of land surrounding the cemetery to the state of Oklahoma in 1936 to create Sequoyah's Cabin State Historic Site.
Blair Cemetery is very well maintained by the family. They have their reunion every year at the Sequoyah's cabin site.