Jane King Phelps

Jane King Phelps, Chequah Watbee

(1766-1886)

Jane King Phelps (Chequah Watbee) was born on January 6, 1766 and lived to be nearly 120 years old. She witnessed remarkable changes over her long life and survived removal from Ohio and removal from Kansas.

Jane was a medicine woman and midwife, and she passed down traditional stories of the Ottawa to her descendants. She was aunt to Chief Joseph Badger King, mother-in-law to Chief James Wind, and great-grandmother to Chief Guy Jennison. Jane’s husband, Wabee or Kinewaba, was a grand-nephew of Chief Pontiac and the eighth Ottawa signatory to the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids of 1817.

In her later years, Jane’s birthday was celebrated as a community event, and the picture of her seated and dressed in black is said to have been taken on her birthday in 1882, when she was 116 years old.

  • During her later years, Jane King’s birthday was celebrated widely by the local community, and at her 115th birthday, she is said to have demonstrated to the attendees how the Ottawas danced over a century before.

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  • Another photo of Aunt Jane, on the back of which lists her as 110 years old. According to multiple accounts written toward the end of her life, Jane King had attained the age of around 120 years old at the time of her death in 1886.

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  • Aunt Jane is buried in the Ottawa Indian Cemetery in Miami, Oklahoma.

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