~~page 6 & 7, from "Among the Cherokees," by Dub West, c 1981; West was an early Historian for the City of Muskogee, Oklahoma... JOHN JOLLY (Oo-Loo-Te-Ka) led 331 Cherokees including 108 warriors west to join the Western Cherokees. Sequoyah was among this group. Jolly settled on the east bank of the Illinois River about one mile above its mouth, naming the site Tahlonteskee after his brother. Upon the death of Tahlonteskee, he became Chief of the Western Cherokees. One of his first acts after becoming Chief was to seek peace with the Osage. When Thomas Nuttall stopped among the Cherokees in 1819, he wrote of Jolly, "Being a half Indian, and dressed as a white man, I should have scarcely have distinguished him from an American except by his language. He was very plain and unassuming in his dress and manners; a Franklin amongst his countrymen and affectionately called the Beloved Father. I am told that his word is inviolable and that his generosity knew no bounds but the limitation of his means." He and Captain John Rogers gave permission to missionaries Alfred Finney. Cephas Washburn, J. Orr, and Jacob Hitchcock to select a site for Dwight Mission with the first service being held May 13, 1821. Alfred Finney later wrote a letter saying that Chief John Jolly had made frequent calls asking when the school would begin and that he hoped the Western Cherokees would become as advanced those in the "Old Nation." In March of 1829 Sam Houston came up the Arkansas River in the Steamboat Facility and went to Chief Jolly's home. He had previously been adopted by Jolly, his "Indian Father" and given the name of Col-on-ah or the Raven. Jolly wrote a letter to Andrew Jackson December 3, 1829, as follows: "My son the Raven came to me last spring. I was glad to meet him and my heart embraced him when he arrived at my wigwam; he rested with me and was as my own son. He has walked straight, and my heart has rejoiced in him." Alfred Finney in making a report making a report of the work of Dwight Mission in 1838 wrote, "John Jolly, who is most influential, talks to his people and tells them to 'hear good.' He says his place will always be open for them to occupy on the Sabbath." As Chief of the Western Cherokees, Jolly signed the permit to establish the Park Hill Press. Chief John Jolly died in December 1838.