History of Three Rivers Cemetery -------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent ot the contributor, the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Submitted by Rose Carter greeneyes2u99@yahoo.com -------------------------- History Of Three Rivers Cemetery July 1994 As we know it today, the Three Rivers Cemetery dates back to the 1860's. We have proof of a lady by the name of Amelia uncan who was born in 1811, and died in 1869, and was buried at Three Rivers. The cemetery is 2 1/2 acres of unalloted land that belonged to the Cherokee Indians and was set aside for the cemetery. On June 30, 1913, Congress passed a bill saying that any cemetery existing within the lands of the Five Civilized Tribes shall be transfered to the Secretary of the Interior. August 5, 1914, the Chief of the Cherokee Nation, W.C. Rogers, signed this bill with his thumb print. On August 25, 1914, the Department of the Interior transferred this plot of land to Wagoner County, which holds the title of the Three Rivers Cemetery and is filed in Record Book !, page 135. So we move on...In the 1930's and 1940's families would gather together, pack a lunch, and go to the cemetery to clean their own family plot. Some families didn't do this which left some of the cemetery looking ragged and some of it looking nice. In the early 1940's some of the men in and around Okay decided to do something about this and formed a Three Rivers Cemetery Association. These well respected men were Hubert Echols, Clint Carter, Roy Epperson, Ed Laster, Harve Boling, Link Johnson, Everett Boggess, Charlie Rogers and Hurt West. These men put together board members and trustees, and at one time or another they served on the board or as a trustee. Over the years there have been many men serve on the board. They startd out charging $5.00 to join the Association which began to bring money for the board to work with. Charlie Rogers would mow the cemetery for $15.00. The Association also put together rules and bylaws for the cemetery which still stand today. Each rule or bylaw was voted on by the board before it was added to the book and was the law of the cemetery. One bylaw that was put in the book was very important and says that there will be no burial plots sold or reserved, and this remains the law today. So we move on and talk about the unknown graves located in the southwest corner of the cemetery. These graves came from a old Indiann cemetary located near Highway 16 bridge on Verdigris River. When the navigation system started the Corps of Engineers met with the Board and talked and talked about moving some of the graves to Three Rivers. The Board members at this time were W.G. Carter, Chairman of the Board, Everret Boggess, H.C. Boling, Roy Epperson, Charlie Rogers and Hubert Echols. Both sides agreed on a contract that the Cemetery Board would recieve $200.00 for the first 10 bodies and $10.00 each for the rest of the bodies. There were a total of 21 bodies. Over the years many board menbers kept the cemetery looking nice. In 1985 we started the task of cleaning up the new part of the cemetery that was partly bought in 1977 from Eliza Rogers and partly donated by Pat Rogers. This was done by Earl Pingleton and Leroy Reynolds,Jr. and with the help of the Wagoner County Commissioner Larry Hall. After the new part was cleaned up, we began building a shelter. The shelter is used for graveside or final services. After we finished this we installed a 33 foot flagpole which was donated by Pat Rogers. Then we moved on to building a storage building to house our equipment. After this we built a much needed restroom. Our last project to this date was running electric to all of our buildings. This work was accomplished due to the help of Earl Pingleton, David Pingleton, Bob Moore, Kenneth Woods, Gene Faulconer, Don Moore and countless others in the Okay Community. So this is about all that I know about the Cemetery. I hope the younger generation will take over and write more rules and bylaws, and I hope they will never have to look back at the Cemetery and be ashamed because it doesn't look good. Earl Pingleton, Chairman of the Board Three Rivers Cemetery.