Park Hill Mission Cemetery - Park Hill, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 35° 50.943 W 094° 57.914
15S E 322530 N 3968988
Also known as Worcester Mission Cemetery, this cemetery was placed on the National Register in 2006.
Waymark Code: WMPA3R
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 07/27/2015
Views: 1
"Southeast of the Murrell Mansion, a quarter of a mile through a field, is the PARK HILL MISSION CEMETERY, where Samuel and Ann Worcesdter, founders of the mission, are buried. The old burial ground has not been abandoned; the monuments of the Worcesters, however, are still standing and enclosed by an iron fence. The inscription for Samuel reads, "To his labors, the Cherokees are indebted for their Bible and hymn book." [Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State, 1941].
This cemetery is located directly east of the larger Park Hill Cemetery. It can be accessed through a metal farm gate, and a grass drive. There is no signage at this entrance.
The cemetery was established in the 1830's and contains the remains of missionaries and their families who contributed to the education of the Cherokee. Reverend Samuel Austin Worcester, who established the Park Hill Mission in 1836, chose this spot as a cemetery because the soil was too rocky ever to be farmed.
The cemetery fell into neglect during the Civil War, and wasn't cleared and restored again until 1905, for the burial of a family member. Livestock had damaged many of the headstones. There are also quite a few unmarked graves, and graves marked only with a rock. Nine years after this AGS publication, in 1950, a group of students and teachers from nearby Northeast State College took on the project or restoring the cemetery, and in 1952, it was deeded to the Oklahoma Historical Society, who maintain it today.
The cemetery contains the graves of Rev. Samuel A. Worcester, as well as Cherokee leader, Elias Boudinot. There is a lot of documentation on a sign placed by the Historical Society.