James Holmes Colbert

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Birth: 1829 Mississippi, USA Death: Jan. 24, 1872 District Of Columbia, USA

(First) interment

Find A Grave #99895617 The Evening Star Monday, March 25, 1872 Death Of An Indian. Colonel Holmes Colbert, a representative of the Chickasaw Indian nation, died yesterday at the rooms of Dr. Long and Colonel Boudinot, of the same tribe, on Pennsylvania Avenue, near 6th Street, after an illness of ten days. His disease was typhoid fever and he was about 40 years of age. He will be buried by the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member in high standing.

The Critic-Record Wednesday, March 27, 1872 The City The funeral of the late Colonel Colbert, the representative of the Chickasaw Nation, who died on Sunday last, took place yesterday from No. 610 Pennsylvania Avenue and was attended by many eminent persons in our midst, both private and official. His remains were interred in Glenwood Cemetery.

(Chronicles of Oklahoma 1954 P.110 by George H. Shirk.) Holmes Colbert became an outstanding leader among his people, serving many years as their delegate to Washington, D.C., where he died in 1873.His remains were brought back to the Chickasaw Nation,and burial made in the old cemetery at Bloomfield Academy.

Mr.& Mrs.Colbert had their beautiful home in the Red River valley 

(Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory, H. F. O'Beirne (Chicago, 1891), pp. 296-7).

Holmes Colbert, born in 1829, was a member of one of the most distinguished families of the Chickasaw Nation. He was graduated from Union College at Schenectady, New York when he was twenty-three, and three years later drafted the Chickasaw Constitution which was adopted by that nation. His life was devoted to the welfare of his people and he died in Washington DC on March 24, 1872, while serving as a delegate. His funeral was attended by many distinguished persons and he was buried in Glenwood Cemetery. He was described as "a noble, generous, large-hearted man, beloved by all who knew him.

(Oklahoma Chronicles Vol XXXII )

(he wrote the Constitution for the Chickasaw Nation and was in Washington, D.C. attending to National affairs when died.His body remained in Washington DC.until the completion of the M.K.and T. Railroad.  His body was returned to Indian Territory on the first passenger train that came over M.K.and T. Railroad and was received by his family at the Colbert Station, then taken across country ten miles for burial in the Bloomfield Cemetery.