Francis Marion and Mary Ann Davis Poteet left northwest Arkansas in 1857 on the Fancher-Baker wagon train bound for California's gold fields. In southern Utah, the caravan was ambushed and 128 related family members perished in what became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but Francis Marion Poteet and his small entourage escaped the fate of their relatives by leaving the group one day before it entered the meadows. Because Francis Marion had saved the life of a Mormon man who knew of the impending ambush, the Poteet group was forewarned, went the hard way around the meadows, and continued on to the gold fields, where they successfully mined in the Sonora, California, and Carson City, Nevada, area. They began their return journey eastward in 1860, and in 1862 Francis Marion left his family in Pleasanton, Texas, to join the Confederate army at Camp McCullough near Dripping Spring, Texas, serving as an army scout for the 1st Texas Partisan Rangers, which later became the 30th Texas Cavalry Company A. His group fought in 25 engagements in Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and Arkansas. After his discharge in 1865, Francis Marion purchased property in the area that later bore his name, Poteet, Texas, where he became a pioneer, explorer, army scout, post rider, storekeeper, miller, farmer, rancher, operator of the first stage exchange, and the first chartered postmaster. Francis Marion and Mary Ann Davis Poteet had fourteen children; the first three were all under five years of age during the California trip, the next two were born on the trip, and all the others were born in Poteet, Texas.