Silas Edwards was the oldest son of Obadiah Edwards and his first wife, Elizabeth Dodson, born abt. 1831 in Tennessee. The Edwards family moved from the Hickman County, Tennessee area into Carroll County, Arkansas around 1854, where Obadiah Edwards purchased 80 acres of land in Jefferson Township on 15 November of that year.

Silas Edwards departed for California with "The Baker Train", under the leadership of Captain John Twitty Baker, in April 1857. The group gathered, and made their preparations for their journey, in the area of the late William C. Beller's homestead at Milum Spring (also called Caravan Spring) in Crooked Creek Township, Carroll County, Arkansas, near the location of Beller's store called "Beller's Stand". He is believed to have been working as a drover, or a hired hand, on the trip west.

S. B. Honea, of Franklin county, Arkansas, departed on the 9th of May, 1857, for California, in company with the Crook & Collins company, later fell in with the Williamson company, from Pope county, Arkansas, before joining the Turner-Dukes Train in Utah.   Honea's account of "The Murdered Train", in More Outrages On The Plains, published 24 October 1857 in the Los Angeles Star, states that the "train which has been so cruelly massacred, was under the charge of Captain Baker, familiarly known as "Uncle Jack," from Carroll county Arkansas. Silas Edwards and William Baker (sic s/b Abel), son of the captain, are also known to have been in the train. At Cedar City, Mr. Honea saw President Haight riding a large bay horse which he recognized as having belonged to Mr. Silas Edwards."

Silas Edwards was 26 years old, and believed to have been single, when he died in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

© 2008 A.C. Wallner for the Mountain Meadows Association. All rights reserved

Inscription:

IN MEMORIAM

IN THE VALLEY BELOW BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 7 AND 11, 1857, A COMPANY OF MORE THAN 120 ARKANSAS EMIGRANTS LED BY CAPT. JOHN T. BAKER AND CAPT. ALEXANDER FANCHER WAS ATTACKED WHILE EN ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. THIS EVENT IS KNOWN IN HISTORY AS THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE

 SILAS EDWARDS
(His age is not recorded on the 1990 Monument on Dan Sill Hill. He was 26 years old.)

*Please note that the names of the victims of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre that appear here are those who we have personally researched and verified as actual victims. In some cases this list will differ from the names that were inscribed on the 1990 Monument on Dan Sill Hill.

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               FOR SILAS EDWARDS