Part I: Emigrants Known to Have Perished at Mountain Meadows and the Seventeen Children Who Survived

Names of the surviving children appear in italics. These children were placed in Utah homes after the massacre of their families and in some cases were renamed. According to Mormon practice, new children in a family, including adopted children, are named and blessed in local congregational meetings. This ceremony is not the same as christening or baptism by which people enter into the faith; rather it is intended as a blessing to guide the child’s life.¹

The lists are arranged alphabetically by family name and then by age within each immediate family group. Children’s names are indented after the names of their parents. Listed after each name is the person’s age at the time of the massacre. Ages are approximated from federal census records and other available family history resources. Letters at the end of each entry indicate which individuals were memorialized as victims of the massacre on monuments in Harrison, Arkansas, and at Mountain Meadows, as well as in a program published for the 1999 memorial service at Mountain Meadows. H designates the Harrison, Arkansas, monument, dedicated in November 1955; M the Mountain Meadows monument, dedicated September 15, 1990; and MS the program for the memorial service held when some of the victims’ remains were re-interred at Mountain Meadows on September 10, 1999.

Aden, William Allen, 19. From Henry County, Tennessee, where his father, a prominent doctor, had once sheltered Mormon missionary William Leany. Aden crossed the plains with another train but joined the Arkansas company around Parowan, where he visited Leany. He was shot on Monday, September 7, at Leach’s Spring by William C. Stewart.² _{H, M, MS}

Baker, George W., 27. A son of John Twitty Baker, he traveled to California during the Gold Rush, spending time in Stockton, Sonora, and Columbia. He planned on settling in California. According to his daughter, Sarah Frances, he was wounded before the final massacre and was loaded in one of the lead wagons.³ _{H, M, MS}

Baker, Manerva Ann Beller, 25. Older sister of David W. and Melissa Ann Beller. _{H, M, MS}

Mary Lovina, 7. During the massacre, her sister, Martha, saw her being led by a couple of men over a ridge.⁴ _{H, M, MS}

Martha Elizabeth, 5. After the massacre, she was left with Amos Thornton’s family at Pinto. She was blessed a month after the massacre and given the name of Betsy Whittaker. Martha was recovered by government officials in 1859 and returned to Arkansas. She later married James William Terry of Harrison, Arkansas, and was residing there at her death in 1940. Near the end of her life, several massacre accounts attributed to her were published.⁵ _{H, M, MS}

Sarah Frances, 2. She remembered that before the final massacre she was loaded in a wagon with both wounded parents, her sister Martha, and her brother William. She said the same bullet that killed her father took a nick out of her left ear. She was later recovered from the home of Charles Hopkins in Cedar City. She eventually married Joseph A. Gladden and moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma. After Gladden’s death, she married Manley C. Mitchell. She died in Muskogee in 1947.⁶ _{H, M, MS}

William Twitty, 9 months. He was recovered from the home of Sarah and David Williams in Cedar City. William later worked as a farmer, married twice and was the father of fourteen children. He died in Searcy County, Arkansas, in 1937.⁷ _{H, M, MS}

Baker, John Twitty, 52. An imposing figure with a long beard, Jack Baker, as he was commonly known, organized an emigrant company of his family and friends at Beller’s Stand, near Harrison, Arkansas, in the spring of 1857. He left his wife, Mary, and some grown children in Carroll County and planned to meet up with them again after selling his cattle in California. His train eventually joined with another group organized by Alexander Fancher. According to one of the surviving children, Nancy Saphrona Huff, Jack was carrying her in his arms when he was killed.⁸ _{H, M, MS}

Baker, Abel, 19. He was probably one of three men who left the wagon corral during the week of the massacre to seek help in California. He made it as far as the Cottonwoods beyond Las Vegas, when he came upon two Mormon brothers returning to Utah from San Bernardino, California. They took him under their protection until he was discovered and killed by a group of Paiutes led by Mormon militiaman Ira Hatch.⁹ _{H, M, MS}

Beach, John, 21. He stood four feet six inches and was known for being very dextrous. He was probably hired as a drover for the cattle.¹⁰ _{M, MS}

Beller, David W., 12. Brother of Manerva Ann Beller Baker. An orphan in the custody of George Baker.¹¹ _{H, M, MS}

Beller, Melissa Ann, 14. Sister of Manerva Ann Beller Baker. An orphan in the custody of George Baker.¹² _{H, M, MS}

Cameron, William, 51. He lived in Carroll County before moving to Johnson County, Arkansas, his home previous to his journey west.¹³ _{H, M, MS}

Cameron, Martha, 51. _{H, M, MS}

Tillman, 24. He owned the racehorse called “One-Eye Blaze.” He had been in business at Fort Smith, Arkansas, before joining his family on the trip west.¹⁴ _{M, MS}

Isom, 18. _{M, MS}

Henry, 16. _{M, MS}

James, 14. _{M, MS}

Martha, 11. _{M, MS}

Larkin, 8. _{M, MS}

Cameron, Nancy, 12. Niece of William Cameron.¹⁵ _{M, MS}

Coker, Edward, 27. He tried farming in Texas before joining the emigration to California.¹⁶

Coker, Charity Porter, 37.

The Cokers were reported to have two children traveling with them.

Cooper, William E., 29. A carriage maker by trade, he and his wife, Abbey, were living in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa in 1856.¹⁷

Cooper, Abbey, 29.

Deshazo, Allen P., 22. Brother-in-law of John H. Baker, who was John Twitty Baker’s son. He left Arkansas with John T. Baker’s company, taking with him a small cattle herd and a violin. He may have worked as a cattle drover during the trip.¹⁸ _{H, M, MS}

Dunlap, Jesse, Jr., 39. Brother of Lorenzo D. Dunlap. Also the brother-in-law and mercantile partner of William C. Mitchell, a former Arkansas state senator and father of Charles and Joel Mitchell.¹⁹_{H, M, MS}

Dunlap, Mary Wharton, 39. Sister of Nancy Wharton Dunlap. _{H, M, MS}

Ellender, 18. _{M, MS}

Nancy M., 16. _{M, MS}

James D., 14. _{M, MS}

Lucinda, 12. Twin sisters Lucinda and Susannah were reportedly murdered after most of the emigrants were already dead.²⁰ _{M, MS}

Susannah, 12. _{M, MS}

Margarette, 11. _{M, MS}

Mary Ann, 9.²¹ _{M, MS}

Rebecca Jane, 6. She claimed that David Tullis killed one of her parents. She also held Albert Hamblin responsible for the death of her twin sisters. She lived at the home of Jacob and Rachel Hamblin until 1859, when she was returned to Arkansas. She married John Wesley Evins and resided in Calhoun and then Drew County, Arkansas. Her account of the massacre was published in 1897. She died in 1914.²² _{H, M, MS}

Louisa, 4. Was living with Jacob Hamblin when she was recovered in 1859. She eventually married James M. Linton and settled first in Pope County, Arkansas, and later in Oklahoma. She died in 1926.²³ _{H, M, MS}

Sarah Elizabeth, 1. She was “shot through one of her arms, below the elbow, by a large ball, breaking both bones, and cutting the arm half off.” While living with the Hamblins she developed an eye infection and eventually went blind. She later married James Lynch, who assisted in recovering the surviving children. She died in 1901.²⁴ _{H, M, MS}

Dunlap, Lorenzo Dow, 42. Brother of Jesse Dunlap Jr. and brother-in-law of William C. Mitchell.²⁵ _{H, M, MS}

Dunlap, Nancy Wharton, 42. Sister of Mary Wharton Dunlap. _{M, MS}

Thomas J., 18. _{M, MS}

John H., 16. _{M, MS}

Mary Ann, 13. _{M, MS}

Talitha Emaline, 11. _{M, MS}

Nancy, 9. _{M, MS}

America Jane, 7. _{M, MS}

Prudence Angeline, 5. She lived with the Samuel Jewkes family in Cedar City and was blessed and given the name Angeline Jewkes on April 24, 1858. She was recovered and returned to Arkansas in 1859. She married Claiborne Hobbs Koen and settled in Texas. She died in 1918.²⁶ _{H, M, MS}

Georgia Ann, 18 months. After the massacre, she first lived in the home of Philip Klingensmith, who later gave her to Jane and Richard Birkbeck in Cedar City. On October 24, 1857, she was blessed and given the name Eliza K. Smith. After her return to Arkansas, she eventually married George Marshall McWhirter and settled in Dallas, Texas. She died in 1920.²⁷ _{H, M, MS}

Eaton, William M., adult, age unknown. Originally from Indiana, he appears to have been farming in Illinois when he met some Arkansans visiting relatives who were planning to travel west. He sold his farm and took his wife and child back to Indiana before joining the emigrants.²⁸ _{H, M, MS}

Edwards, Silas, adult, age unknown. According to Baker descendants, he was a brother of John Twitty Baker’s mother, Hannah. After the massacre, Isaac Haight was seen riding Edwards’s large bay horse.²⁹ _{M, MS}

Fancher, Alexander, 45. Described as “tall, slim, erect, of dark complexion, a singer, and a born leader and organizer of men.” He served in the Carroll County militia to end the Tutt-Everett War in neighboring Marion County, Arkansas. He led his own company west and probably captained the combined Arkansas company that formed in Salt Lake City before heading south. He was reportedly killed in one of the early attacks previous to the final massacre.³⁰ _{H, M, MS}

Fancher, Eliza Ingram, 33. _{H, M, MS}

Hampton, 19. _{H, M, MS}

William, 17. _{H, M, MS}

Mary, 15. _{H, M, MS}

Thomas, 14. _{H, M, MS}

Martha, 10. _{H, M, MS}

Margaret A., 8. _{H, M, MS}

Sarah G., 8. _{H, M, MS}

Christopher “Kit” Carson, 5. Following the massacre, he was taken to the home of John D. Lee at Harmony. On November 1, 1857, he was blessed and given the name Charles Lee. He and his sister Triphenia were taken back to Arkansas in 1859, where he died in 1873 at the home of his cousin Hampton Bynum Fancher.³¹ _{H, M, MS}

Triphenia D., 22 months. She was recovered from the home of Elenor and Joseph H. Smith in Cedar City. She married James Chaney Wilson and had eleven children. She died in Carroll County, Arkansas in 1897.³² _{H, M, MS}

Fancher, James Mathew, 25. Cousin of Alexander Fancher and brother of Robert Fancher. Commonly known as Matt Fancher, he lived in Carroll County, Arkansas, before going west.³³ _{H, M, MS}

Fancher, Frances “Fanny” Fulfer, age unknown.³⁴ _{M, MS}

Fancher, Robert, 19. Cousin of Alexander Fancher and brother of James M. Fancher.³⁵ _{H, M, MS}

Gresly, John, 21. Possibly the man identified as the troublesome “German” or “Dutchman” alluded to in massacre accounts. Born in Pennsylvania to German parents.³⁶

Hamilton. Emigrant Francis Eaton King identified a Hamilton with the Arkansas companies. John D. Lee said a man named Hamilton met him outside of the emigrant’s corral before the final massacre and acted as the emigrants’ spokesman.³⁷ _{H, M, MS}

Huff, Saladia Ann Brown, 38. Saladia’s husband, Peter Huff, died en route before reaching Salt Lake City. The Huffs were living in Benton County, Arkansas, when they sold their property in March 1857 in preparation to settle in California. Her daughter Nancy Saphrona remembered seeing her shot in the forehead and fall dead during the massacre.³⁸ _{H, M, MS}

John, 14. Likely one of the unidentified Huff sons listed on the monuments. _{M, MS}

William C., 13. _{M, MS}

Mary E., 11.

James K., 8. Likely one of the unidentified Huff sons listed on the monuments. _{M, MS}

Nancy Saphrona, 4. She remembered being held in the arms of John Twitty Baker when he was killed, and also witnessed her mother being shot. She stated, “At the close of the massacre there was 18 children still alive, one girl, some ten or twelve years old they said was t[o]o big and could tell so they killed her, leaving 17.” In 1859 she was recovered in Toquerville, Utah, at the home of Frances and John Willis, who had moved from Cedar City a year earlier. After being retrieved in 1859 she went to live with her maternal grandfather in Tennessee. She married George Dallas Cates and moved to Yell County, Arkansas. In 1875 at the same time of the first John D. Lee trial, her account of the massacre was published. She died in 1878.³⁹ _{H, M, MS}

son, age unknown.⁴⁰

Jones, John Milum, 32. Brother of Newton Jones and son-in-law of Cyntha Tackitt. He left Johnson County, Arkansas, along with his brother, the Tackitts, the Poteets, and others.⁴¹ _{H, M, MS}

Jones, Eloah Angeline Tackitt, 26. Daughter of Cyntha Tackitt. _{H, M, MS}

child, age unknown.⁴² _{H, M, MS}

Felix Marion, 18 months. Government officials misidentified Felix as “Elisha Huff” and also “Ephraim Huff” when they recovered him from the home of Mary Ann and William C. Stewart in Cedar City. Later, after his return to Arkansas, he moved to Texas where he married Martha Ann Reed and fathered five children. He died in 1932.⁴³ _{H, M, MS}

Jones, Newton, 23. Brother and business partner of John M. Jones. Newton owned oxen and half the wagon that he and his brother used to go west.⁴⁴ _{M, MS}

McEntire, Lawson A., 21. His brother, John, had gone west several years earlier, but died of tuberculosis in Salt Lake City. Lawson probably worked as a drover for the wagon train.⁴⁵ _{H, M, MS}

Miller, Josiah (Joseph), 30. The uncle of Armilda Miller Tackitt, he and his family lived in Crawford County, Arkansas, before heading west.⁴⁶ _{H, M, MS}

Miller, Matilda Cameron, 26. Daughter of William and Martha Cameron. _{H, M, MS}

James William, 9. _{M, MS}

John Calvin, 6. Government officials originally identified the surviving Miller children with the surname of “Sorel.” In one of the most poignant details of the massacre, John remembered pulling arrows from the back of his mother’s body until she died. Afterwards, he was taken into the home of the Elisha H. Groves family in Harmony. He was blessed and given the name of John Groves on November 1, 1857. Because he was one of the oldest children to survive the massacre he was taken to Washington D.C. to be “examined by the government” of what he remembered.⁴⁷ _{H, M, MS}

Mary, 4. She was recovered from the home of the John Morris family in Cedar City. Little else is known about her later life.⁴⁸ _{H, M, MS}

Joseph, 1. He was taken to the home of Agnes and Alexander Ingram at Harmony. He was blessed and given the name Louis Gordon Ingram on November 1, 1857. He was the last of the surviving children to be recovered in 1859, when he was retrieved from the Ingrams, who by that time were living in Pocketville. As an adult, he went by the name of William Tillman Miller. He married Brancey Ann Reese Boyd or Boyed in Navarro County, Texas, and was the father of six children. He later moved to California and died in Turlock, Stanislaus County, California in 1940.⁴⁹ _{H, M, MS}

Mitchell, Charles R., 25. Brother of Joel D. Mitchell, son of prominent Arkansan William C. Mitchell, and nephew of Jesse and Lorenzo Dunlap. From Carroll County, Arkansas.⁵⁰ _{H, M, MS}

Mitchell, Sarah C. Baker, 21. Daughter of John Twitty Baker. _{H, M, MS}

John, infant. _{H, M, MS}

Mitchell, Joel D., 23. Brother of Charles R. Mitchell, son of William C. Mitchell, and nephew of Jesse and Lorenzo Dunlap.⁵¹ _{H, M, MS}

Prewit, John, 20. Brother of William Prewit. From Marion County, Arkansas, he was probably hired as a drover.⁵² _{H, M, MS}

Prewit, William, 18. Brother of John Prewit. He was probably hired as a drover.⁵³ _{H, M, MS}

Rush, Milum Lafayette, 29. His wife and two young children remained in Arkansas.⁵⁴ _{H, M, MS}

Tackitt, Cyntha, 49. Commonly known as “Widow Tackitt” because her husband, Martin Tackitt, had died several years before she traveled west. She and her family left from Johnson County, Arkansas, and were traveling to Tuolumne County, California, where one of her sons resided.⁵⁵ _{H, M, MS}

William H., 23. _H

Marion, 20. _{H, M, MS}

Sebron, 18. _{M, MS}

Matilda, 16. _{M, MS}

James M., 14. _{M, MS}

Jones M., 12. _{M, MS}

Tackitt, Pleasant, 25. Son of Cyntha Tackitt, he left from Johnson County, Arkansas.⁵⁶ _{H, M, MS}

Tackitt, Armilda Miller, 22. The niece of Josiah (Joseph) Miller.⁵⁷ _{H, M, MS}

Emberson Milum, 4. He recalled his aunt Eloah Tackitt Jones using a slain emigrant’s gun to fight back during the first attack against the emigrants. After the massacre, he was taken to the home of the John M. Higbee family in Cedar City. After he was recovered in 1859, he accompanied Jacob Forney to Washington D.C. to be “examined by the government” about what he remembered. He married Mary Bilinda Snow of Carroll County, Arkansas. He later settled in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona, where he served as a deputy sheriff. He was reportedly the only one of the surviving children to visit Mountain Meadows as an adult. He died in 1912.⁵⁸ _{H, M, MS}

William Henry, 19 months. Until his recovery in 1859 he stayed in the home of the Elias Morris family and was blessed with the name Albert Morris on October 24, 1857. He eventually married Viney Harris and settled on Shoal Creek above Protem, Taney County, Missouri. He died in 1891.⁵⁹ _{H, M, MS}

Wilson, Richard, 27. He was from Marion County, Arkansas. According to family tradition he was going to the gold fields in California. Richard Wilson is the only known Wilson individual from Marion County, Arkansas; however, the present-day Wilson family believe their ancestor’s name was John Calvin Wilson.⁶⁰ _{H, M, MS}

Wood, Solomon R., 20. Brother of William Wood and brother-in-law to Charles Stallcup and James Larramore, two men sometimes associated with the company. He was probably hired as a drover.⁶¹ _{H, M, MS}

Wood, William Edward, 26. Brother of Solomon Wood and brother-in-law to Charles Stallcup and James Larramore, two men sometimes associated with the company. He was probably hired as a drover.⁶² _{H, M, MS}

Others unknown.⁶³