MARKING MASSACRE SURVIVOR GRAVES

In 1998, Burr Fancher conducted a meeting on Mountain Meadows at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale, Arkansas. That meeting was attended by Phillip Steele who is recognized as an authoritative historian of Jesse James. Phillip Steele was the CEO of Good Old Day Foods. Attending with Mr. Steele was his company foreman named Jim Fletcher, a descendant of the Baker family. When the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation was formed in 1999, Jim Fletcher joined the Foundation and assumed the role of searching and marking the graves of the 17 survivors of the Mountain Meadows massacre. During his travels while selling foodstuff, Jim has been able to find and mark 15 of the 17 survivor graves. Once a grave site was authenticated, a permanent marker was placed at the grave to designate its historical significance.

The grave sites of John Calvin Miller and Mary Miller have not been located at this writing. Leads that seemed promising were researched and found to belong to others of the same name. The search is still active and we hope to find the remaining graves.

 The following information on the graves has been incorporated into a historical quilt which is housed at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale. Survivor graves are found in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Note: Anyone who might know some history on Mary Miller or John Calvin Miller, please e-mail Jim Fletcher at [email protected].

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