Jesse Chisholm

Born: 1805? Tennessee
Died: March 4, 1868 (age 63?), Geary, Oklahoma

What do you know about Jesse Chisholm?

Try this Old West Legends Quick Quiz.

1. Chisholm had built a number of trading posts in what is now western Oklahoma before the American Civil War.

• Fact or Myth?

2. Ignatius Chisholm, was of Scottish ancestry and had worked as a merchant and slave trader in the Knoxville, Tennessee area in the 1790s. Around 1800 he married a Cherokee woman in the Hiwassee area.

• Fact or Myth?

3. In 1810, where was Jesse Chisholm taken to by his mother with Tahlonteskee's group?

• Texas
• Arkansas
• Florida

4. During the late 1820s he moved to the Cherokee Nation and settled near in what is now eastern Oklahoma.
What was the name of the fort?

• Fort Gibson
• Fort Johnston
• Fort Jackson

5. Chisholm became a trader and in 1836 married the daughter of James Edwards, who ran a trading post in what is now Hughes County, Oklahoma.
What was her name?

• Eliza
• Beth
• Mildred Ann

6. Chisholm took trade goods west and south into Plains Indian country, established small trading posts, and was soon in demand as a guide and interpreter.
How many dialects was he fluent in?

• 3
• 10
• 14

7. Chisholm assembled representatives from seven tribes at a council on the San Saba River.
What was the date?

• October 7, 1844
• May 12, 1850
• December 10, 1850

8. In 1865, Chisholm and James R. Mead loaded a train of wagons at Fort Leavenworth and established a trading post at Council Grove on the North Canadian River near the site of the Overholser Lake dam.
What is the site of the present city?

• Oklahoma City
• Tulsa
• Clinton

9. Chisholm died of food poisoning after eating rancid bear meat at Left Hand Spring, near the site of present Geary, Oklahoma, on April 4, 1868.

• Fact or Myth?

10. Where is Jesse Chisholm buried?

• Watonga IOOF Cemetery, Watonga, Oklahoma
• Woodland Memorial Park Cemetery, Sand Springs, Oklahoma
• Jesse Chisholm Gravesite, Geary, Oklahoma