"Around and above this grave I caused to be built of loose granite stones, hauled from the neighboring hills, a rude monument, conical in form and fifty feet in circumference at the base, and twelve feet in height. This is surmounted by a cross hewn from red cedar wood. From the ground to top of cross is twenty four feet. On the transverse part of the cross, facing towards the north, is an inscription carved in the wood. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." And on a rude slab of granite set in the earth and leaning against the northern base of the monument there are cut the following words: "Here 120 men, women, and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas." Brevet Major J. H. Carleton, U.S.A. May 25, 1859
A replica of the original stone cairn monument placed by Major Carleton's troops at Mountain Meadows in 1859 was erected at Old Yell Lodge in Carrollton, Carroll County, Arkansas. This replica consists of a 16 foot cedar cross with the inscription "Vengeance is Mine, I Will Repay, Saith the Lord." A sandstone rock is engraved with the words "Here lie 120 men, women and children who were murdered in cold blood in early September 1857. They were from Arkansas." A formal dedication of this monument took place "September 25, 2005, on the 146th anniversary of the return of 15 of the surviving children of the Massacre to Carrollton". (The children were actually reunited with their familes on September 15th.) The majority of the children were reunited with their relatives in Carrollton Square on September 15, 1859, after spending the night at the Old Yell Lodge. (The current VFW Yell Lodge is not the original building.)
Christopher Carson Fancher and Tryphena Fancher did not go into Carrollton, spend the night at the Old Yell Lodge, and were not part of the reunion in Carrollton Square. During the surviving childrens' journey towards Carrollton, the Fancher children were met west of that location by their relatives, James and Elizabeth Fancher, Hampton Bynum Fancher, Thomas Washington Fancher, and James Polk Fancher, (and a neighbor) and privately reunited there. Hampton Bynum Fancher was the children's first cousin (once removed), and he and his wife Eliza O. (McKennon) raised the Fancher children.
The original Lodge was built by James Fancher, on his Carrollton land. His son, Hampton Bynum, got the charter to build the Lodge there. In James Fancher's will, this land was ordered to be sold, with that the money going his daughters, or their heirs, because his sons inherited his Osage lands.
