Sunday, October 4, 2020

Robert M. Jones, wealthy Choctaw plantation owner

What is left of Rose Hill Plantation lies a few miles southeast of Hugo, Okla. Rose Hill was one of two plantations owned by Robert Jones, who was prominent in Choctaw Nation politics and one of the wealthiest slave owners in the United States.

Jones owned somewhere between 250 and 500 slaves. His two plantations covered 14,000 acres.

At the peak of his success, Jones ran more than 20 trading posts, six plantations in the Choctaw Nation, sugar plantation in Louisiana and two steamboats. (Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office, Oct. 11, 2018.)

“All that remains of the plantation are scattered foundations, large growth cedar trees and the plantation cemetery. Rose Hill had previously been the site of a Baptist mission named ‘Providence’’ which closed in 1843 and it is estimated that the buildings were constructed between 1843 and 1847.” (OSHP.)

The Rose Hill Cemetery is west of the plantation house site. A Depression-era Works Progress Administration stone fence surrounds the graveyard site, with ornate wrought iron fences bordering individual graves. In December 2017, vandals knocked over several tombstones at the cemetery.

Jones was Choctaw Nation delegate to the Confederate Congress, 1862-64. After the war of 1861-65, he negotiated a treaty with federal government. He died from malaria in 1873, age 64.

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMWQR4_Rose_Hill_aka_Jones_Cemetery_Hugo_OK

The plantation house, containing all of Jones' papers, burned in 1915.

 

 

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