William P. Ross - Ft. Gibson, OK - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

The Cherokee Nation first established this cemetery in 1857 and held ownership until just before Oklahoma Statehood in 1907, at which time the cemetery became the property of the Town of Ft. Gibson and was renamed Ft. Gibson Citizens Cemetery. This cemetery is located on Highway 62, east of Ft. Gibson. William Potter Ross' headstone is a tall obelisk, standing on a four-step stone base. A Masonic emblem is engraved on the obelisk.

Behind the headstone is a flat black polished granite stone with the seal of the Cherokee Nation, which reads: "William P. Ross / Principal Chief / 1866-1967 / 1872-1875". The engraving on his headstone reads:

William P.
Ross
Ex Chief of the Cherokee Nation
BORN
at Look-out Mountain, Tenn
1820
Graduated at Princeton College, 1842
DIED
at Fort Gibson, Indian Ter.
July 20, 1891

The biography printed on his Find a Grave memorial summarizes the many accomplishments of this man. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9315817

"Chief William Potter Ross was born at the base of Lookout Mountain, CN East (TN) the son of John Golden Ross and Eliza Ross (parents were not kin). William attended Princeton where he graduated in 1842 and moved to Park Hill, IT (OK), where he taught school at 14-Mile Creek (now Hulbert, OK), in a Methodist log church.

He was elected Clerk of the Sen. of the Nat. Council in 1843 which established the "Cherokee Advocate"; he was selected as the first editor of the paper. He then became a merchant and later a lawyer. He served as Sen. from the Tahlequah Dist. in 1849/51/53/55/57. He was secretary to his uncle Lewis Ross, the Nat. Treasurer, in 1860. He served in the Civil War and became Lt. Col. in the 1st Cherokee Reg. of Mounted Rifles, Field and Staff, in the Confederate Army--but his Reg. switched its allegiance to the North. "He was elected Chief to fill the vacancy of John Ross on 1866-1867 and elected to finish the term of Lewis Downing from 1872-1875. He helped the Cherokee Nation survive reconstruction after the Civil War. After his retirement from public office he was the editor of the "Indian Journal" at Muskogee, 1875-76; the "Indian Chieftain" at Vinita; and the "Indian Arrow" at Fort Gibson, IT (OK) where he was a member of the board of ed. in 1884/69/71/89/91. He was a Sen. from the IL Dist. of the Cherokee Nation and functioned as Mayor of Ft. Gibson."

Description: See above Date of birth: 08/28/1820 Date of death: 07/20/1891 Area of notoriety: Politics Marker Type: Headstone Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Dawn to Dusk Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   09/08/2016 MountainWoods wrote comment for it