Captain Alexander⁷ Fancher (Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹)
    
Captain Alexander's parents were Isaac⁶ Fancher (born 1788 in Stokes Co., North Carolina; died Coles County, Illinois,  17 May 1803) and Anne Tully. Captain Alexander (also known as "Piney Alex") Fancher was born 1813* in Overton County, Tennessee. 

With his parents and siblings Alexander Fancher moved from Tennessee to Illinois about 1823.  He married Eliza Ingram, the daughter of William Ingram, on  12 May 1836 in Coles Co., Illinois.   Alexander Fancher appears in the 1840 Clay County, Illinois Census before he moves to 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 Titt-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.

In 1854, Alexander Fancher received 200 acres of land.

Captain Alexander Fancher, his wife Eliza, and seven of their nine children, died  in the Mountain Meadows Massacre in the UtahTerritory 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 Eliza (Ingram) Fancher:

1. Hampton⁸ Fancher (Capt. Alexander⁷, Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹ )
   was born ca. 1839* in Coles Co., IL. and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September   1857.

2. William⁸ Fancher (Capt. Alexander⁷, Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹ )
   was born ca. 1841* in Coles Co., IL, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September  1857.

3. Mary⁸ Fancher (Capt. Alexander⁷, Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹ )
   was born ca. 1842* in Missouri, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September 1857.

4. Thomas⁸ Fancher (Capt. Alexander⁷, Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹ )
   was born ca. 1844* in Missouri, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September 1857.

5. Martha⁸ Fancher (Capt. Alexander⁷, Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹ )
   was born ca. 1847*, Carroll Co., AR, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September   1857.

6. Sarah G.⁸ Fancher (twin) (Capt. Alexander⁷, Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹ ) was born ca. 1850*, Carroll Co., AR, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September 1857.

7. Margaret A.⁸ Fancher (twin) (Capt. Alexander⁷, Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹ ) was born ca. 1850*, Carroll Co., AR, and died at Mountain Meadows, Utah on 11 September 1857.

8. 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 Triphenia, 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 Eliza. 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.

9. Tryphena D.⁸ Fancher (Capt. Alexander⁷, Isaac⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹ )

* When earlier researchers first began gathering information, with the exception of Triphenia, 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 Triphenia, 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 records their ages and location in 1851 - not 185o. 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 this census record must contain 1851 data. Therefore, all birth dates here have been modified to reflect the more accurate dates.

**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.

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           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.  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.

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             Robert⁷ Fancher (Alexander⁶, Richard⁵, David⁴, Richard³, William², William¹)

Robert was the son of Alexander⁶  Fancher and Jane Johnston; born 1838. 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.

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