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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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