This cemetery sets on private property and is located 1/4 to 1/2 mile east of the historical markers honoring Rev. Willis Folsom and Rev. John Page, brothers-in-law, on State Highway 112 South of Pocola. It is on the north side of Wells Creek.  Section 20, Township 9N, Range 27E.

This cemetery is the burial place of Willis Folsom, a great Methodist Missionary and reglious leader in Indian Territory. He established the first school at Pocola and the first Methodist misison there. This was called Folsom Chapal. In 1908 the old church was torn down. Another church was built and the name changed to Macedonia. 

 

Rev. Willis F. Folsom's father was McKee Folsom. His grandfather was Nathaniel 2., his g-grandfather was Nathaniel 1, his g-g-grandfather was Israel, g-g-g-grandfather Samuel, g-g-g-g-grandfather John Folsom. John Folsom was the English acnestor of the family who came to the American Colonies at a very early period. Nathaniel 2 was born in Rowan County, North Carolina in May 1756. He moved from Georgia to Bok Tuklo (Two Creeks), in the old Choctaw Nation, in Mississippi, after the Revoluntionary War. Between the years 1780 and 1790, he was  trader among the Indians. There Nathaniel Folsom married two Choctaw sisters, I-Ah-Ne-Cha and Ai-Ne-Chi-Hoyo. Plural marriages were a Chocatw custom at that time. Nathaniel fathered 24 children. His wives were of the Royal Iksa Clan. They were descended from a long line of chiefs of the Iksa-hattick-ihal-ihta, one of the two greatest Choctaw Clans. Two brothers of Nathaniel 2, Ebenezer and Edmond, also married Choctaw women. This is where the Folsom Indian Ancestry begins. Ebenezer fathered only one daughter before the left his Choctaw wife. He later married a white woman in Arkansas and had other children. Rev. Willis F. Folsom is a descandant of Nathaniel 2 and Ai-Ne-Chi-Hoyo.

 

Rev. Willis F. Folsom was born in 1825 in the old nation, east of the Mississippi River. In 1932-33 he moved, with his family to the new Choctaw Nation during the "Trail of Tear" Removal.

They settled at Mountain Fork, later called Eagle Town in Red River Country, in now eastern McCurtain County, Oklahoma. There his grandfather Nathaniel, stricken with Palsy died, October 19, 1833. He was buried on Mountain Fork in the same grave with his sister Emily Folsom Robinson, who died three days before. Emily was the mother of Rev. Calvin Robinson of Caddo. Willis and his family later moved to Skullyville County and settled near the Poteau River in the Pocola area. Pocola in Choctaw means 10 miles. It is 10 miles from Ft. Smith, Arkansas.

 

Willis became a Christian when he was ablut 13 years old and in 1851 was licensed to preach by the Methodist Church Soutyh. From that time until his death at Pocola in 1897, he devoted his life to preaching the gospel. He preached in both the Choctaw and English languages and interpreted sermons for white missionaries. Folsom was responsible for an estimated 5,000 conversions among the Indians.