Louis Rolston Jr., the cemetery's namesake, was a Cherokee born in Georgia on September 10, 1838. He enlisted in the Federal Army in 1862 and served under Col. John D. Allen in Company K of the 16th Regiment, taking part in the Battles of Pine Ridge and Springfield. Several years after the war, he migrated to what is now Monkey Island, then Needmore, Indian Territory. From his Cherokee land allotment, he deeded 2 acres for a grave yard and 1 acre for a school, when two graves were already on the site. He later died and was buried there on March 19, 1904. His grandson Everett Lee and many other members of the Rolston-Lee families are also buried there, and volunteers have maintained the cemetery since its beginning.