Mountain Meadows Massacre Victims and Wagon Train Members

Mountain Meadows Massacre Victims - Page 4

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"The scene was one too horrible

and sickening for language to describe. Human skeletons, disjointed bones,

ghastly skulls and the hair of women

were scattered in frightful profusion

over a distance of two miles."

- A traveler passing through the

area in 1859

From the cover of Harper's Weekly, August 13, 1859

William M. Eaton - A native of Indiana, Eaton was living in Illinois in the mid 1850's where he owned and operated a farm. Early in 1857 he met some men from Arkansas who were visiting relatives in Illinois before they moved to California with the Fancher Wagon Train. Eaton, who had a niece who lived in Salt Lake City, was intrigued, and soon sold his farm, and with plans to move his family to California, he "temporarily" he took his wife and young daughter to stay with family in Indiana before joining the Arkansas company. As the wagon train was ready to pull out of Salt Lake City, Utah to continue their journey westward, Eaton wrote a cheerful letter to his wife stating that all was well. It would be the last communication from the group. He was killed in the Mountain Meadow massacre in September, 1857.

Captain Alexander Fancher (1813-1857) - Born in Overton County, Tennessee to Isaac and Anne Tully Fancher, Alexander was familiarly known to his friends and family as "Piney Alex." He moved with his parents and siblings from Tennessee to Illinois around 1823. On May 12, 1836, he married Eliza Ingram in Coles County, Illinois. 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. There, Fancher served in the County Militia in the 1849 Tutt-Everett War, an event that grew out of a feud between two powerful Ozark families.

Over the years, Fancher worked as a farmer, a cattleman, and was said to have made three different trips to California in the 1850s. In 1852 Alexander Fancher was back in Carroll County, Arkansas where he purchased 40 acres of land and by 1854, he owned more than 200 acres. In April, 1857, Fancher led a number of families on the trek to California.

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 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 Wilson 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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