Today some tales relate a story about one large wagon
train, and the men, women, and children who were murdered at
Mountain Meadows, which is often referred to collectively as the
"Baker-Fancher" Train. As a collective label, the "Baker-Fancher
Train", or "Fancher-Baker" Train name is not accurate, and it is
also misleading. The "Baker-Fancher" designation developed
around 1990; more than 130 years after the Massacre took place.
The name evolved during the planning of the Dan Sill Hill Monument
at the Massacre Site, and was a well-intentioned attempt to
designate that there was more
than one wagon train involved in the Massacre. At that
time the "Baker-Fancher" Train was named for Capt. John Twitty
Baker of the Baker Train, and Capt. Alexander Fancher of the
Fancher Train. Unfortunately, this more modern "Baker-Fancher"
Train designation still disenfranchised the majority of the other
wagon train leaders/captains, who were equally important as Baker
and Fancher. It also disenfranchised the majority of the men,
women, and children who were victims, all of whom were neither
Fanchers or Bakers - just as the earlier "Fancher Train" name had
done. (The "Fancher Train", or "Fancher Company" was the earliest
name for this entire group of Arkansas Emigrants, and was used
from 1857 until about 1990, although it also continues to be used
today.) We prefer to call the people who died in the 1857 Mountain
Meadows Massacre "The Arkansas Emigrants". It is a term that has
also been used since the time of the Massacre to describe
this group, and it does not give any one individual, or family,
more perceived importance than any of the others in the group.
Each Spring,
thousands of wagon trains left for California, and the
story of the Arkansas Emigrants and the Mountain Meadows Massacre
has incorrectly morphed into one large, all-inclusive, "Baker-Fancher"
Train whose members all
departed from Bellers Stand/Milum Springs, in Carroll County, Arkansas
at the same time. No such train ever existed. The
Baker Train did depart from
Bellers Stand/Milum Springs, in Carroll
County,
near present day Harrison. However, the
Fancher Train
left from Benton County, Arkansas. The Huff Train also left from
Benton
County. The Poteet Train, the Tackett Train, and the Jones Train (all relatives) originally departed from Johnson County and traveled up through
Washington
County. (The Poteet Train survived the Massacre.) The Cameron
Train and the Miller Train (previously from the Osage area) also
left from Johnson County, while the Mitchell Train, Dunlap Train
and Prewitt Train departed from Marion County. These trains all
departed at different times and were under the organization of
each individual wagon train master.
There were many other
wagon trains that joined up along the way, broke off, or joined up
again during their journey westward from Arkansas. Those other
wagon trains included the Crooked Creek Train, the Campbell Train,
the Parker Train, and others who remain unknown. (These known
trains escaped the Massacre.) The Fancher Train arrived in Salt
Lake a week or more before the others who would join up and travel
south together through Utah, while the Baker Train was the last to
arrive in Salt Lake. It was at Salt Lake, in the Utah territory,
not Carroll County, Arkansas, that these individual wagon trains
ultimately joined together to form the large group that would
travel south together through Utah towards Mountain Meadows.
There were probably individuals and elements of other wagon trains
that joined this group in Salt Lake, as was the custom at
that time. Because of this, it will never be known with certainty
the names of all of those who were members of the trains on the
fateful day they reached Mountain Meadows, in the Utah Territory.
(From the upcoming book "1857: An
Arkansas Family Primer To The Mountain Meadows Massacre", by
Lynn-Marie Fancher and Alison Wallner. Copyright 2010.
Re-printed here with the permission of the authors.)
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