Places: John Ross House, Rossville, Georgia

As anyone knows who has spent a great deal of time touring historical sites, there's a mystique to visiting places where history really happened.  The mystique (and respect) deepens when those sites are associated with tragedy.  To see the rooms and walk the floors where men and women of the era grappled with the hostile forces surrounding them touches modern-day hearts and souls in a unique manner.  That's why both Arlington House (Robert E. Lee) and the John Ross house in Georgia are on my travel bucket list. 

John Ross was, like several Cherokee leaders of this era, mixed-race, being less than a quarter Cherokee.  His grandfather, John MacDonald, was a Scot who emigrated to America in in 1797 and married a Cherokee woman.  MacDonald built a house on Missionary Ridge and he and his wife raised their family.  John, his namesake grandson, would have a foot in both worlds.  Cherokee by heart and self-identification, he had received a White education.  He would nevertheless use his skills to help his people, opposing Removal for as long as he could.  He would become a victim of the process in 1830, when state forces took over his personal property and he had to move into his grandfather's home.  There, he would keep up the fight, eventually forcing the Jackson and later Van Buren administrations to allow the Cherokees to supervise their own removal.  Here, he would plan their exodus, hoping to do so in as safe and expeditious manner as possible, though thousands would still die on the Trail of Tears in 1838-39. 

The house itself is typical of the era and area.  Families of any race often built their home piecemeal, expanding it as their needs changed.  The structure is basically two log cabins, connected by a porch and breezeway with an overhead passage for use in wintertime.  This construction was common in the South were temperatures made it possible to be outdoors for much of the year.  The city that grew up around the house after Ross and his family vacated it in 1838 is named Rossville in his honor.  The house would participate in history again during the Civil War, when it was used as a headquarters and hospital by armies on both sides.  It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and maintained by the Chief John Ross Association.