Tryphena D.8
Fancher
(Capt. Alexander7, Isaac6, Richard5,
David4, Richard3, William2, William1 )
Tryphena D. Fancher was the
9th, and youngest, child of Captain Alexander and Elizabeth (Ingram) Fancher. She was born
18 November 1855. At the time of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, she was only 22
months old. Tryphena survived the Massacre, and was called "Annie" by the
Mormons who cared for her in Utah. Two years after the Massacre, on 14 September 1859, she
and her older brother "Kit" Carson Fancher, were privately
reunited with their relatives in Green Forest, Carroll County.
(Tryphena and
her brother Christopher Carson Fancher did not go into Carrollton, spend the
night at the Old Yell Lodge, and were not part of the reunion of the
survivors with their families that took place in Carrollton Square on
September 15, 1859. 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. )
The Fancher
children were taken home and raised by Hampton Bynum
Fancher and his wife Eliza O. (McKennon) Fancher in
Osage. "Hamp" and Eliza were married in July of 1858, and didn't have any
children of their own when they took Tryphena and Kit in. (They would later have 8
children.)
The
1860
Census for Osage Township in Carroll County, Arkansas shows Tryphena (spelled
"Triphoinea"), age 3, and her brother Kit Carson, age 7, living in Hampton Bynum
Fancher's household. This census record is dated 12 September, 1860, one day after the
third anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (11 September 1857). Tryphena's age in
this census is an error. She would have been 4 years and 10 months old at the time.
She married James Chaney
Wilson on 8 July 1871 in Carroll County, Arkansas. Tryphena has been
spelled a variety of ways in records and histories of the Mountain Meadows
Massacre. In her marriage record, her name appears with the correct spelling of her given
name: Tryphena. In this same record, her middle initial is recorded as D.
James Chaney Wilson was born 29 May 1843 in Tennessee; and died 1 May 1923,
in Rule, Carroll Co., Arkansas. He was the son of William Holden Wilson (born 1807 in
Overton Co., Tennessee; died 1865 in Missouri)) and Nancy Dean Chaney. (William Holden
Wilson was the son of John Wilson and Rachel Dobkins.) Nancy Dean Chaney, born 3 May 1806
in Overton Co., Tennessee; died 7 May, 1898 in Carroll Co., Arkansas, was the daughter of
William Chaney and Sarah Scott.
The Chaney family, William
Chaney, Sr., Joseph Chaney, and William H. Wilson, his brother in law, settled on Osage,
Liberty Township, in Carroll County, in 1834. They were all from Overton County,
Tennessee. Tryphena's father, Captain Alexander Fancher, was born in Overton County.
Tryphena D. (Fancher) and
James Chaney Wilson had 10 children: Nancy Ella, Ida May, Eliza Ota, Effie Minnie, Danny
Ray, William Wasson, Kit Carson, Jewel Ivy, French Osborn, and Henry Ruth.
In the 1880 Census, J. C. and "Trifenior" or "Trifenia" (Fancher)
"Wilsen" are enumerated
in Liberty
Township, Carroll County, Arkansas. At that time, James was a 37 year old
farmer,
Tryphena was 25 years old, with children, all born in Arkansas: Ella, age 8,
Ida, age
7, Ota,
age 5, Minna, age 2, and Daniel, age 1. W. (?) H. West, a 27 year old
male worker, is
also
living in their household.
Tryphena died 30 April 1897 in Rule, Carroll Co., Arkansas, and is buried in Rule
Cemetery.
In the
1900 Census, James C. Wilson is enumerated in Liberty Township,
Carroll County,
with his
second wife, Mattie. This record indicates she was born February 1850 and that
they had
been married two years. James C. and Tryphena (Fancher) Wilson's children, Dan,
Wasson,
Kit, Jewel and Henry are also living in this household, along with a boarder,
Charlie
Watson, age 21, who was born in Kansas.
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