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Starting near present-day Harrison,
Arkansas,
the group included some 120-150 men, women and children, primarily
from northwestern
Arkansas,
20 wagons, four carriages, as well as hundreds of draft and riding horses
and about 900 head of cattle. It was one of the richest wagon trains ever
assembled, carrying with it some $100,000 in cash, property, and
livestock. In September, 1857, after the wagon train had been
besieged at Mountain Meadows, Utah for five days, Fancher surrendered
under a flag of truce.
He was killed anyway, along with his wife, Eliza, sons,
James and his wife, Frances "Fanny" Fulfer
Fancher, sons, Hampton, 19, William, 17, and Thomas, 14; daughters, Mary, 15, Martha, 10,
and twins, Magaret and Sara, 7. Only his two youngest children,
Christopher "Kit" Carson Fancher, 5 years-old, and daughter, Tryphena,
were spared. The two youngest children were taken and placed in Mormon
homes initially, but two years after the massacre, they were returned to
Arkansas, where they were raised by a cousin.
 Christopher
"Kit" Carson Fancher (1853-1873) - The eight of the nine Fancher
children, Christopher was born to Alexander and Eliza Fancher in 1853.
Just five years-old at the time of the massacre, he witnessed his father
being killed. He and 22 month-old sister, Tryphena, were the only ones in
the family who were spared. He and his sister were then placed with
a Mormon family in the area, where the boy was called "Charley." After two
years, they were returned to
Arkansas
where they were raised by a cousin, Hampton Bynum Fancher and his wife
Eliza in Osage,
Arkansas.
During the Civil War, Kit traveled to Texas with James F. Fancher, the
father of Hampton Bynum and returned to Osage in 1866. Before his death in
1873, he had been initiated into the Osage Masonic Lodge with his closest
friend and cousin, Spencer Jarnigan Morris. At the age of 20, he died,
unmarried, at the home of Hampton Bynum Fancher, and is buried in the
historic family Fancher-Seitz Cemetery in Osage,
Arkansas.
Eliza Ingram
Fancher (1820?-1857) - Born in Illinois around 1820, or perhaps
earlier, Eliza married Alexander Fancher in Coles County, Illinois on May
12, 1836. The couple would eventually have ten children, all but two of
whom would be killed in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1841, the couple
and their children moved to Missouri, and a few years later, they were
living in Carroll County,
Arkansas. The
Fanchers, and all their children were caught in the Mountain Meadows
Massacre of September, 1857. Alexander, Eliza, and their children,
Hampton, 19, William, 17, Mary, 15, Thomas, 14, Martha, 10, and twins,
Magaret and Sara, 7, were killed. Only their two youngest children,
Christopher "Kit" Carson Fancher, 5 years-old, and daughter, Tryphena,
were spared.
 Tryphena
D. Fancher (1855-1897) -
The youngest of the Fancher's nine children, Tryphena was born to
Alexander and Eliza Fancher, on November 18, 1855. Twenty-two months old
at the time of the massacre, she and her five year-old brother,
Christopher, were the only ones in the family to survive. She and her
brother were placed with a Mormon family for two years, where she was
referred to as "Annie." Afterwards they were returned to
Arkansas
where they were raised by a cousin, Hampton Bynum Fancher and his wife
Eliza in Osage,
Arkansas.
Tryphena grew up and married a farmer named James Chaney Wilson on July 8,
1871 in Carroll County,
Arkansas. The
couple had ten children. Tryphena died on April 30, 1897. Her husband,
James remarried, and he and his new wife raised those children not yet
grown. James died On May 1, 1923.
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