Cherokee family honors ancestors whose graves are lost
By Will Chavez
Staff Writer
MARBLE CITY, Okla. – On Oct. 17, descendents of Roach and Nancy Bolin Young dedicated a memorial marker for 13 members of the Cherokee family whose burial sites are unknown at Dwight Mission Cemetery.
The 13 family members, including three of the Young’s children and eight grandchildren, are buried on private property in the vicinity of Dwight Mission and nearby Pinhook Corner in Sequoyah County.
“As far as we can tell…these 13 are the only Youngs that did not have a marked burial site,” said Billie Lennox of Garland, Texas, a great-granddaughter of Roach and Nancy Young. “This marker will be there until the end of time for all who follow us to see and know that once these Youngs lived and were loved and remembered.”
Lennox said her sister Jean Dillon researched the family history and determined Roach and his sons were “respected, active and contributing members of their community.”
Roach was born about 1830 and died in 1907. He was active in the Cherokee Nation government and served eight terms as a senator from the Illinois District, which included what is now Sequoyah County.
Based on research, in 1881 Roach was president of the CN Senate, and in 1885 he was an associate justice of the CN Supreme Court. In 1891 he served on the committee to dispose of the Cherokee Strip in northern Oklahoma, and in 1895 he was appointed as a delegate to Washington, D.C.
During the Civil War, he served in the Indian Home Guards, Company E, Third Regiment, which fought on the Union side.
Roach’s parents, John Young and Betsy Glass Young, came to Indian Territory in 1838 from southwest North Carolina in the old CN. Dillon said she has not found official documentation that her great-grandfather’s parents came to Indian Territory during the forced removals in 1838 and 1839.
“Family tradition says that this family came west during the forced removal. This family survived and persevered, and when they got to Indian Territory, they were instrumental in helping to rebuild a shattered nation,” Lennox said to about 65 relatives from five states who attended the dedication. “Today is a time of remembrance, and time of hope and a time of celebration. I’m so glad all my cousins are here. I am so proud to be Cherokee Indian, and I am so proud to be a part of this day.”
Lennox said Nancy Bolin was born about 1843 in Indian Territory to Johnson Bolin and Ail-sey Christie. She died in 1911.
Names etched on the granite marker are Roach and Nancy Young; daughter Betsy; sons Jack and John Weyman; and grandchildren Almira, L. Jennie, Fannie Edna, Alice, Simon, Laura, Philip and Johnson Roy. Also inscribed on the marker are the CN seal and the family members birth and death dates, according to Dillon’s research.
Dillon said she began researching the family’s Cherokee heritage for her mother, who died before Dillon could bring her to Oklahoma to begin researching the family’s history.
“She was so proud of being Cherokee Indian, so I did it for her,” she said.
Lennox said the family honored their ancestors by placing the monument.
“Each and every life is significant in the eyes of God, and these names on the monument are significant to us. This is our tribute to our Cherokee ancestors,” she said.
Reach Staff Writer Will Chavez at (918) 207-3961 or will-chavez@cherokee.org