Ross Cemetery chosen for 48 StateTour
Apr. 4—Ross Cemetery has been chosen for the 48 State Tour by Atlas Preservation, with a goal of education in cemetery restoration and preservation. And the cemetery where former Principal Chief John Ross is buried has plenty of history to showcase.
Once a year, Atlas does a 48-state tour of cemeteries chosen from those submitted and justification is given why it should be selected. The date for the tour of Ross Cemetery is Thursday, June 20.
"Friends of Hunter's Home recently received a COVID-19 grant to preserve and restore the cemetery," said Jennifer Sparks, board member. "[Atlas] selected us for the tour because they felt like our history and our needs were justifiable," Sparks said.
Hunter's Home bylaws state the mission is supporting sites related to the home and other interests. The website describes the history of the home and how it is connected to John Ross.
"George Murrell met and married Minerva Ross. Minerva was the oldest daughter of Lewis and Fannie (Holt) Ross, members of a wealthy and influential Cherokee family. Lewis was a merchant, planter, and national treasurer of the Cherokee Nation. His brother, John, was principal chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828 until his death in 1866," states the site.
One of the rewards from Atlas is a workshop that is free and open to the public. The event, which includes demonstrations on cleaning and preservation, will be videotaped and used on Atlas' site for instruction, Sparks said.
Other cemeteries can use this workshop with the video and gain insight on how to take care of their own cemeteries, Sparks said.
"It will benefit us because we will get professional restoration of historic tombstones," Sparks said. "We can learn some new or better techniques or confirm what we do. We can get some tombstones repaired at no cost, [and] others out there can learn some things about [restoration]."
There are so many different types of stones, and people are not really knowledgeable about the variety, Sparks said.
"You can do certain things to some stones and not others. Some stones will do something naturally you can't stop; others you can," Sparks said.
Sparks said the best recommendation to clean tombstones is the product "D2."
"Put it on and wait a few minutes and scrub it off or leave, and when it rains, it cleans the stone. It might take a few applications," Sparks said. "Different kinds of stones react differently, so you may not get a perfectly legible tombstone, but you will have a cleaner one."
Sparks said she is not a fan of cleaning tombstones, but many people are. She said there are two schools of thought.
"One is when an ancestor died, the family bought a lovely tombstone and they want it to stay that way," Sparks said. "On the other hand, aging is a historic process, and some historians believe you are damaging the integrity of the piece; it's disturbed because you are changing the aging of the stone."
The only other thing that should be used to clean a stone is water, Sparks said.
"As my grandmother said, 'Just sop it and sop it and sop it,' and that lichen will get really soft and gooey. Then take a soft brush or rubber spatula and scrap it off. Use [frozen pop sticks] to clean out cracks," Sparks said.
Many people use bleach and even powerwash the stones. A tombstone — once polished and set — has a patina, and when power-washed or cleaned with a chemical, it's like sandblasting the stone, and the stone is damaged, Sparks said.
Another thing that shouldn't happen is to fill in where the graves are sinking. The integrity of the grave is lost, and that is where age and time and decomposing have happened, Sparks said.
"That tells you where the grave is. You try to save every piece you can," Sparks said.
The money from the COVID-19 grant will initially be used to work on the historic section, which is the Ross family's fenced-in area.
"We will see how far our funds go, and if any are left over, it will go to the newer section," Sparks said.
Sparks' mother was a historian and preservationist, and Sparks also earned a degree in history, preservation and genealogy.
"In my mother's time, families had Decoration Day, and she would talk about how for days they would gather all the flowers in the yard and put them in tubs of water," Sparks said. "They took food and flowers and had dinner on the grounds and talked about the ancestors, and allowed family to reminisce and talk about those they love."
Hunter's Home board members are genealogists and historians, and one, Shirley Pettengill, released a book documenting the Ross family in Indian territory, Sparks said.
Pettengill holds a degree in anthropology from both Colorado State University and the University of Arizona, with an emphasis in museum studies. She has spent over 25 years researching the history of the Murrell and Ross families and was instrumental in creating the Friends of the Murrell Home, which assists with restoration and preservation of the site, states the Hunter's Home website.
She wrote a book titled, "Hunter's Home in the Cherokee Nation: The Murrell and Ross Families of Indian Territory."
On the 48StateTour site, a quote by Jessica Sorensen is posted: "The cemetery is my sense of comfort, my sanctuary in a world of darkness, the one piece of light that i have in my life."
Learn more
To find out how to participate, call Hunter's Home at 918-456-2751. For more information on 48StateTour, visit 48statetour.com or on Facebook.