Jacquelina Biggs King

Jacquelina Biggs King, 1844-1887
A Keetoowah Woman
 
Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, Block 2, Lot 6, Space 1

(Tintype of Jacquelina King, courtesy of Janelle Molony)

 

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By the time Jacquelina Biggs King arrived in Phoenix in 1887, she was 43 years old and had crossed the western United States at least twice by wagon train. According to a somewhat fictionalized memoir penned by her son, Frank Marion King, she was the quintessential pioneer woman.
 
Jacquelina is thought to have been born on May 9, 1844, in Arkansas. Her Anglo father, David Biggs, Sr., was an Indian trader who operated in the Trans-Mississippi West. There, he met and married Martha “Patsy” Chisholm, said to have been the half-sister of the famous frontiersman, Jesse Chisholm. They had at least seven children.
 
Martha (and by extension, her children) were Keetoowah, the official name of their band today. Natives of the southeastern United States, the Keetoowah had begun moving west as early as 1817. Because of this, they were already established in Indian Territory by 1838 and so escaped the Trail of Tears experience.
 
The Biggses resided in Cherokee County, Texas until about 1852, when David Biggs decided to move his family to California. Over the course of several months, they drove a herd of five hundred head of cattle through El Paso and Yuma to California. The 1860 federal census records the family living in Tulare County, where the Biggs men acquired land and became prosperous farmers almost overnight. 
 
Meanwhile, Jacquelina had become acquainted with another newcomer, Samuel Houston King. They were married in Visalia, California, on April 1, 1860. The 1870 federal census found the Kings farming in Los Angeles County. By 1871, they had five children.
 
In hopes of obtaining homestead land in Oklahoma, the Kings made the arduous trek back to Indian Territory in 1872 so that Jacquelina could register formally as a member of the Keetoowah band. Her tribal membership was confirmed on November 27, 1872, and her children were listed as beneficiaries, although no government allotments were actually made until years later.  
 
Instead of returning to California, the Kings remained in Clay County, Texas, until 1879, when they moved to Golden, New Mexico. The 1880 federal census records 44-year-old Sam Houston King and his 17-year-old son Francis working as copper miners.
 
Although Sam seems to have retained his mining interests in New Mexico, he and Jacquelina were in Phoenix, Arizona, when she died in September 6, 1887. She was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery. Sam Houston King died in Florence, Arizona, in 1915.
 
© 2026 by Janelle Molony and Donna Carr. Last revised 30 September 2026.

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