John Ross House

10/03/2024

Today is former Cherokee Chief John Ross' birthday. Chief John Ross (1790-1866) served the Cherokee tribe for more than 50 years, the longest-serving principal chief in the history of the Cherokee Nation. During that time, he proved himself as an exceptional chief executive, political negotiator and diplomat. His tenure encompassed the struggle by the Cherokee against forced removal from their original homeland, internal violence due to post-removal factionalism, the unification and rebuilding of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory, and the American Civil War. Of mixed Scottish and Cherokee ancestry, he was raised in a family that believed in education and took pride in his Cherokee heritage. Our collection of John Ross Papers containing more than 2,000 primary documents is one of the largest in existence. Learn more about Chief John Ross and our John Ross Papers Collection here: https://bit.ly/2VbDG8T

From the collection: "Trail of Tears" by Brummett Echohawk.

08/01/2023

Today is the date for the death of John Ross,(born October 3rd,1790 - died August 1st,1866). Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828-1866. The attached photo is a newsprint announcement for his first funeral services that where held in the evening and next morning at the Boarding House and home of Henry C. Joy located at the corner of 8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

11/17/2020

“This morning word came that a Cherokee woman was dying. I hastened to her tent…She was put in the wagon which carried her family when the detachment started, but soon expired.” - Rev. Daniel S. Butrick diary, March 11, 1839

During the Trail of Tears, thousands of Cherokee— young and old, rich and poor—faced disease, hunger, exhaustion, and extreme weather as they traveled hundreds of miles mostly on foot. A thousand or more Cherokee died traveling to a land they did not know. Read more...

https://www.nps.gov/trte/learn/historyculture/upload/A-Trail-of-Tragedy-508.pdf

(Image/NPS/from the exhibit panels at Laughlin Park in Waynesville, Missouri)

09/24/2020

On this day 24th,September 1838

08/02/2020

Today marks the day that Cherokee Chief John Ross died August 1,1866 on a Wednesday in Washington, DC. Attached are a couple of photos from a project I'm putting together in remembrance of him at his time of death.The first photo is a copy of a newsprint telling of the arrangements in Wilmington Delaware after his body arrived there on Friday the 3rd.The second photo is at his brother-in-law house during visitation of the 4th and 5th before being buried in a Scollay Burial-Case he was placed in for his first service at Henry C Joys boarding house in Washington, DC.

03/24/2020