MMM Fanchers
 
   

           
                  


 

Fanchers
Who Died In The Mountain
Meadows Massacre

Captain Alexander Fancher & Family
 
James Mathew Fancher

 
Robert Fancher

 

 

Captain Alexander7 Fancher
(Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1)

 
Captain Alexander Fancher's parents were Isaac6 Fancher (born 1788 in Stokes County, North Carolina; died Coles County, Illinois,  17 May 1803) and Anne Tully. Captain Alexander (also known as "Piney Alex") Fancher was born 1812-1813* in Overton County, Tennessee. 

With his parents and siblings Alexander Fancher moved from Tennessee to Illinois about 1823.  He married Elizabeth Ingram***, the daughter of William Ingram, on  12 May 1836 in Coles County, Illinois.   Alexander Fancher appears in the 1840 Clay County, Illinois Census before he moves to Miller County, Missouri the following year.   By  1846 the family had arrived  in Osage Creek, Carroll County, located in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. A few years later  he served as a Private with Capt. William C. Mitchell's Carroll County Militia in the 1849 Tutt-Everett War, an event that grew out of a feud between two powerful Ozark families.

Alexander Fancher was a farmer, and a cattleman who is said to have made at least three trips to California in the 1850's.  Only his 1850 trip can be documented. During the height of the Gold Rush in 1850, he, and his brother John Fancher, drove cattle from Carroll County, Arkansas, through Salt Lake City Utah, to San Diego, California. His wife, and seven children born at that time, appear on 17 March 1851
* in San Diego. (1850 Census of San Diego, California. The year it was actually enumerated was 1851. ). Before he left Arkansas, he gave his Power Of Attorney, to his Uncle James Fancher, so that James would be able to collect the monies due Alexander for his service in Capt. Mitchell's Militia. By 1852 Alexander Fancher was back in Carroll County, Arkansas where he  purchased 40 acres of land in Township 18, Range 24, Section 15.

His next trip West was supposed to have been in 1853. By 1854, Alexander Fancher had moved to Benton County, Arkansas and purchased 200 acres of land. He sold these Benton County lands to Jobe Thomas in 1856, and Andrew J. Hubbard in 1857, prior to starting his journey towards California.  Alexander and his family left from Benton County, (not Caravan Springs/Milum Springs in Carroll County) where he had been raising a large herd of cattle to sell in California.

Captain Alexander Fancher, his wife Elizabeth, and seven of their nine children, died  on route to California, in the Mountain Meadows Massacre in the Utah Territory on September 11, 1857. "As many as 140 men, women, and children, traveling in one of the richest California bound wagon trains ever assembled, had been attacked, besieged for five days, persuaded to surrender under a flag of truce and a pledge of safe passage, and then murdered. According to contemporaneous accounts, including the evidence presented at the trial of the one figure held legally responsible for the murders, John Doyle Lee, the attack on the train and the ensuing killings were carried out by a combined force of Paiute Indians and members of a local militia of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormons. Lee was an adopted son and longtime intimate and military commander of the Mormons' leader, Brigham Young, and the atrocity he was part of, known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre after the pastoral valley where the murders took place, was the worst in the annals of the West."(Sally Denton, American Heritage Magazine, October 2001) More Information On The Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Children of Captain Alexander and Elizabeth (Ingram) Fancher:

  1. Hampton8 Fancher (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) was born ca. 1838-1839* in Coles Co., IL. and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September   1857.
     

  2. William8 Fancher (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) was born ca. 1840-1841* in Coles Co., IL, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September  1857.
     

  3. Mary8 Fancher (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) was born ca. 1841-1842* in Missouri, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September 1857.
     

  4. Thomas8 Fancher (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) was born ca. 1843-1844* in Missouri, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September 1857.
     

  5. Martha8 Fancher (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) was born ca. 1846-1847*, Carroll Co., AR, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September   1857.
     

  6. Sarah G.8 Fancher (twin) (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) was born ca. 1849-1850*, Carroll Co., AR, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September 1857.
     

  7. Margaret A.8 Fancher (twin) (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) was born ca. 1849-1850*, Carroll Co., AR, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September 1857.


                                                      
     

  8. Christopher Carson8 Fancher (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) was born ca. 1853**. "Kit" saw his father, Captain Alexander Fancher, murdered, but was one of the seventeen children who survived the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  He and the other children, including his little sister Tryphena, were taken and placed in Mormon homes in the area. He was called "Charley" by the Mormons during this time.  He and his sister were collected and returned to his family in Arkansas two years after the Massacre, and raised by their first cousin (once removed) Hampton Bynum Fancher and his wife Elizabeth. Kit traveled to Texas with James F. Fancher, the father of Hampton Bynum, during the Civil War, 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 age 2o, he died, unmarried, at the home of  Hampton Bynum Fancher, and is buried in the historic family Fancher-Seitz Cemetery in Osage, Carroll Co., AR.
     

  9. Tryphena D.8 Fancher (Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1 ) born 18 November 1855. She  and her brother Kit were collected and returned to their family in Arkansas two years after the Massacre, and raised by their first cousin (once removed) Hampton Bynum Fancher and his wife Elizabeth.

(Christopher Carson Fancher and Tryphena Fancher did not go into Carrollton, spend the night at the Old Yell Lodge, and were not part of the reunion of the survivors with their families in Carrollton Square on September 15, 1859.  During the surviving childrens' journey towards Carrollton, the Fancher children were met west of that location by their relatives, James and Elizabeth Fancher, Hampton Bynum Fancher, Thomas Washington Fancher, and James Polk Fancher, (and a neighbor) and privately reunited there. )

* When earlier researchers first began gathering information, with the exception of Tryphena, the birth dates of Captain Alexander Fancher, his wife Eliza, and 7 of their 9 their children were all unknown. (Their youngest children, Christopher Carson and Tryphenia, were not born yet.) Ages and dates were originally calculated from the year 1850, and based on the information provided in the 1850 San Diego County, California census. This census remains the only known record of this family. Although, by law, this census was supposed to be enumerated reflecting  information valid on 1 June 1850, the Fancher family's enumeration actually was taken on 17 March 1851 and may record their ages and location in 1851 - not 1850. This period was during the height of the Gold Rush, which made this census particularly difficult to take and caused long delays in the enumeration. At the time of the 1 June 1850 census, Captain Alexander had not yet arrived in San Diego, and was, in fact, still traveling on the Oregon Trail.  In a letter, William Bedford Temple recounts that on the morning of 1 June  1850, five steers, including two belonging to Alexander Fancher, were missing. After the wagons rolled out, Mr. Temple and Capt. Fancher tracked the animals  until they located them, tangled in a thicket. Mr. Temple's letter corraborates that that Captain Alexander was not in San Diego on the 1 June 1850 census date, and Captain Alexander's year of birth can not be definitely determined from earlier census records.

**Kit Carson Fancher is enumerated in the household of Hampton Bynum Fancher, Osage, Carroll County, Arkansas, in the 1860 Census. He is recorded as being age 7 on 12 September, 1860, the date this census was enumerated. This places his approximate birth year as 1853 (not 1852, as suggested elsewhere). This 1860 census was enumerated 1 day and three years after the Mountain Meadows Massacre (11 September 1857).  Therefore, Kit Carson Fancher was probably 4 years old at the time the Massacre took place, and 6 years old when he was returned to family in Arkansas in 1859.

*** Elizabeth Ingrum was born in Illinois between 1810-1820.  The 1850/1851 census in San Diego records her as age 26 (born ca. 1824-1825) in error. The Mountain Meadows Monument mistakenly records her age as 32 when she died, based on this census record. She was actually between 36 and 47 years old at the time of her death. The 1850/1851 census records her name as Eliza, a common abbreviation for Elizabeth. Although she has come to be called Eliza because of this record, we have no way of knowing if she actually used Eliza. Her marriage record records her name as Elizabeth.

 James Mathew7 Fancher
(Alexander6, Richard5, David4, Richard3
, William2, William1)


"Matt" was the son of Alexander6 Fancher and Jane Johnston; born 1832.  He is believed to have married Frances "Fannie" Fulfer.  (No marriage record has been located.) No children. He was killed at the Mountain Meadow Massacre on 11 September 1857, (probably) with his wife, along with his younger brother Robert, and his cousin Captain Alexander Fancher and his family. He was approximately 25 years old when he died.


 Robert7 Fancher
 (Alexander6, Richard5, David4, Richard3, William2, William1)


Robert was the son of Alexander6  Fancher and Jane Johnston; born 1838. He was not married, and had no children. He was killed at the Mountain Meadows Massacre on 11 September  1857 with his older brother James Mathew, and his cousin Captain Alexander Fancher and his family. He was around 19 years old when he died.


                  More Information on the Fancher Family:

                            The Fancher Family Origins