100 - Emily Fleetwood - Fleetwood Cemetery - Near Terral, OK
N 33° 53.652 W 097° 50.343
14S E 607346 N 3751031
Emily Fleetwood was the wife of Houston Fleetwood, the founder of Fleetwood, OK. She outlived her husband by many years, and is buried in the family cemetery here in Fleetwood, which is now a ghost town.
Waymark Code: WMQZJ1
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 04/19/2016
Views: 2
This cemetery is one of three sites that make up the remains of Fleetwood, OK. Please be considerate of the rights of the property owners when visiting, and note that the cemetery, protected by a fence, is out in the middle of a pasture in a grove of trees. Don't bother the cattle -- visit the cemetery on a day when they're not hanging around by the fence -- although they might be happy to see you while you stand by the fence and look out towards where the cattle used to cross the Red River southeast of here at Red River Station during the days of the Chisholm Trail.
Findagrave (
visit link) could use some research and cleanup, as they list duplicates of several of the graves, and one possible footstone (E.M.C.) actually being identified as a headstone. The cemetery is grown over, and there are only five visible headstones, those of Houston Fleetwood, Emily Fleetwood (his wife), Ella May Coffey (their daughter), David Colbert, and Houston Colbert. Behind Mr. Fleetwood's grave marker is an old marble base that says "Fleetwood" on it, possibly his earlier headstone or one for an unidentified Fleetwood family member. If there are more grave markers, they are covered by long grass and old logs from trees that have fallen.
Mrs. Fleetwood's grave is marked by a gray, granite headstone, complemented by a slab. The inscription is simple:
Mrs. Emily
Fleetwood
Aug. 16, 1830
Nov. 29, 1930
There are two historical markers here, one old and another more recent:
Founded about 1880 by Houston F. Fleetwood. The first settler who came here from Wynnewood, Oklahoma in 1878 as a Chickasaw Indian, he took up his Indian rights to a large area from the river east and west that included the town site.
This cemetary [sic] was in the backyard of the spacious home Fleetwood built here. He also built a trading post south of this site right in the middle of the Chisholm Trail. Later this store was moved to the present site west of here.
Fleetwood was waylaid in the river bottom in 1888 and died a few days later in his home.
Historical Society of Fleetwood
Terral Indian Territory, Okla.
The second marker shows a Chisholm Trail map, and features an inset with a photo of a store on the Buffalo Ranch, a store similar to the one that Mr. Fleetwood built:
Fleetwood Store & Family Cemetery
Two miles to the southwest, the cattle road crossed the Red River at Red River Station and passed here as it climbed out of the Red River Valley and headed to the northwest on its way to Abilene and other points off the trail. By the late 1870's or early 1880's, the Fleetwood family established a store (similar to the one pictured above in 1867) at this site to sell to drovers and other travelers. Local tradition says the Fleetwoods tired of the noise and commotion and moved the store ¾ mile west where it grew into a small community that survived into the 1930's. More likely, traffic declined by the mid 1880's and the Fleetwoods moved to a better location. All that remains today is the family cemetery located in the grove of trees visible a hundred yards to the east.
(Image: Courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society)
Oklahoma '07 Centennial