Ross Family Cemetery - Park Hill, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 35° 51.051 W 094° 56.926
15S E 324021 N 3969158
Ross Cemetery is associated with Principal Chief of the Cherokee, John Ross (1790-1866). It was placed on the National Register in 2002.
Waymark Code: WMPA41
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 07/27/2015
Views: 2
In the ROSS FAMILY CEMETERY, 2 m., stands the JOHN McDONALD ROSS MONUMENT enclosed by a three foot stone wall surrounded by iron pickets. A circular shaft of white marble, broken at the top to represent life interrupted, at its prime (he died at the age of twenty-one), marks the grave of a nephew of John Ross, leader of the Union faction of Cherokees, who is also buried here. The story is told that Confederate General Stand Watie, needing ammunition, remembered the lead balls which decorated the iron palings atop the burial wall of the nephew's grave and ordered his men to remove them to make bullets. Thus the lead from a Ross grave was used to bring death to members of the Ross faction. A few of the ornaments which the Watie's men overlooked still remain. [Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State, 1941.]
This cemetery is located to the east (behind) the John Ross Museum in Park Hill. It has approximately 500 burials and is still being used today. The cemetery is long and narrow and on a gentle rise. There is a gravel drive around the perimeter.
The first burial here was for John McDonald Ross, a nephew of Chief John Ross, in 1842. His grave site and some others are surrounded by a low limestone wall and iron railing and gate. Many of the graves in the cemetery are family members of John Ross, and survivors of the infamous Trail of Tears. Later after the Civil War, other neighbors and related families were included.
The cemetery is now owned by Cherokee County, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
For a detailed history of the cemetery, http://www.okhistory.org/sites/mhcemeteries.php