September 11th, is the anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The families of the victims of the massacre and the descendants of those who killed them have found a new way to reconcile more than 150 years later.
In 1857, a wagon train of emigrants from northern Arkansas was passing through Utah on its way to California when they were attacked by a local militia made up of Mormon settlers. About 120 people were killed, and the history of the incident has only recently been researched in detail.
Terry Fancher, who is related to many of the victims, now heads the Mountain Meadows Association. He was on his way to St. George to commemorate the event with a new Remembrance and Reconciliation Quilt.
Fancher tells KUER, “It was designed to reconcile people, so when they couldn’t talk, they could at least sew things onto a quilt and start the reconciliation process, which has been going on for some time.”
The quilt will be displayed in the Old County Courthouse in St. George. A similar one hangs in the Carroll County Historical Society in Berryville, Arkansas. They were made by Anna Rolapp and Barbara Jones Brown using panels created by family members on both sides of the conflict.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre happened about 30 miles north of St. George. The site next to State Highway 18 is now a National Historic Landmark, and there are three monuments to its victims in the area.