L876;
I.ossing. Field Book of the War of 1812, 1869; author's personal information; various
periodical and newspaper articles.
(46) Chief John Ross (p. 151): This great chief of the Cherokee, whose name is
inseparable from their history, was himself but one-eighth of Indian blood and showed
little of the Indian features, his father, Daniel Ross, having emigrated from Scotland
before the Revolution and married a quarter-blood* Iherokee woman whose fat her, John
McDonald, was also from Scotland. He was horn at or near the family residence at
Rossville, Georgia just across the line from Chattanooga, Tennessee. As ahoy, he
was known among the Cherokee as Tsan-usdi', " Little John," but after arriving at
manhood was called Guwi'sguwi', the name of a ran- migratory bird, of large size
and white or grayish plumage, said to have appealed formerly at longintervals in
the old Cherokee country. It may have been the egret or the swan. He was
educated at Kingston, Tennessee, and began his public career when barely nineteen
years of age. Ilis first wife, a full-blood Cherokee woman, died in consequence of
the hardships of the Removal while on the western march and was buried at Little
Rock, Arkansas. Some years later he married again, this time to a Miss Stapler of
Wilmington, Delaware, the marriage taking place in Philadelphia (author's per-
sonal information from Mr Allen Ross, son of John Ross; see also Meredith,
"The Cherokees," in the Five Civilized Tribes, Extra Bulletin Eleventh Census,
1S94. ) Cooweescoowee district of the Cherokee Nation west has been named in his
honor. The following biographic facts are taken from the panegyric in his honor,
passed by the national council