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MELISSA ANN BELLER

 *VICTIM OF THE 1857 MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE*
 

 

Melissa Ann Beller was the seventh daughter of William C. Beller and Martha Lovina Wilburn, born abt. 1843 in Carroll County, Arkansas.  Melissa Ann was one of fifteen children. Her mother had died on 7 December 1849, and her father died two months later on 26 February 1850 of smallpox, leaving the youngest of the orphaned children to be cared for by members of the Beller family. Melissa Ann, and her younger brother, David W. Beller, became the legal wards of their older sister Minerva Ann (Beller), and her husband, George Washington Baker. When Minerva Ann (Beller) Baker and her husband made plans to move to California, it was decided that the two Beller children would accompany them. Melissa Ann was part of "The Baker Train" group that gathered, and made their preparations, in the open area of Milum Spring (Caravan Spring) near her late father's store called "Beller's Stand". Before their departure, Melissa Ann's brother-in-law, Joseph Benjamin Baines, had paid George W. Baker $700 in cash, as her guardian. These monies represented Melissa Ann's portion of her father's estate. Baines also said that she had a bed, bedding, and wearing apparel with her when she departed for California in April of 1857. Melissa Ann Beller died in the Mountain Meadows Massacre on 11 September 1857. She was 14 years old. Her brother David W. Beller, and sister Minerva Ann (Beller) Baker, also died in the Massacre, along with her brother-in-law, George Washington Baker, and her niece Mary Lovina Baker. Two of her nieces, Martha Elizabeth Baker, and Sarah Frances Baker, and her nephew William Twitty Baker, survived the Massacre.

© 2008 A.C. Wallner for the Mountain Meadows Association. All rights reserved

Inscription:

IN MEMORIAM

IN THE VALLEY BELOW BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 7 AND 11, 1857, A COMPANY OF MORE THAN 120 ARKANSAS EMIGRANTS LED BY CAPT. JOHN T. BAKER AND CAPT. ALEXANDER FANCHER WAS ATTACKED WHILE EN ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. THIS EVENT IS KNOWN IN HISTORY AS THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE

 MELISSA ANN BELLER, 14

*Please note that the names of the victims of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre that appear here are those who we have personally researched and verified as actual victims. In some cases this list will differ from the names that were inscribed on the 1990 Monument on Dan Sill Hill.

Leave virtual flowers - MMA FIND A GRAVE MEMORIAL
               FOR MELISSA ANN BELLER

 


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