Along a county road in Jackson County, Oklahoma, lies the lonesome grave of Joel Moseley, 1846-1890.
Mr. Moseley was born in Georgia and, at one point, made his way to Texas. He died when Jackson County (organized in 1907) was still part of Greer County, Texas until the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the land between the North Fork and the Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River belonged to Oklahoma Territory.
Mr. Moseley may have died on a cattle drive (if it was a long distance cattle drive, it would have been the Great Western or Dodge City trail). He was buried along the trail, as the nearest cemetery was ten miles away.
Locals knew about the grave, which was ringed with native stones and featured the granite headstone placed by his daughter, a Texas school teacher. They became concerned when the land surrounding it began to erode, so the county commissioner and his crew encased Mr. Moseley’s resting place in concrete along a culvert to keep him where he belongs.
I stumbled upon the grave when I was driving out to the old Aaron school, and found the information above from Find a Grave.
The Aaron school in Jackson County, Oklahoma (near Altus).
The prairie is full of surprises.
