(James
Polk Fancher, born 13 October 1842, was the son of James Fancher and
Elizabeth Carlock. His brother, Hampton Bynum Fancher, born 9
January 1928, raised the two survivoring Fancher children.)
How J. P.
Fancher of Berryville, Ark., Has Kept Track of the Surviving
Children in His State, Missouri and Texas, Working for Government
Aid Seeking to Bring About a Reunion -- Formation and Departure of
the Emigrant Train -- Hostility of the Mormons -- Arrival at
Mountain Meadows -- The Massacre, as Told in the Confession of
Bishop Lee of the Mormon Church -- Servitude of Children Spared From
the Slaughter -- Their Rescue and Return to Arkansas.
This is the story of the greatest tragedy connected with the history
of the State of Arkansas -- the Mountain Meadows massacre -- and of
the strange adventures, rescue and after life of the few survivors
of the great tragedy, the children of Arkansas parents.
The latest effort in the direction of bringing about a reunion of
these survivors of the Mountain Meadows massacre. Should this prove
practicable, one of the most picturesque and pathetic spectacles
possible would then be presented.
Some point in the
State of Arkansas will be chosen for the reunion, if it is found
that the survivors of the Mountain Meadows massacre can again be
brought together. It would be the first time they have met in a body
since that day, many years ago, when, rescued from the Mormons and
brought back to their native State, they were received by old
neighbors, friends and kinfolk as though coming back from the dead.
(See: Additional Information on Reunion)
For more than a
quarter of a century one man in Carroll County, Arkansas, has
watched over the fortunes of these survivors of a historic tragedy
with almost a fatherly interest. That man is James Polk Fancher, and
the objects of his persistent care are the little remnant of that
train of emigrants who escaped the bloody fate of their parents and
friends at the Mountain Meadow massacre in the southern part of the
Territory of Utah nearly forty years ago. The nephew of the brave
commander of the train, and related to many other victims of the
unparalleled butchery of more than 100 defenseless men, women and
children, Mr. Fancher, the present County Clerk of Carroll County,
has had good reason to exercise a kindly guardianship over that now
scattered and diminished band of orphans whose infant eyes beheld
one of the most terrific spectacles of inhumanity ever perpetuated
in any land.
"Polk" Fancher, as everybody in Carroll County calls the Berryville
attorney and official, has never lost any of his zeal for the
seventeen boys and girls spared by the Mormons and their Indian
allies on that bloody day in September, 1857, when the Arkansas
emigrants "surrendered" to John D. Lee and his trecherous associates
after a week of fighting accompanied by horrors that to-day make the
minds of thousands of people shudder when the Mountain Meadow
massacre is mentioned. It was more than twenty-five years ago when
Polk Fancher began to urge the claims of the survivors for
Congressional aid. He thought the national Government should assume
some parental care over the few persons who lost the dearest
interests of life and every heritage of material wealth in that
awful destruction of the train of emigrants. Many other prominent
citizens of Nirthwest Arkansas have hoped that Congress would take
some action in favor of the Mountain Meadow survivors.
As the history of the great Mormon crime and the earnest and
generous champion of the rights and interests of every survivor of
the train, Polk Fancher has done more than any other person to keep
alive the public sympathy in this matter. Related to United States
Senator James H. Berry and ex-Congressman Samuel W. Peel, both of
whom were Carroll County men, Mr. Fancher has had some able workers
in his cause at Washington City, but thus far no recognition of the
claims of the survivors has been secured.
With a view to the possible success of his laudable efforts to
obtain some appropriation in favor of the Mountain Meadow people,
the Clerk of Carroll County has through all these long years kept up
a correspondence with most of the survivors, and the question of a
reunion of the scattered remnant of the unfortunate train has often
been contemplated, though the obstacles in the way of such a
desirable event have so far prevented its achievement.
But he has not despaired, and at the present time is renewing his
efforts in this direction. The "Mountain Meadows Reunion" may yet be
brought about in the near future.
In the early
spring of 1857, now a little more than thirty-eight years ago, a
large and well-equipped train of emigrants left Northwest Arkansas
for California. The counties of Carroll, Madison, Searcy, Marion and
Crawford furnished the majority of the fortune-seekers, who were
thus allured away from their quiet homes in the Ozark Mountains by
the golden promises of the far-famed Eldorado of the Pacific Slope.
The preparations for the momentous journey had begun long before the
melting of the winter snows, and tradition says that all the country
for many miles around Berryville, the county seat of Carroll County,
knew of the contemplated adventure and talked much about the coming
event. A trip across the plains then seemed a marvelous undertaking
to the people of the White River region, who lived at least 500
miles from a railroad, and had but a vague idea of the nature of the
outside world. So the approaching departure of these Arkansas
argonauts naturally provoked a great deal of comment, for those were
days when the pioneer settlers did not soon tire of a theme of local
interest. The appetite of the mountaineers for news was fresh and
vigorous. Books were few, and newspapers almost unknown in that
rugged section of the Union, and the people discussed the current
happenings of their territory of acquaintance when they met at
house-raisings, log-rollings, shooting matches, camp meetings and
other gatherings characteristic of pioneer life over a generation
ago. Perhaps every man, woman and child in Carroll and the adjacent
counties had heard about the prospective train weeks before the
emigrants departed for the wonderland at the western end of the
continent.
When the emigrants
assembled and organized for the trip they numbered about 140 souls,
comprising over twenty families, most of these connected by various
kindred ties. The heads of the families were yet in the prime of
life. The men were stalwart pioneers of the East Tennessee type --
tall, muscular and resolute fellows -- trained in that rugged school
of unconscious heroism that has given to the great West its
forest-tamers and path-finders. The boys, just entering manhood,
lacked the physical grace of the city youths of to-day who attend
gymnasiums and participare in athletic contests, but the young
mountaineers knew much about woodcraft, and in the arts of pioneer
life they were very resourceful, in the use of the old flint-lock
rifle, hammered out in a Tennesee forge years ago, these awkward
lads seen about the camp of the emigrants were marvelous experts,
and they looked forward to the prospect of drawing a bead on the big
game of the plains as the most eventful feature of the journey.
There were coy and modest maidens in the train, who had never been
twenty miles from their mountain homes, and these fair young
daughters of the Arkansas border looked westward with hearts full of
romantic dreams as the train made ready to start on the long strange
journey to the treasure-laden shores of the great ocean. About the
camp fires little children frolicked and prattled, half wondering
what the show of covered wagons, cattle, horses and people meant.
There were forty wagons and a number of carriages in the train;
about 1,000 head of cattle and several hundred horses. A magnificent
stallion, worth $2,000, the finest animal, it was claimed, that ever
crossed the plains up to that time, constituted a noble feature of
the train. The value of the property which the emigrants took with
them aggregated over $100,000. the old settlers of Northwest
Arkansas to-day believe. It was an unusually rich company, and
attracted attention everywhere along the way on this account.
Capt. Alexander Fancher of Carroll County was the organizer and
commander of the train. He had crossed the plains twice before, and
being a man of superior intelligence, integrity and courage, was
well fitted for the leadership in the expedition which his followers
by a unanimous choice assigned him. The commander was about 40 years
old, tall and rather slender than heavy in body, his old neighbors
say. He was a Tennessean by birth, had married in Cumberland County,
Illinois, and settled on the Osage Creek in Carroll County,
Arkansas, many years before the beginning of this story.
Many relatives and friends came to the camp of rendezvous to tell
the emigrants good-bye and wish them a safe journey. Tears dimmed
hundreds of eyes at that memorable parting, and yet none in the
weeping multitude dreamed that the separation would end all earthly
relations between most of the members of that fated train and their
kindred at home. Never did a company of brave adventurers turn their
backs on loved ones and fond associations to march to a more
terrible doom.
The Fancher train, as it was called, moved out of Arkansas to the
prairies of Kansas, taking the regular California route through that
territory and Colorado. At every fort and station where letters
could be mailed some of the emigrants wrote to the kindred and
friends they had left behind. The news of the progress of the train
was eagerly received at home, and through the local agencies for the
distribution of this information thousands of people in Northern
Arkansas and the border counties of Missouri knew all the incidents
of the trip as they were told by mail from week to week. At all the
camp-meetings, wool-pickings and quiltings held in Carroll County,
Arkansas, during the summer of 1857 the latest report from the train
was a preferred topic of conversation, and many letters written on
the burning plains were actually worn out in passing from hand to
hand among the numerous relatives and friends of the now distant
travelers.
Letters came
regularly till the train reached the southern part of Utah, The
emigrants arrived at Salt Lake City late in August. Here they took
what was known as the "Southern route," which ran through Provo,
Nephi, Fillmore and Cedar City. At this time the Latter Day Saints
were in a state of great excitement. The United States mails had
been stopped in Utah, a Governor had been appointed to supplant
Brigham Young, who, in addition to his ecclesiastical sovereignty as
President of the Mormon Church, was also the Chief Executive of the
Territorial Government, and an army under the command of Albert
Sidney Johnston was then marching toward Salt Lake City to see that
the prophet and his followers did not longer defy the laws of
Congress. It was an ill-fated time for the Arkansas emigrants to
attempt to pass through the Territory, now so thoroughly dominated
by the blind and zealous votaries of this un-American religious
fanaticism. Never had the Mormon faith burned with more bigoted
fervor than in the summer of 1857, when President Young issued his
proclamation declaring war against the United States and commanding
his followers, if necessary, to burn their homes, devastate the
whole country around Salt Lake and flee, with what sustenance they
could carry, to the mountain vastnesses and there defy the pursuit
of the enemy.
There is another fact of Mormon history which many persons have
thought sheds some light on the events that will follow in the
course of this story. Among the early teachers of the doctrine first
promulgated by the prophet Joseph Smith was Parley P. Pratt, brother
of Orson Pratt, whose zeal for the new faith would dare all
opposition and danger. He was gifted with an eloquent tongue and
something of a poetic fancy, it is said, and could urge the claims
of the alleged golden plates and the mission of the Latter Day
Saints as none of Smith's other co-laborers were able to do. Pratt
went to Arkansas on a proselyting tour, and while in that State
converted the wife of a citizen of considerable prominence, who
lived near Ft. Smith. The faithless wife went to Utah with Pratt and
became one of the priest's household. In after years the woman
returned with her Mormon husband to Arkansas. The injured husband
now suspected that the woman was trying to steal away her children
from their home and take them to Utah, so tradition says, and he
chased Pratt out of the State, and after running him some distance
into the Indian Territory overtook the fugitive and ended with a
dirk the career of this Mormon evangelist.
On this account, it is claimed, the people of Arkansas became
peculiarly hateful to all loyal disciples of the Prophet of the
Saints. Whether the fate of the Fancher train can in any way be
connected with the killing of Pratt the writer will not attempt to
say. The circumstance is given here as one of the many elements that
make up the story of this tragedy.
The train passed through Provo, Nephi, Filmore and Cedar City, and
was about to leave the Great Utah Basin and cross over the summit of
the cintinent to the Pacific slope, when all news from the emigrants
suddenly stopped.
Every mail for months had brought to the relatives in Arkansas
letters from the moving train, but now there came an ominous
silence. Weeks came and went, summer faded into autumn, the frosts
of October were followed by the first harbingers of winter, and yet
no word or trace of the lost train could be had. A thousand hearts
in the mountain homes of Arkansas beat anxiously as the last days of
the memorable year dragged heavily on and no tidings came of the
missing ones. Doubts became fears, and fears grew into convictions
of an awful calamity before the slightest clue of the mystery
reached the friends of the vanished train. At last on the 31st day
of December, 1857, William C. Mitchell, a member of the Arkansas
Legislature from Carroll County, received the first information of
the massacre of the immigrants at Mountain Meadows in the
southwestern part of Utah. Mr. Mitchell had obtained the news of the
shocking butchery from Los Angeles, Cal., where the story of the
massacre had been conveyed by other emigrants who passed through the
meadows while signs of the crime were yet unmistakable.
The Legislature of Arkansas at once took steps to investigate the
affair, and so did the United States authorities. It was first
reported as an Indian massacre, and a long time elapsed before the
awful truth became known that Mormon hate treachery directed and
abetted the savages in this almost unparalleled slaughter of 121
helpless men, women and children. Only the most convincing evidence
could force such a revolting revelation on the public. That proof,
however, came after Nemesis had seemed to sleep for years, and the
details of the Mountain Meadows massacre were given to the world in
the trial of the Mormon bishop, John D. Lee.
____________
On the 22nd of
June, 1858, nine months after the massacre, Dr. Jacob Forney, United
States Superintendent of Utah, discovered the whereabouts of some
children supposed to be survivors of the Mountain Meadows tragedy.
Up to that time it was not known by the relatives and friends of the
Fancher train that a single soul had escaped death. The
investigation went on so slowly, however, that another year elapsed
before the children were gathered together. On the 15th of June,
1859, the following survivors of the massacre were placed in charge
of Maj. Whiting of the United States Army: Rebecca, Fannie and Sarah
Dunlap, daughters of Jesse Dunlap, deceased, from Carroll County,
Ark.; Prudence, Angelina and Georgiana Dunlap, daughters of L. D.
Dunlap, Marion County; Martha, Sarah and William T. Baker, heirs of
G. W. Baker, Carroll County; Carson and Tryphenia Fancher, son and
daughter of Capt. Alexander Fancher, commander of the train, Carroll
County; John C., Mary and Joseph Miller, Crawford County; Milum and
William Tackett, sons of Pleasant Tackett, Carroll County; Sophronia
and F. M. Jones, children of J. M. Jones, Carroll County.
When the children were found and rescued from the Mormons they had
been in captivity nearly two years. The majority of the little
orphans had no recollection of the massacre and supposed they were
at home among those whose hands helped shed their kindred blood. A
few of the older children remembered the awful scene of slaughter
and the days of siege and fighting which preceded the final
destruction of the train, but they were separated from the other
survivors and had no means of telling their sad story to friendly
ears.
The children, except Milum Tackett and John C. Miller, were sent by
Maj. Whiting to Fort Leavenworth, the two survivors named being
detained in Utah as witnesses for the Government. At Fort
Leavenworth the band of boys and girls stopped for a while until met
by William C. Mitchell, special agent for the Government, and one
Mrs. Railey of Arkansas, who took the survivors on to the homes of
their relatives. Mr. Mitchell was the member of the Arkansas
Legislature who first heard of the massacre of the train. On the
16th of September, 1859, two years and four days after the Mountain
Meadows horror, Mr. Mitchell and Mrs. Railey reached Carrollton,
Carroll County, Ark., with their charge. Carrollton had been the
home of many of the families that perished in the massacre, and it
was here that most of the children were to be distributed among
their relatives.
The scene which characterized the reception of the surviving orphans
at Carrollton is described by those who witnessed the event as one
of the most affecting spectacles ever known and the old men and
women who still tell the story seldom get through with the incidents
without shedding tears.
Some of the children were recognized by their relatives and claimed
at once. Others could not be clearly identified, as they were so
young. The survivors found homes among kindred or the friends of
their parents, and each one of them became an object of especial
interest to all the people of the surrounding country. The older
children were talked to constantly for days about the massacre, and
no doubt the little ones learned to believe some of the stories
which fancy created where memory failed in trying to recall the
details of the tragedy and its consequences.
John C. Miller and Milum Tackett, the two witnesses, were taken to
Washington City by Dr. Forney in January, 1860. After being examined
by the government authorities the boys were taken to Carrollton,
Ark., by Maj. John Henry of Van Buren. These children, though the
oldest of the survivors, were too young to be used as legal
witnesses and they did not testify in the trial of John D. Lee,
which occurred after Tackett and Miller had grown to manhood.
____________
The full enormity
of the crime of Mountain Meadows was not known till the details of
the massacre were brought out in the trial of John D. Lee and his
Mormon accomplices, and the confession of the only man who died to
expiate the wholesale murder of the Fancher train paints this
picture as one of the darkest combinations of cowardly treachery and
fiendish barbarity ever held up to the view of a civilized people.
At the time of the massacre of the Arkansas emigrants John D. Lee
was living near the Mountain Meadows and acting as farmer for the
Pah Utes Indians. Isaac C. Haight was President of the State (sic)
of Zion and second in Mormon authority in Southern Utah to Colonel
William. Dame, who commanded that military district. On or about
Friday, Sept. 9, 1857, Capt. Fancher and his train reached the
Mountain Meadows, eight miles siuth of the village of Pinto. This
place was then a grassy valley about five miles long and one mile
wide, walled in by high mountains. At either end of the pass was a
good spring. West of this divide, which connects the Utah basin and
the Pacific slope, lies what is known as the Ninety Miles Desert,
and emigrant trains usually stopped here a few days to rest their
stock and prepare for the journey across the waterless region
beyond.
Capt. Fancher, having traveled the route twice before, decided to
stop at the Meadows and refresh his train. At the northern end of
the valley or pass was the "corral" of Jacob Hamblin, sub-agent for
the Pah Utes. It was at the southern spring that the Arkansas
emigrants made their camp.
The spring was in a gulch or ditch about eight feet deep. From the
bank above the water the ground was nearly level for a distance of
200 yards, and on this part of the Meadows the wagons of the train
were corralled.
This must have seemed a pleasant camping place to the weary
emigrants. They had now been on the road nearly five months and were
about to cross over the great mountain range that divides the Father
of Waters from the Pacific slope of the continent. Behind them were
the memories of home and loved associations, while to the westward
lay the goal of their new hopes. How these people, over whom the
shadow of an impending doom was then gathering so darkly, spent the
time from Friday till Monday morning will never be known. The oldest
survivors of the train brought home with them only dim and shadowy
memories of the stay at Mountain Meadows till the cruel scene of
death began. Those days of rest were no doubt full of interest to
the older emigrants. They talked of their old homes and wrote
letters to relatives and friends -- letters that were destined never
to enter the mails. The children played on the beautiful wild meadow
and perhaps gazed in wonder at the towering mountains which walled
in the little valley. Some of the men were perhaps busy repairing
the harness of their teams, while the women washed and mended
clothing and cooked a supply of food for the journey beyond the
mountains. Thus, might fancy sketch, that the pen of the historian
can never describe in musing on the last peaceful hours of the
Arkansas emigrants who perished at the Mountain Meadows.
At daylight on
Monday morning, Sept. 12, while the emigrants were preparing
breakfast, a volley of rifle shots startled the camp, and seven
members of the train fell dead, while more than twice that number
were wounded. The shots came from the gulch near the corral of
wagons and savage yells told, as the emigrants supposed, the nature
of the secret foe.
A scene of terror and confusion indescribable must have followed
this attack, as the train realized the effects of the first fire and
saw the peril of the situation, but those Arkansas men were brave
and heroic, and they soon had their long rifles in hand and drove
the murderous assailants from the gulch to a more distant place of
concealment. Then the besieged emigrants began to fortify their
position.
The wagon wheels were chained together, a ditch dug for the riflemen
and to protect the women and children, and Capt. Fancher arranged
his forces for the battle which he knew had only begun. The Indians
kept up the fire from their new position, which the emigrants
returned from time to time when they saw a good chance to do
effective work. The dead were buried, uncoffined, in rude graves dug
within the corral, and the wounded received such attentions as the
situation would allow. Thus the first day of the siege wore on while
the savage enemy received new recruits from the surrounding
mountains.
The first attack had stampeded the cattle and the Indians drove off
the animals and butchered some of them in sight of the emigrants.
Night came and brought new fears and perils to the beleagured train.
There was no sleep during the long, terrible hours till the dawn of
the second day of the siege. All night the Indians had feasted and
yelled around the camp and by morning they could be seen in larger
numbers. It was evident that other tribes were joining the cruel
Utes in their blood-thirsty war on the emigrants.
The men of the train saw the increasing danger of their situation
and resolved to try to reach aid by sending two trusty messengers to
the Mormon settlement at Cedar City. The men started on their
perilous trip and the emigrants fought on and waited for help. That
night while the two scouts were telling their sad story to some of
Brigham Young's disciples at Richard's Spring and begging for
assistance one of the men, Adam (sic, s/b Aiden), was shot and
killed by a Mormon assassin, and the other messenger, though
wounded, made his escape back to the Meadows and disclosed to his
companions the awful truth that the Indians were but the allies of
the whites in the attack on the train.
Hope must have died in the hearts of the weary and doomed emigrants
when they learned that the Mormons were aiding the savages. Soon
they saw the story of their wounded messenger confirmed when white
men appeared among the war-paonted Indians and became open and
active allies of these howling fiends. These inhuman fanatics of the
Mormon faith were signaled by the people in the camp, but they
refused to recognize a flag of truce even when carried by a little
child.
One last effort to reach some friendly hand beyond the besieging
foes was made. A statement of the condition of the train was set
forth in writing, addressed to Masons, Odd Fellows, Methodists,
Baptists and all humane people. This was signed by the emigrants and
given to three of the most active and resolute men in the camp with
instructions to go westward in search of help. There was no hope of
aid from the other end of the route, as the fate of Aiden had
already shown. The three messengers stole out of the corral at night
and started on their mission. They were pursued, overtaken in the
Santa Clara Mountains and all slain.
The cowardly foes hung around the camp day and night, firing
whenever they could see one of the emigrants. If a man, woman or
child left the corral to go to the spring or to get firewood a
shower of bullets fell around the exposed person. Hunger and thirst
were added to the miseries of the camp and the stench of the
putrefying carcasses of horses and cattle killed on the first day of
the fight poisoned the air.
The days and nights came and went, but no sign of relief or mercy
could be discerned by a member of the train. The tragedy that began
on Monday morning was soon to end with a scene of horror which would
give to the Mountain Meadows a name unparalleled in the catalogues
of great crimes. To show how the emigrants were butchered by the
treacherous Mirmons who led the Indians in this most atrocious
massacre let the Mormon bishop John D. Lee, who wrote his confession
under sentence of death, tell the sickening story. It was about
daylight Friday morning, the fifth day of the siege, when a council
was held by the Mormons taking part in the fight decided that the
emigrants must be decoyed out of their camp and then murdered. Lee
says about the massacre:
"The emigrants had
kept a white flag flying in their camp ever since they saw me cross
the valley. Bateman took a white flag and started for the emigrant
camp. When he got about half way to the corral, he was met by one of
the emigrants, that I afterwards learned was named Hamilton. They
talked some time, but I never knew what was said between them.
Brother Bateman returned to the command and said that the emigrants
would accept our terms."
"Samuel McMurdy and Samuel Knight were ordered to drive their teams
and follow me to the corral to haul off the children and arms. The
troops formed in two lines as had been agreed upon, and were
standing in that way with arms at rest, when I left them. I walked
ahead of the wagons up to the corral. When I got to the camp I was
met by Mr. Hamilton on the outside. He loosened the chains from some
of their wagons and moved one of them so that our teams could drive
inside of the corral and into the camp. It was then noon or a little
after."
"I found that the emigrants were strongly fortified; their wagons
were chained together in a circle. In the center was a rifle pit
large enough to contain the entire company. This had served to
shield them from the constant fire of the enemy which had been
poured into them from both sides of the valley. The valley at this
point was not more than 500 yards wide, and the emigrants had their
camp near the center of it. On the east and west a low range of
mountains afforded splendid protection of the Indians and Mormons,
leaving them in comparative safety while they fired upon the
emigrants. The valley at this place runs nearly due north and
south."
"When I entered the corral I found the emigrants engaged in burying
two men of note among them who had died but a short time before from
the effect of wounds received at the first attack. They wrapped the
bodies in buffalo robes and buried them in a grave in the corral. I
was told by some of the men that seven persons were killed and
seventeen were wounded, and that three of them had died, making a
loss of ten during the siege. As I entered the fortifications the
men, women and children gathered around me in wild consternation.
Some felt that the time of their happy deliverance had come, while
others, though in deep distress and all in tears, looked upon me
with doubt, distrust and terror."
"I ordered the children and wounded, some clothing and the arms to
be put into the wagons. Their guns were mostly rifles of the
muzzle-loading style. Their ammunition was about all gone. I do not
think there were twenty loads left in their camp. If the emigrants
had had a good supply of ammunition they never would have
surrendered, and I do not think we could have captured them without
great loss, for they were brave and determined men."
"Just as the wagons were loaded, Dan McFarland came riding into the
corral and said that Major Higbee had ordered great haste to be
made, for he was afraid that the Indians would return and renew the
attack before he could get the emigrants to a place of safety. I
hurried up the people and started the wagons off towards Cedar City.
As we went out of the corral I ordered the wagons to turn to the
left, so as to leave the troops to the right of us."
"Dan McFarland rode before the women and led them right up to the
troops, where they still stood in open order as I had left them. The
women and larger children were walking ahead as directed, and the
men following them. The foremost man was about fifty yards behind
the hindmost woman. The women and children were hurried right up to
the troops. When the men came up they cheered the soldiers as if
they believed the militia were acting honestly. Higbee then gave the
order for his men to form in single file and take their places as
arranged, that is, at the right of the emigrants. I saw this much,
but about this time our wagons passed out of sight of the troops
over the hill. I had disobeyed orders in part by turning off as I
did, for I was anxious to be out of sight of the bloody deed that I
knew was to follow. I knew that I had much to do yet that was cruel
and unnatural. It was my duty with the two drivers to kill the sick
and wounded who were in the wagons, when we heard the guns of the
troops fire. I was walking between the wagons, the horses were going
in a fast walk, and we were fully half a mile from Maj. Higbee and
his men, when we heard the firing. As we heard the guns I ordered a
halt and we proceeded to do our part."
"I have said that
all of the small children were put into the wagons; that was wrong,
for one little child, about 6 months old, was carried in its
father's arms, and it was killed by the same bullet that entered its
father's breast. It was shot through the head. Haight told me
afterwards that the child was killed by accident. I can not say
whether that is a fact. I saw it lying dead when I returned to the
place of slaughter. When we got out of sight, as I have said, just
as we were coming into the main road, I heard a volley of guns at
the place where I knew the troops and emigrants were. I first heard
one gun, then a volley followed."
"McMurdy and Knight stopped their teams at once, for they were
ordered by Higbee the same as myself, to help kill the sick and
wounded in the wagons, and to do it as soon as they heard the guns
of the troops. McMurdy and Knight got out of their wagons, each with
a rifle. McMurdy went up to Knight's wagon, where the sick and
wounded were, and raising his rifle to his shoulder, said: 'O Lord,
my God, receive their spirits; it is for thy Kingdom that I do
this.'"
"He then shot a man who was lying with his head on another man's
breast; the ball killed both men."
"I then went up to the wagon intending to do my part of the killing.
I drew my pistol and cocked it, but somehow it went off prematurely,
and shot McMurdy across the thigh, the ball cutting his buck-skin
pants. McMurdy turned to me and said: 'Brother Lee, keep cool; you
are excited; you came very near killing me."
"Knight then shot a man in the head with his rifle. Knight also
brained a boy that was about fourteen years old. The boy came
running up to the wagon and Knight struck him on the head with the
butt of his gun, crushing his skull. By this time many Indians
reached our wagons and all the sick and wounded were killed almost
instantly. "
"I saw an Indian from Cedar City called Joe run up to the wagon and
catch a man by the hair and raise his head up and look into his
face. The man shut his eyes and Joe shot him in the head.
"The Indians then examined all of the bodies to see if any were
alive; all that showed signs of life were shot through the head. I
did not kill any one there, but it was an accident that kept me from
it, for I fully intended to do my part of the killing. By the time I
got over my excitement the killing of the wounded was done. There is
no truth in the statement of Nephi Johnson that I cut a man's
throat."
"Just after the wounded were all killed I saw a girl, some 10 or 11
years old, running towards us from the direction where the troops
attacked the main body of the emigrants. She was covered with blood.
An Indian shot her before she got within sixty yards of us. That was
the last person I saw killed."
"About this time an Indian rushed to the front wagon and grabbed a
little boy, and was going to kill him. The lad got away from the
Indian and ran to me and caught me by the knees, begging me not to
let the Indian kill him. The Indian had hurt the little fellow's
chin on the wagon when he first caught hold of him. I told the
Indian to go away and let the boy alone. I took the child up in my
arms and put him back in the wagon and saved his life. This little
boy said his name was Charley Fancher, and that his father was
captain of the train. He was a bright boy. I afterwards adopted him,
and gave him to Caroline. She kept him till Dr. Forney took the
children East. I believe that William Sloan, alias Idaho Bill, is
the same boy."
"After all the parties were dead I ordered Knight to drive out on
one side and throw out the bodies. He did so, and threw them out of
his wagon at a place about 100 yards from the road and then came
back to where I was standing. I then ordered Knight [and McMurdy] to
take the children that were saved (sixteen was the number, some say
seventeen, but I say sixteen) and drive on to Hamblin's ranch."
"While going back to the brethren I passed the bodies of several
women. In one place I saw six or seven bodies together. They were
stripped perfectly naked, the Indians having torn off the clothes. I
walked along the line where the emigrants had been killed and saw
many bodies on the field, all naked. I saw ten children near
together. They were from 10 to 16 years of age. I do not know
how many were killed, but I thought then that there were some
fifteen women, about ten children, and about forty men, but the
statement of others I have since talked with about the massacre
makes me think there were fully 101 [sic) killed that day on the
Mountain Meadows, and the ten who had been killed in the corral, and
young Aden, shot by Stewart at Richard's Spring, would make the
total number 121."
The present survivors of the Mountain Meadows massacre now claim a
mention in this story. The children were raised in Northwest
Arkansas and Southwest Missouri by their kindred and friends. Some
of them died before reaching the years of maturity. The surviving
members of the little band, orphaned so cruelly, shared the common
lot of the young people of the Ozark country. They worked at
rural avocations, attended such schools as the White River region
afforded a few weeks each year, learned the practical ways of life
through some hard experiences, loved, wedded, and became, as a
rule, the heads of numerous families.
Tryphena Fancher, the only daughter of Capt. Fancher, whom the
Mountain Meadows murderers spared, is now Mrs. J. C. Wilson, and
lives on Osage Creek, eleven center of Carroll County, Ark. She is
a pleasant, motherly woman, about 41 years old, and has nine
children. Mrs. Wilson's husband is a well-to-do farmer and stock
raiser. In speaking of her family and the massacre this only heir
now left to cherish the memory of the brave commander of the
butchered train, says:
"I am the youngest daughter of
Capt. Alexander Fancher. My mother's name was Eliza. I had three
or four sisters and four brothers. I do not know the names of
any of them, except my oldest sister, Mary, and my youngest
brother, Kit Carson, who was rescued with me and brought back to
Arkansas. Kit died eighteen years ago. I do not know how old my
people were when killed. My father was about 40, I think. Kit
and I were the only members of our family spared. I do not
remember anything about the massacre or our stay with the
Mormons. The first thing I can remember was seeing
the lake. The next thing I recollect was our arrival at
Carrollton when brought home. I do not call to mind any incident
that occurred on the way home. Kit and I were taken and kept by
John D. Lee. Kit was two years younger than me."
Milum Tackett, one of the two survivors taken to Washington City,
lives about fifteen miles from Berryville, Ark., and is the father
of a large family. He remembers some of the incidents of the trip
to Utah and much about the massacre. He says that a distinct
picture of the fight with the Indians and Mormons, which has
always been in his mind, was the heroic part taken by his aunt,
Mrs. Jones, who fought with the men after the first attack on the
train, the courageous woman using the gun of one of the fallen
emigrants. During the butchery of the people after the surrender
the little fellow thought he was to be killed and ran to a white
man and begged for mercy, offering to give the Mormon, as a reward
for his life, a new coat much prized by the boy. Milum Tackett
returned to the West after he grew to manhood and revisited, it is
said, the fatal Meadows, the only one of the survivors who has
ever beheld the scene of the massacre since the awful day of
death.
William Tackett, the other member of that family spared, some two
years younger than Milum, died near Proteus, Taney Co., Mo., in
the summer of 1893. His grave in the lonely cemetery near White
River is marked by a tomb stone bearing the inscription: "One of
the survivors of the Mountain Meadow Massacre." This grave always
attracts the attention of strangers, and all the children
throughout the county can tell every word of the inscription.
William Tackett left a wife and five or six children, who a short
time ago moved to Orange City, Cal.
The Baker children were raised near Harrison, Boone Co., Ark.
Sarah married J. A. Gladen, and has to-day seven children, one of
whom took the premium at a baby show in Harrison several years
ago. Mrs. Gladen remembers but little, if anything, of the killing
of her parents and one sister at the massacre. She tells this
story for the Sunday Post-Dispatch:
"My father's name was George W.
Baker, and my mother's name was Marvena. I have but a very faint
recollection of the murder of our people at the Mountain
Meadows. There is a hole through the lower part of my left ear
which I suppose was made by a bullet, but I do not remember
being shot. My sister, Martha, says that I was sitting on
father's lap in the camp when I received the wound in the ear.
Our sister, Vina, was never heard of after the massacre, but
Martha says she saw men leading her away about the time the
murdering stopped. She thinks that Vina was spared. I have some
recollection of living with the Mormons. They did not violently
abuse us, but we were poorly fed and clothed. They sold us from
one family to another. They did not allow the children to stay
together, but kept us mostly in separate families."
William Baker lives near Harrison, and is a prosperous farmer.
Fannie Dunlap married a Linton, and her Post-office is Valley
Springs, Boone County, Ark. The other survivors are scattered,
Texas being the home of one or two of them.
William C. Mitchell, the man who went to Fort Leavenworth after
the children, has been dead for many years. Mrs. Railey, the woman
that assisted in bringing the survivors home, now lives near the
"Old Camp Ground," three miles from Lead Hill, Boone County, Ark.
She is a very old lady and the event of her life was that trip to
Fort Leavenworth and back when the rescued little ones were
returned to their relatives. Mrs. Railey always speaks of the
survivors as "my children," and the aged lady tells many
interesting stories of that memorable journey from Fort
Leavenworth to Carrollton, Ark., with the orphan band. She has
always desired to have a reunion of the Mountain Meadows
survivors, but could never get the "children" together.
St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, July 1893.
|
