In 1857, John T. Baker and Alexander Fancher led an Arkansas wagon caravan bound for California. Baker, a farmer and cattleman who lived along Crooked Creek near the southern border of present-day Harrison, Arkansas, had previously spent time in California with his son John H. Baker and set out with relatives, acquaintances, and others, taking 138 head of fine stock cattle, nine yoke of oxen, two mules, one mare, one large ox wagon, guns, saddles, bridles, camp equipment, provisions, and five workhands; three of his adult children went with him, while his wife Mary and the other children remained in Arkansas, planning to go west later. Before leaving, Baker wrote his will, acknowledging the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death, and asked for a decent burial. Fancher, also a farmer and cattleman, was a veteran of the Black Hawk War in Illinois who had moved with his family to Carroll County, Arkansas, in the 1840s, later spent time in southern California, then returned to Arkansas, obtained a land patent on Piney Creek in 1854, settled in southern Benton County, acquired more land, and became a justice of the peace. Tradition suggests that, like Baker, he recruited family members, neighbors, and perhaps others for the journey; he, his wife Eliza, and their nine children set out with six yoke of oxen, eight mules, three horses, four wagons, and as many as 200 head of cattle. These emigrants crossed the plains and passed through the Rocky Mountains, then traveled together from the Salt Lake City area southward through Utah Territory. In September 1857, the massacre at Mountain Meadows ended the journey: Baker was murdered along with the three children who were with him, one grandchild, a son-in-law, and a daughter-in-law; Alexander and Eliza Fancher were also murdered, as were seven of their children. Three Baker grandchildren and two Fancher children survived, and two years later they and twelve other surviving children were returned to relatives in Arkansas.