Born on October 3, 1790, in Turkeytown, Alabama, John Ross, the son of a one-quarter Cherokee mother and a Scotsman, was elected the first Principal Chief of the Cherokee Indians in 1828 and served for the next thirty-eight and one half years until his death on August 1, 1866, in Washington, D. C. During his tenure, he vehemently resisted efforts by various states and the federal government to undermine Cherokee sovereignty and impose removal, but after every legal avenue was exhausted, the Cherokee people were forcibly removed west during the winter of 1838-39. A veteran of the War of 1812 who served under his future adversary Andrew Jackson, Ross spent much of his life facing adversity, including the death of his beloved wife Quantie during the removal of his people. After removal, he faced the internal strife of a divided nation, and during the war between the states he tried to keep his people neutral amid the struggle for power between the United States and the Confederate States. Buried first in Delaware, his remains were returned to the Cherokee Nation in 1867, lay in state for one month at the Cherokee National Male Seminary, and were then interred at the Ross Cemetery at Park Hill.