106 - Dr. Sam Watah - Paiute Cemetery - Beatty, OR
N 42° 29.243 W 121° 15.904
10T E 642583 N 4705350
This supposed centenarian's headstone is located within Paiute Cemetery and north of Beatty, OR.
Waymark Code: WMJF14
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 11/09/2013
Views: 3
Located in Paiute Cemetery, a Native American cemetery, are a few grave sites of centenarians. One grave site contains a headstone of Dr. Sam Watah who supposedly lived to be 106 years of age and died on September 18, 1941. I located an online
page for Dr. Sam on
FindaGrave.com which lists his birth date in 1854 which would not make him a centenarian but the attached photo of his death certificate on the website lists his age at 106 years and his headstone also lists his birth and death dates as 106 years. There's also an attached obituary for Dr. Sam that reads:
Dr. Sam Watah, a lifelong resident of the Klamath reservation, passed away at his late residence near Beatty, OR., on Thursday, September 18. The deceased was a native of Paisley, Ore., and was aged 106 years when called. He is survived by a brother, Roscoe Watah; a daughter, Mrs. Della Bliss; 5 grandchildren, Richard Biss, Irvin Weiser, Florence Thompson, Royde Chocktoot and Jerry Chocktoot; also 21 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great grandchildren, all of Beatty, Ore. The remains rest in Ward's Klamath Funeral Home, 925 High Street, where friends may call. Notice of the funeral arrangements will be announced later.
With these three pieces of evidence, I can only come to the assumption that he was in fact 106 years of age when he died. It should be noted that I have come across a few Native American graves of supposed centenarians in cemeteries throughout the region and have read that most Native Americans had no proof of birth dates and so it was almost impossible to prove when they were born.