106 - Jennie Clinton - Klamath County, OR
N 42° 25.387 W 121° 21.150
10T E 635536 N 4698070
Aunt Jennie Clinton, over 100 years old (her exact age cannot be determined) and the last survivor of the Modoc War of 1872-1873, died in 1950 and is buried at Chief Schonchin Cemetery, a couple of miles north of Hwy 140 in Klamath County, OR.
Waymark Code: WMF4Q0
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 08/22/2012
Views: 1
Jennie Clinton was a Modoc Indian who was well known among the tribespeople from the Klamath and Modoc tribes and was the last surviving native from the Modoc War of 1872-1873.
There is an online obituary from the local paper that highlights her life and reads:
Herald & News
Klamath Falls, Oregon
September 5, 1950
DEATH CLAIMS FAMED MODOC WAR SURVIVOR
Aunt Jennie Clinton, around a hundred years old and the last survivor of the Modoc War of 1872-1873, died in her sleep Sunday at her Williamson home on the Klamath Indian Reservation.
Her exact age was unknown. A reservation census listed her as having been born in 1859 but other sources indicate she was born earlier and possibly was 102 years old. She was in her early girlhood, when Captain Jack, Modoc Indian chief, led his band off the Klamath Reservation into the lava beds of northern California and there stood off the U.S. Army for many months.
At the end of the War Captain Jack and three other leaders of the revolt were hanged at Fort Klamath by order of President Grant and Jennie witnessed the execution. She was Captain Jack's niece.
EXILE
In October, 1873, after the execution, the remainder of the group that left the reservation with Captain Jack were exiled to the Quapaw Reservation, then in Indian territory on the Missouri line. Jennie Clinton was among the exiles.
In June, 1903, she and others of the exiled band were allowed to return to Oregon and in 1909 they were restored to the rolls of the Klamath Reservation. The next year she went back to Quapaw and returned to Oregon in 1915. Jennie went back to Quapaw and then came back to the Klamath Reservation to make her home permanently in 1918.
RELIGIOUS
A highly religious person since she recovered from a childhood illness, Jennie Clinton preached for many years in Oklahoma and later on the Klamath Reservation.
She had been blind for many years before her death and had been cared for by a nephew, Wilbur Crim. Clyde James, another nephew living in Albuquerque, was with her at the time of her death.
Funeral services will be conducted Thursday from the Quaker Church at Sprague River she helped found, and burial will be alongside her husband, Daniel Clinton, at Chief Schonchin Cemetery.
The link to the online obituary which also shares a story about Amanda Cowen from 1929 can be accessed with this link:Jennie Clinton Obit
DIRECTIONS TO CEMETERY:
From Hwy 140, turn onto Sprague River Rd heading north. Proceed north about two miles until you come to a gravel road on your left that leads to a red ranch house. Proceed through the ranch house property (this is a public access road) for another quarter mile and you will come to a clearing and to the Chief Schonchin Cemetery.