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Submitted to the Cherokee Co. OK Archives
Cherokee Co. OK. Molly Field Cemetery News
Link submitted to the Cherokee Co. Archives by Kay Hubbard Thompson
Posted here by: Bill Cook, Cherokee Co., Archivist billcook44@aol.com
6/12/2002
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"Cemetery's namesake gets belated grave marker"
By: Eddie Glenn, Press Staff Writer June 10, 2002 
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4395614&BRD=
1825&PAG=461&dept_id=129120&rfi=6
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After 71 years, Molly Field gets recognition

Molly Field cemetery is one of those landmarks of Cherokee County-- like Combs 
Bridge and Joe's Red Barn-- that everyone seems to know. Practically everything 
located on State Highway 10 can be located by its relation to the small hillside 
cemetery.
But as locally famous as the cemetery is, the woman responsible for its 
existence has remained relatively obscure. So obscure, in fact, that until 
recently, she didn't even have a headstone in the cemetery that bears her name. 
For those who don't know, Molly Field Cemetery sits on a steep hill overlooking 
S.H. 10, a dozen or so miles north of Tahlequah. A small chapel, built on a plot 
of land donated by Joe Deem in the early 1950s, sits next to the cemetery.
The early history of Molly Field Cemetery is a bit sketchy. One story has it 
that, in the mid-1800s, a family with several children was traveling through the 
area in a covered wagon, and stopped to camp near the present location of the 
cemetery. One of the children, a young boy, fell out of a tree he was climbing 
and died from his injuries. Supposedly, his body was the first to be buried in 
the cemetery. Many small, unmarked stones dot the cemetery, but the earliest 
dated grave marker is that of J.F. Orchard and is dated 1894.
According to Arthur Jordan, president of the Molly Fields Cemetery Association, 
the cemetery was once a part of an Indian allotment owned by Molly Field.
"She was an Indian lady, and she gave up part of her allotment for the 
cemetery," said Jordan.
The actual date of the land transfer is unknown, as are most of the details of 
Field's life. Jordan said no one is certain how old she was when she died in 
1931, and her only living relatives, some of whom live in Broken Arrow, are just 
distantly related to her.
Field's grave was originally marked with a small stone, and cemetery records 
showed the location of her burial. Still, no monument marked her grave, despite 
the fact that the cemetery and chapel bear her name. 
Last month, the members of the cemetery association decided to change that.
A slab of stone, obtained from Fort Gruber near Braggs, was engraved with her 
name and year of internment. The monument was placed on Field's grave just in 
time to be included in the Memorial Day decoration services.
Field's grave is located near the edge of the woods that border the cemetery, in 
the shade of several cedar trees that, according to Jordan, were planted 90 
years ago by Bob Murphy. Murphy now rests in Molly Field Cemetery, as well.
"She [Field] laid there for 71 years with no marker," said Jordan. "So we 
thought it was time to put a marker there."
Jordan said that, even though Field is known to have been Indian, probably 
Cherokee, her actual tribal heritage is unknown, so the engraving of the marker 
was kept simple and all-encompassing.
"We just put a feather on it, to represent all the tribes," Jordan said.
 
(c)Tahlequah Daily Press 2002