Baker–Fancher party

The Baker–Fancher party (also called the Fancher–Baker party, Fancher party, or Baker's Company) was the name used to collectively describe the American western emigrants from four northwestern counties in Arkansas, specifically Marion, Crawford, Carroll, and Johnson counties, who departed Carroll County in April 1857 and "were attacked by the Mormons and Santa Clara tribe of Indians near the rim of the Great Basin, and about fifty miles from Cedar City, in Utah Territory, and that all of the emigrants, with the exception of 17 children, were then and there massacred and murdered" in the Mountain Meadows massacre. Sources estimate that between 120 and 140 men, women and children were killed on September 11, 1857, at Mountain Meadows, a rest stop on the Old Spanish Trail, in the Utah Territory. Some children of up to six years old were taken in by the Mormon families in Southern Utah, presumably because they had been judged to be too young to tell others about the massacre. Background: The Fancher–Baker party consisted of several smaller parties that set out separately from the Ozarks in northwestern Arkansas, and then joined up along the way. Many of the families in the group were prosperous farmers and cattlemen with ample financial resources to make the journey west. Some of the groups had family and friends in California awaiting their arrival, as well as many relatives remaining in Arkansas. Among the groups were the Baker train, led by John T. Baker from Carroll County, and the Fancher train, led by seasoned expeditioner Alexander Fancher,[3] which left from Benton County. Other groups included the Huff train, which also left from Benton, the Mitchell, Dunlapp, and Prewitt trains which left from Marion County, and the Poteet–Tackitt–Jones, Cameron, and Miller trains which left from Johnson County. Pleasant Tackitt, from the Poteet–Tackitt–Jones train, was a Methodist minister who led the others in worship and prayer services while on their journey. When the groups left Arkansas in April 1857, the total company numbered more than 200. However, during the journey, some groups split off and others joined. Some of the trains that joined the company may have been from other states, such as Missouri. The party was well outfitted with wagons, traveling carriages, a large herd of cattle estimated at close to 1,000 head, oxen, as well as numerous horses. They joined the expedition for various reasons; some to settle permanently in California, some to drive cattle west for profit, and some to find California gold. Like other emigrant groups traveling to California, they took money with them and planned to replenish their supplies in Salt Lake City for the remainder of the trip. The actual date of arrival in Salt Lake City is unknown, but historian, Juanita Brooks, places the arrival as August 3 or August 4, 1857 based on reports in the Journal History of the LDS Church. The Arkansans arrived in Utah with over 800 head of cattle and were low on supplies when they reached the Salt Lake area, a major resupply destination for overland emigrants. Emigrants associated with the Baker–Fancher Party Families leaving before reaching Utah Territory: As the different wagon parties traveled across the plains, some of those left by the wayside, ended up traveling to other destinations in safety. If Missourians had ever been these trains' fellow travelers, none are known to share these Arkansans' fate. The following is a list of those known to have separated themselves before arriving in the Utah Territory: -Smith -Morton -Hudson -Basham -Haydon -Reed -Stevenson -Hamilton -Farmer -Lafoon and/or Laffoon -Poteet - cousins to the Tackitt family (left and went to Texas the day before the massacre) (Various other Arkansas trains are believed to have been associated with the Fancher–Baker party while on their journeys westward, yet they did not perish with them, include the Crooked Creek, Campbell, Parker, and John S. Baker – as distinct from the John Twitty Baker – trains.) Families leaving in Utah Territory: The following is a list of those believed to have separated from the Fancher–Baker party, while it was passing through the Utah Territory: -Eaton, William M. -Edwards, Silas -Rush, Milum L., 28 -Stallcup, Charles, 25 -The John R. Page Family Members of the wagon train who were at Mountain Meadows: The following table contains a list of those believed to have been killed during the massacre, along with the survivors (who are listed in bold). The table also lists if the person was listed on the 1955 Monument in Harrison, Arkansas, or on the 1990 Monument in Mountain Meadows. Interactions with Mormons on road toward Mountain Meadows: As these smaller groups arrived in the Utah Territory, they combined together to create the Baker-Fancher Party. The settlers of the Utah Territory were almost entirely Mormons, who were busy preparing for the so-called Utah War, while troops from the United States Army were marching towards the territory to put down a believed rebellion. It was during this period of tension that the Fancher–Baker party passed through the Utah Territory, and soon rumors among the Mormons linked the Baker–Fancher train with enemies who had participated in previous persecutions of Mormons along with more recent malicious acts. The Mormons considered the emigrants of an alien status because of Brigham Young's war time orders forbidding travel through Utah without a required pass – which the Fancher–Baker party did not have. However, Captains Baker and Fancher would not have been aware of Young's martial law order since it was not made public until September 15, 1857. With the Fancher–Baker party and the Missourians of William C. Dukes' wagon train having assisted each other on their western journeys, it was believed by some locals that the Fancher–Baker party were joined by eleven members of a Missouri militia calling itself the "Wildcats." (Yet there is debate on whether these miners and plainsmen stayed with the slow-moving Fancher party after leaving Salt Lake City, or even existed.) Meanwhile the Mormons that the emigrant party encountered along the way were obeying Young's order to stockpile supplies in expectations of all-out war with approaching U.S. troops and declined to trade with the emigrants. This friction was added to by the "range war" that would be expected to erupt between local populations and any emigrants' leading vast herds of cattle – and indeed, both the Fancher and Dukes parties' stock would compete with locals' for grazing and sometimes would break through the Mormon colonists' fences. With the murder and the expulsion of U.S. Government surveyors, there was no demarcation of the territorial lands claimed by Native Americans, Mormons, and those that the Americans purchased from Mexico (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo). Yet in the war panic, such mundane complaints escalated into more ominous charges. For example, according to John D. Lee, "They swore and boasted openly... that Buchanan's whole army was coming right behind them, and would kill every God damn Mormon in Utah.... They had two bulls which they called one "Heber" and the other "Brigham", and whipped 'em through every town, yelling and singing... and blaspheming oaths that would have made your hair stand on end." While Jacob Hamblin was in Salt Lake City he heard that the Fanchers had "behaved badly ...and had robbed hen-roosts, and been guilty of other irregularities, and had used abusive language to those who had remonstrated with them. It was also reported that they threatened, when the army came into the north end of the Territory, to get a good outfit from the weaker settlements in the south." In his report of his investigation of the massacre, Superintendent for Indian Affairs in Utah Territory, Jacob Forney said: "I ...made strict inquiry relative to the general behavior and conduct of the company towards the people of this territory ..., and am justified in saying that they conducted themselves with propriety." In Forney's interview with David Tullis who had been living with Jacob Hamblin, Tullis related that "the company passed by the house...towards evening.... One of the men rode up to where I was working, and asked if there was water ahead. I said, yes. The person who rode up behaved civilly." In addition, William Rogers later related where Shirts related he "saw the emigrants when they entered the valley, and talked with several of the men belonging to it. They appeared perfectly civil and gentlemanly." On the way back from a circuit through southern Utah Territory, George A. Smith and his company camped near the Fancher–Baker party, at Corn Creek. Some members of Smith's party later testified that during their encampment they saw the Fancher–Baker party poison a spring and a dead ox, with the expectation that Native Americans would be poisoned. Silas S. Smith, the cousin of George A., testified that the Fancher–Baker party suspiciously asked whether the Native Americans would eat a dead ox. Although the poisoning story supported the old Mormon story that Native Americans had been poisoned and therefore conducted a massacre on their own, modern historians generally discount the testimony and rumors about the poisoned ox and spring as false. Nevertheless, the poisoning story preceded the Fanchers on their trip southward. Fanchers' arrival at Cedar City: Cedar City was the last major settlement where emigrants could stop to buy grain and supplies before a long stretch of wilderness leading to California. When the Baker-Fancher train arrived there, however, they were turned a cold shoulder. Important goods were not available in the town store, and the local miller charged an exorbitant price for grinding grain. As tension between the Mormons and the emigrants mounted, a member of the Baker-Fancher train was said to have bragged how he had the very gun that "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith". Other members of the party reportedly bragged about taking part in the Haun's Mill massacre some decades before in Missouri. Others were reported by Mormons to have threatened to join the incoming federal troops, or join troops from California, and march against the Mormons. According to one witness, the captain of the emigrant train, Alexander Fancher, rebuked these men on the spot for their inflammatory language against the Mormons. After staying less than one hour in Cedar City, the emigrants passed over Leach's cutoff, passed the small town of Pinto and headed into Mountain Meadows. Here they stopped to rest and to regroup their approximately 800 head of cattle. Siege and massacre: During the early morning hours of Monday, September 7 the Fancher–Baker party was attacked, at their Mountain Meadows camp, by as many or more than 200 Paiutes and Mormon militiamen disguised as Native Americans. The attackers were positioned in a small ravine south-east of the emigrant camp. As the attackers shot into the camp, the Fancher–Baker party defended itself by encircling and lowering their wagons, along with digging shallow trenches and throwing dirt both below and into the wagons. Seven emigrants were killed during this opening attack and were buried somewhere within the wagon encirclement; sixteen more were wounded. The attack continued for five days, during which the besieged families had little or no access to fresh water and their ammunition was depleted. On Friday, September 11, 1857, two Mormon militiamen approached the Fancher–Baker party wagons with a white flag and were soon followed by Indian agent and militia officer John D. Lee. Lee told the battle-weary emigrants that he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes, whereby they could be escorted safely the 36 miles back to Cedar City under Mormon protection in exchange for turning all of their livestock and supplies over to the Native Americans. Accepting this, the emigrants were led out of their fortification. When a signal was given, the Mormon militiamen turned and murdered the male members of the Fancher party standing by their side. According to Mormon sources, the militia let a group of Paiute Indians execute the women and children. Some children were killed while in their mothers' arms or after being crushed by the butts of rifles or boot heels. The bodies of the dead were gathered and looted for valuables, and were then left in shallow graves or on the open ground. Members of the Mormon militia were sworn to secrecy. A plan was set to blame the massacre on the Indians. The militia did not kill 17 small children who were deemed too young to relate the story. These children were taken in by local Mormon families. The children were later reclaimed by the U.S. Army and returned to relatives, and there is legend that one girl was not returned and lived out her life among the Mormons. Leonard J. Arrington reports that Brigham Young received a rider at his office on the same day of the massacre. This letter asked Young's opinion on what to do with the Fancher–Baker party. When he learned what was contemplated by the members of the LDS Church in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter that the Fancher–Baker party be allowed to pass through the territory unmolested. Young's letter supposedly arrived two days too late, on September 13, 1857. However Jon Krakauer claims that Brigham Young and other Utah territory officials encouraged the massacre beforehand and sought to deny their roles afterward. Some of the property of the dead was reportedly taken by the Native Americans involved, while large amounts of cattle and personal property was taken by the Mormons in Southern Utah. John D. Lee took charge of the livestock and other property that had been collected at the Mormon settlement at Pinto. Some of the cattle was taken to Salt Lake City and traded for boots. Some reportedly remained in the hands of John D. Lee. The remaining personal property of the Fancher–Baker party was taken to the tithing house at Cedar City and auctioned off to local Mormons. Brigham Young, appalled at what had taken place, initially ordered an investigation into the massacre but in the end it must be acknowledged that through his own unwillingness to work with Federal authorities contributed both directly and indirectly to the blunder of justice, and was part of the reason two trials were necessary.