Rev. Jesse Crary Bushyhead was born at Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, and graduated from Cherokee Male Seminary in 1887 before studying medicine at Belleview, New York, (1888-1889) and Missouri Medical School (1889-1891). He came to Pryor Creek and Claremore in northeastern Oklahoma to practice medicine in 1891 and studied his post graduate work at Tulane University in Louisiana, New York Polyclinic, and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout his life, Dr. Bushyhead maintained an outstanding reputation as a doctor and tribal leader among the Cherokees and served as the last treasurer to be elected in the Cherokee Nation in 1903.