Indian Pioneer Papers - Index
Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
LDS Microfiche #6016976
Volume 111 - Cemeteries
Cemetery - Cherokee
Date: January 7, 1937
Burial ground:
Harris Cemetery
Location: NW 10, SW 40, S11, T16N,R19E, 1/4 mile north, 2 1/2 miles east of
Okay [Wagoner Co.] about 150 yards north of road on high ground back of field on
what was
known as the Dock HARRIS place.
Field Worker: James S. Buchanan
A full blood Cherokee Indian by the name of Dock
Harris, according to
information furnished by Samual L. SMITH, a Cherokee Indian who was born near
Fort Gibson in 1873, was the first holder of the land on which this burial
ground is situated.
There are five graves enclosed by a terrace wall of
sandstone about ten inches thick and thirty inches high with four stone
partitions separating the five graves. The enclosure is about 9 by 8 feet and
filled with dirt to about eight inches of the top of the wall.
Inscriptions on
cap rock of terrace wall at four graves as follows:
?. E. WILSON, 1846
Thomas
WILSON, 1844
Elizabeth, 1845
David WILSON, 1846
Second space from south end of
this peculiar tomb apparently unoccupied as there is no inscription and no head
or foot stone as the other graves have. The latest date on the Wilson graves,
1846 is 34 years before the earliest date on granite stones at the Harris graves
which are as follows:
?. B. HARRIS, died Feb 16, 1889. Age 28. Infant son of
T. B.
HARRIS, died Sept 16, 1879.
?ane S. HARRIS, born Mar 19, 1820, died Sept 17,
1879.
John O. HARRIS, son of C. and E. HARRIS, born Jul 7, 1832, died Oct 7,
1882.
Two hackberry trees have grown on the grave of Thomas
Wilson and are about
20 and 24 inches in diameter, which is larger than average growth of other trees
in vicinity.
Submitted to OKGenWeb by Gay Wall,
November 1999.