Mines: Ross ancestor of many in Cherokee Nation

Photo courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society / This picture of Daniel H. Ross, a nephew of Principal Chief John Ross, and his son was taken between the years 1868 and 1871.
Photo courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society / This picture of Daniel H. Ross, a nephew of Principal Chief John Ross, and his son was taken between the years 1868 and 1871.
photo Photo courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society / This picture of Daniel H. Ross, a nephew of Principal Chief John Ross, and his son was taken between the years 1868 and 1871.

About 1800, Daniel Ross received a 640-acre land allotment near The Great Indian Warpath and the mouth of the Chattanooga Creek. He built a home and a nearby tannery; his successful business allowed him to establish a school for his children and other Indian children. He would later move to North Georgia and, by 1808, his wife, Mollie, died, leaving Daniel alone to oversee the nine children. Daniel would live another 22 years, eventually relocating near present-day Rome, Georgia, where he died on May 22, 1830.

Jane Ross Coody, born on June 11, 1787, near Chickamauga, Walker County, Georgia, was Ross's oldest daughter. She married Joseph Coody in June 1805 in a ceremony performed by Moravian missionary Jacob Wohlfahrt at her father's home, mentioned in the Spring Place Diaries, and they would have nine children. Jane Ross Coody's name appears in the records of the Brainerd Mission, noting that she joined the church on Feb. 1, 1818. The family moved to the Rossville area around 1825 and operated a tanyard until the "removal." Jane died on Sept. 12, 1844, in Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, and is buried in the Holland Cemetery in Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma.

Elizabeth Grace Ross was born May 25, 1789, would marry John Golden Ross, a Scotsman, and have six children: William, Daniel, Eliza, John, Elnora and Lewis. She and her family were also "removed" to the Oklahoma Territory, where Elizabeth died in 1876 and was buried in the Ross Cemetery near present-day Park Hill, Oklahoma.

The future chief of the Cherokee, John, was born in 1790 and served as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, 1828-1866. One of his most stirring letters, addressed to President Andrew Jackson, eloquently argued his people's position. "In truth, our cause is your own; it is the cause of liberty and of justice we have gloried to count your Washington and your Jefferson our great teachers," he wrote.

After exhausting all attempts to halt the removal process, he accompanied his people to the Oklahoma Territory. His wife, Quatie, sister to the John Brown of Brown's Tavern fame, died in route. He would marry Mary Brian Stapler, a Quaker from Delaware, in 1844, fathering two additional children for a total of seven children who survived to adulthood. John Ross died in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1, 1866, and, while originally buried in Wilmington, Delaware, his body would be exhumed and returned to the Ross Cemetery at Park Hill to ultimately rest near both wives.

Susannah Ross Nave, born Dec. 10, 1793, married Henry Nave Sr., and they had two children: Mary Nave Lowery and Minerva Nave Keys. Susannah died in August 1867 and was buried in Cherokee County, Oklahoma Territory.

Lewis Ross, business partner with his brother, John, was born on Feb. 25, 1796, and also served in the Cherokee Brigade at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He married Frances Stanfield Holt on March 15, 1817, in Blount County, Tennessee. Lewis was one of the wealthiest Cherokees, who "acquired his wealth through astute business acumen" and from extensive land holdings throughout East Tennessee. During the time of removal, he would serve as the treasurer of the Cherokee Nation, and Lewis, "Fannie" and the majority of their seven children (and families) are buried in the Ross Cemetery.

Andrew Ross, born on Dec. 19, 1798, would marry Susan Lowery on June 24, 1819, probably at the Brainerd Mission, although no notation exists. Their children, Oliver Perry, Daniel H., William Coody, Samuel Houston, John, Joseph, Joshua Ewing and Jennie Pocahontas, would accompany them on the "removal." Andrew died young, in 1840, and was buried in the McLemore Cemetery in today's Adair County, Oklahoma.

Annie Ross, born 1800, married William M. Nave but died at age 25.

An 1823 Brainerd Journal entry reads: "April 3rd, An invitation having been previously given to all the mission family to attend a wedding at Mr. D[aniel] Ross'; as many as conveniently could went over witnessed the marriage of Mr. Elijah Hicks to Miss Margaret Ross, daughter of Mr. D. Ross " Margaret Ross Hicks, was born July 5, 1803, and died in 1862, leaving three children.

The youngest child, Maria, was born on Jan. 13, 1806. Little is known about her life other than she married Jonathan Mulkey and had at least three sons before dying en route to the Oklahoma Territory.

Several thousand members of the Cherokee nation trace their ancestry through the McDonald and Ross families.

Linda Moss Mines, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County historian, is regent, Chief John Ross Chapter, NSDAR.

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