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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Donner Party, by C.F. McGlashan
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History of the Donner Party
+
+Author: C.F. McGlashan
+
+Release Date: July, 2004  [EBook #6077]
+Posting Date: April 6, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Schwan
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY
+
+A TRAGEDY OF THE SIERRA
+
+
+By C. F. McGlashan
+
+Truckee, Cal.
+
+
+
+
+
+     To Mrs. Elizabeth A. Keiser,
+     One of the Pioneer Mothers of California,
+
+
+     This Book is Respectfully Dedicated by the Author.
+
+
+
+
+Preface.
+
+
+The delirium preceding death by starvation, is full of strange
+phantasies. Visions of plenty, of comfort, of elegance, flit ever
+before the fast-dimming eyes. The final twilight of death is a brief
+semi-consciousness in which the dying one frequently repeats his weird
+dreams. Half rising from his snowy couch, pointing upward, one of the
+death-stricken at Donner Lake may have said, with tremulous voice:
+"Look! there, just above us, is a beautiful house. It is of costliest
+walnut, inlaid with laurel and ebony, and is resplendent with burnished
+silver. Magnificent in all its apartments, it is furnished like a
+palace. It is rich with costly cushions, elegant tapestries, dazzling
+mirrors; its floor is covered with Oriental carpets, its ceiling with
+artistic frescoings; downy cushions invite the weary to repose. It is
+filled with people who are chatting, laughing, and singing, joyous
+and care-free. There is an abundance of warmth, and rare viands, and
+sparkling wines. Suspended among the storm-clouds, it is flying along
+the face of the precipice at a marvelous speed. Flying? no! it has
+wheels and is gliding along on a smooth, steel pathway. It is sheltered
+from the wind and snow by large beams and huge posts, which are bolted
+to the cliffs with heavy, iron rods. The avalanches, with their burden
+of earth and rocks and crushed pines, sweep harmlessly above this
+beautiful house and its happy inmates. It is drawn by neither oxen nor
+horses, but by a fiery, hot-breathed monster, with iron limbs and thews
+of, steel. The mountain trembles beneath his tread, and the rocks for
+miles re-echo his roar."
+
+If such a vision was related, it but indicates, prophetically, the
+progress of a few years. California's history is replete with
+tragic, startling events. These events are the landmarks by which its
+advancement is traced. One of the most mournful of these is recorded in
+this work--a work intended as a contribution, not to the literature, but
+to the history of the State. More thrilling than romance, more terrible
+than fiction, the sufferings of the Donner Party form a bold contrast to
+the joys of pleasure-seekers who to-day look down upon the lake from the
+windows of silver palace cars.
+
+The scenes of horror and despair which transpired in the snowy Sierra in
+the winter of 1846-7, need no exaggeration, no embellishment. From all
+the works heretofore published, from over one thousand letters received
+from the survivors, from ample manuscript, and from personal interviews
+with the most important actors in the tragedy, the facts have been
+carefully compiled. Neither time, pains, nor expense have been spared in
+ferreting out the truth. New and fragmentary versions of the sad story
+have appeared almost every year since the unfortunate occurrence.
+To forever supplant these distorted and fabulous reports--which have
+usually been sensational new articles--the survivors have deemed it wise
+to contribute the truth. The truth is sufficiently terrible.
+
+Where conflicting accounts of particular scenes or occurrences have been
+contributed, every effort has been made to render them harmonious and
+reconcilable. With justice, with impartiality, and with strict adherence
+to what appeared truthful and reliable, the book has been written. It is
+an honest effort--toward the truth, and as such is given to the world.
+
+C. F. McGlashan.
+
+Truckee, Cal., June 30, 1879.
+
+
+
+Contents.
+
+
+
+     Chapter I.
+
+     Donner Lake
+     A Famous Tourist Resort
+     Building the Central Pacific
+     California's Skating Park
+     The Pioneers
+     The Organization of the Donner Party
+     Ho! for California!
+     A Mammoth Train
+     The Dangers by the Way
+     False Accounts of the Sufferings Endured
+     Complete Roll of the Company
+     Impostors Claiming to Belong to the Party
+     Killed by the Pawnees
+     An Alarmed Camp
+     Resin Indians
+     A Mother's Death
+
+     Chapter II.
+
+     Mrs. Donner's Letters
+     Life on the Plains
+     An Interesting Sketch
+     The Outfit Required
+     The Platte River
+     Botanizing
+     Five Hundred and Eighteen Wagons for California
+     Burning "Buffalo Chips"
+     The Fourth of July at Fort Laramie
+     Indian Discipline
+     Sioux Attempt to Purchase Mary Graves
+     George Donner Elected Captain
+     Letter of Stanton
+     Dissension
+     One Company Split up into Five
+     The Fatal Hastings Cut-off
+     Lowering Wagons over a Precipice
+     The First View of Great Salt Lake
+
+     Chapter III.
+
+     A Grave of Salt
+     Members of the Mystic Tie
+     Twenty Wells
+     A Desolate Alkaline Waste
+     Abandoned on the Desert
+     A Night of Horror
+     A Steer Maddened by Thirst
+     The Mirage
+     Yoking an Ox and a Cow
+     "Cacheing" Goods
+     The Emigrants' Silent Logic
+     A Cry for Relief
+     Two Heroic Volunteers
+     A Perilous journey
+     Letters to Captain Sutter
+
+     Chapter IV.
+
+     Gravelly Ford
+     The Character of James F. Reed
+     Causes which Led to the Reed-Snyder Tragedy
+     John Snyder's Popularity
+     The Fatal Altercation
+     Conflicting Statements of Survivors
+     Snyder's Death
+     A Brave Girl
+     A Primitive Trial
+     A Court of Final Resort
+     Verdict of Banishment
+     A Sad Separation
+     George and Jacob Donner Ahead at the Time
+     Finding Letters in Split Sticks
+     Danger of Starvation
+
+     Chapter V.
+
+     Great Hardships
+     The Sink of the Humboldt
+     Indians Stealing Cattle
+     An Entire Company Compelled to Walk
+     Abandoned to Die
+     Wolfinger Murdered
+     Rhinehart's Confession
+     Arrival of C. T. Stanton
+     A Temporary Relief
+     A Fatal Accident
+     The Sierra Nevada Mountains
+     Imprisoned in Snow
+     Struggles for Freedom
+     A Hopeless Situation
+     Digging for Cattle in Snow
+     How the Breen Cabin Happened to be Built
+     A Thrilling Sketch of a Solitary Winter
+     Putting up Shelters
+     The Donners Have Nothing but Tents
+     Fishing for Trout.
+
+     Chapter VI.
+
+     Endeavors to Cross the Mountains
+     Discouraging Failures
+     Eddy Kills a Bear
+     Making Snow-Shoes
+     Who composed the "Forlorn Hope"
+     Mary A. Graves
+     An Irishman
+     A Generous Act
+     Six Days' Rations
+     Mary Graves' Account
+     Snow-Blind
+     C. T. Stanton's Death
+     "I Am Coming Soon"
+     Sketch of Stanton's Early Life
+     His Charity and Self-sacrifice
+     The Diamond Breastpin
+     Stanton's Last Poem
+
+     Chapter VII.
+
+     A Wife's Devotion
+     The Smoky Gorge
+     Caught in a Storm
+     Casting Lots to See Who Should Die
+     A Hidden River
+     The Delirium of Starvation
+     Franklin Ward Graves
+     His Dying Advice
+     A Frontiersman's Plan
+     The Camp of Death
+     A Dread Resort
+     A Sister's Agony
+     The Indians Refuse to Eat
+     Lewis and Salvador Flee for Their Lives
+     Killing a Deer
+     Tracks Marked by Blood
+     Nine Days without Food
+
+     Chapter VIII.
+
+     Starvation at Donner Lake
+     Preparing Rawhide for Food
+     Eating the Firerug
+     Shoveling Snow off the Beds
+     Playing they were Tea-cups of Custard
+     A Starving Baby
+     Pleading with Silent Eloquence
+     Patrick Breen's Diary
+     Jacob Donner's Death
+     A Child's Vow
+     A Christmas Dinner
+     Lost on the Summits
+     A Stump Twenty-two Feet High
+     Seven Nursing Babes at Donner Lake
+     A Devout Father
+     A Dying Boy
+     Sorrow and Suffering at the Cabins
+
+     Chapter IX.
+
+     The Last Resort
+     Two Reports of a Gun
+     Only Temporary Relief
+     Weary Traveling
+     The Snow Bridges
+     Human Tracks!
+     An Indian Rancherie
+     Acorn Bread
+     Starving Five Times!
+     Carried Six Miles
+     Bravery of John Rhodes
+     A Thirty-two Days' Journey
+     Organizing the First Relief Party
+     Alcalde Sinclair's Address
+     Capt. R. P. Tucker's Companions.
+
+     Chapter X.
+
+     A Lost Age in California History
+     The Change Wrought by the Discovery of Gold
+     The Start from Johnson's Ranch
+     A Bucking Horse
+     A Night Ride
+     Lost in the Mountains
+     A Terrible Night
+     A Flooded Camp
+     Crossing a Mountain Torrent
+     Mule Springs
+     A Crazy Companion
+     Howlings of Gray Wolves
+     A Deer Rendezvous
+     A Midnight Thief
+     Frightening Indians
+     The Diary of the First Relief Party
+
+     Chapter XI.
+
+     Hardships of Reed and Herron
+     Generosity of Captain Sutter
+     Attempts to Cross the Mountains with Provisions
+     Curtis' Dog
+     Compelled to Turn Back
+     Hostilities with Mexico
+     Memorial to Gov. Stockton
+     Yerba Buena's Generosity
+     Johnson's Liberality
+     Pitiful Scenes at Donner Lake
+     Noble Mothers
+     Dying rather than Eat Human Flesh
+     A Mother's Prayer
+     Tears of Joy
+     Eating the Shoestrings
+
+     Chapter XII.
+
+     A Wife's Devotion
+     Tamsen Donner's Early Life
+     The Early Settlers of Sangamon County
+     An Incident in School
+     Teaching and Knitting
+     School Discipline
+     Capt. George Donner's Appearance
+     Parting Scenes at Alder Creek
+     Starting over the Mountains
+     A Baby's Death
+     A Mason's Vow
+     Crossing the Snow Barrier
+     More Precious than Gold or Diamonds
+     Elitha Donner's Kindness
+
+     Chapter XIII.
+
+     Death of Ada Keseberg
+     Denton Discovering Gold
+     A Poem Composed while Dying
+     The Caches of Provisions Robbed by Fishers
+     The Sequel to the Reed-Snyder Tragedy
+     Death from Overeating
+     The Agony of Frozen Feet
+     An Interrupted Prayer
+     Stanton, after Death, Guides the Relief Party!
+     The Second Relief Party Arrives
+     A Solitary Indian
+     Patty Reed and Her Father
+     Starving Children Lying in Bed
+     Mrs. Graves' Money still Buried at Donner Lake
+
+     Chapter XIV.
+
+     Leaving Three Men in the Mountains
+     The Emigrants Quite Helpless
+     Bear Tracks in the Snow
+     The Clumps of Tamarack
+     Wounding a Bear
+     Blood Stains upon the Snow
+     A Weary Chase
+     A Momentous Day
+     Stone and Cady Leave the Sufferers
+     A Mother Offering Five Hundred Dollars
+     Mrs. Donner Parting from her Children
+     "God will Take Care of You"
+     Buried in Snow without Food or Fire
+     Pines Uprooted by the Storm
+     A Grave Cut in the Snow
+     The Cub's Cave
+     Firing at Random
+     A Desperate Undertaking
+     Preparing for a Hand-to-hand Battle
+     Precipitated into the Cave
+     Seizing the Bear
+     Mrs. Elizabeth Donner's Death
+     Clarke and Baptiste Attempt to Escape
+     A Death more Cruel than Starvation
+
+     Chapter XV.
+
+     A Mountain Storm
+     Provisions Exhausted
+     Battling the Storm Fiends
+     Black Despair
+     Icy Coldness
+     A Picture of Desolation
+     The Sleep of Death
+     A Piteous Farewell
+     Falling into the Fire-well
+     Isaac Donner's Death
+     Living upon Snow Water
+     Excruciating Pain
+     A Vision of Angels
+     "Patty is Dying!"
+     The Thumb of a Mitten
+     A Child's Treasures
+     The "Dolly" of the Donner Party
+
+     Chapter XVI.
+
+     A Mother at Starved Camp
+     Repeating the Litany
+     Hoping in Despair
+     Wasting Away
+     The Precious Lump of Sugar
+     "James is Dying"
+     Restoring a Life
+     Relentless Hunger
+     The Silent Night Vigils
+     The Sight of Earth
+     Descending the Snow Pit
+     The Flesh of the Dead
+     Refusing to Eat
+     The Morning Star
+     The Mercy of God
+     The Mutilated Forms
+     The Dizziness of Delirium
+     Faith Rewarded
+     "There is Mrs. Breen."
+
+     Chapter XVII.
+
+     The Rescue
+     California Aroused
+     A Yerba Buena Newspaper
+     Tidings of Woe
+     A Cry of Distress
+     Noble Generosity
+     Subscriptions for the Donner Party
+     The First and Second Reliefs
+     Organization of the Third
+     The Dilemma
+     Voting to Abandon a Family
+     The Fatal Ayes
+     John Stark's Bravery
+     Carrying the Starved Children
+     A Plea for the Relief Party
+
+     Chapter XVIII.
+
+     Arrival of the Third Relief
+     The Living and the Dead
+     Captain George Donner Dying
+     Mrs. Murphy's Words
+     Foster and Eddy at the Lake
+     Tamsen Donner and Her Children
+     A Fearful Struggle
+     The Husband's Wishes
+     Walking Fourteen Miles
+     Wifely Devotion
+     Choosing Death
+     The Night Journey
+     An Unparalleled Ordeal
+     An Honored Name
+     Three Little Waifs
+     "And Our Parents are Dead."
+
+     Chapter XIX.
+
+     False Ideas about the Donner Party
+     Accused of Six Murders
+     Interviews with Lewis Keseberg
+     His Statement
+     An Educated German
+     A Predestined Fate
+     Keseberg's Lameness
+     Slanderous Reports
+     Covered with Snow
+     "Loathsome, Insipid, and Disgusting"
+     Longings toward Suicide
+     Tamsen Donner's Death
+     Going to Get the Treasure
+     Suspended over a Hidden Stream
+     "Where is Donner's Money?"
+     Extorting a Confession
+
+     Chapter XX.
+
+     Dates of the Rescues
+     Arrival of the Fourth Relief
+     A Scene Beggaring Description
+     The Wealth of the Donners
+     An Appeal to the Highest Court
+     A Dreadful Shock
+     Saved from a Grizzly Bear
+     A Trial for Slander
+     Keseberg Vindicated
+     Two Kettles of Human Blood
+     The Enmity of the Relief Party
+     "Born under an Evil Star"
+     "Stone Him! Stone Him!"
+     Fire and Flood
+     Keseberg's Reputation for Honesty
+     A Prisoner in His Own House
+     The Most Miserable of Men
+
+     Chapter XXI.
+
+     Sketch of Gen. John A. Sutter
+     The Donner Party's Benefactor
+     The Least and Most that Earth Can Bestow
+     The Survivors' Request
+     His Birth and Parentage
+     Efforts to Reach California
+     New Helvetia
+     A Puny Army
+     Uninviting Isolation
+     Ross and Bodega
+     Unbounded Generosity
+     Sutter's Wealth
+     Effect of the Gold Fever
+     Wholesale Robbery
+     The Sobrante Decision
+     A "Genuine and Meritorious" Grant
+     Utter Ruin
+     Hock Farm
+     Gen. Sutter's Death
+     Mrs. E. P. Houghton's Tribute
+
+     Chapter XXII.
+
+     The Death List
+     The Forty-two Who Perished
+     Names of Those Saved
+     Forty-eight Survivors
+     Traversing Snow-belt Five Times
+     Burying the Dead
+     An Appalling Spectacle
+     Tamsen Donner's Last Act of Devotion
+     A Remarkable Proposal
+     Twenty-six Present Survivors
+     McCutchen
+     Keseberg
+     The Graves Family
+     The Murphys
+     Naming Marysville
+     The Reeds
+     The Breens
+
+     Chapter XXIII.
+
+     The Orphan Children of George and Tamsen Donner
+     Sutter, the Philanthropist
+     "If Mother Would Only Come"
+     Christian and Mary Brunner
+     An Enchanting Home
+     "Can't You Keep Both of Us?"
+     Eliza Donner Crossing the Torrent
+     Earning a Silver Dollar
+     The Gold Excitement
+     Getting an Education
+     Elitha C. Donner
+     Leanna C. Donner
+     Frances E. Donner
+     Georgia A. Donner
+     Eliza P Donner
+
+     Chapter XXIV.
+
+     Yerba Buena's Gift to George and Mary Donner
+     An Alcalde's Negligence
+     Mary Donner's Land Regranted
+     Squatters Jump George Donner's Land
+     A Characteristic Land Law-suit
+     Vexatious Litigation
+     Twice Appealed to Supreme Court, and once to United States Supreme Court
+     A Well-taken Law Point
+     Mutilating Records
+     A Palpable Erasure
+     Relics of the Donner Party
+     Five Hundred Articles Buried Thirty-two Years
+     Knives, Forks, Spoons
+     Pretty Porcelain
+     Identifying Chinaware
+     Beads and Arrow-heads
+     A Quaint Bridle-bit
+     Remarkable Action of Rust
+     A Flint-Lock Pistol
+     A Baby's Shoe
+     The Resting Place of the Dead
+     Vanishing Land-marks
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.
+
+
+     Donner Lake
+     A Famous Tourist Resort
+     Building the Central Pacific
+     California's Skating Park
+     The Pioneers
+     The Organization of the Donner Party
+     Ho! for California!
+     A Mammoth Train
+     The Dangers by the Way
+     False Accounts of the Sufferings Endured
+     Complete Roll of the Company
+     Impostors Claiming to Belong to the Party
+     Killed by the Pawnees
+     An Alarmed Camp
+     Resin Indians
+     A Mother's Death.
+
+
+
+Three miles from Truckee, Nevada County, California, lies one of the
+fairest and most picturesque lakes in all the Sierra. Above, and on
+either side, are lofty mountains, with castellated granite crests, while
+below, at the mouth of the lake, a grassy, meadowy valley widens out and
+extends almost to Truckee. The body of water is three miles long, one
+and a half miles wide, and four hundred and eighty-three feet in depth.
+
+Tourists and picnic parties annually flock to its shores, and Bierstadt
+has made it the subject of one of his finest, grandest paintings. In
+summer, its willowy thickets, its groves of tamarack and forests of
+pine, are the favorite haunts and nesting places of the quail and
+grouse. Beautiful, speckled mountain trout plentifully abound in its
+crystalline waters. A rippling breeze usually wimples and dimples its
+laughing surface, but in calmer moods it reflects, as in a polished
+mirror, the lofty, overhanging mountains, with every stately pine,
+bounding rivulet; blossoming shrub, waving fern, and--high above all,
+on the right--the clinging, thread-like line of the snow-sheds of the
+Central Pacific. When the railroad was being constructed, three thousand
+people dwelt on its shores; the surrounding forests resounded with the
+music of axes and saws, and the terrific blasts exploded in the lofty,
+o'ershadowing cliffs, filled the canyons with reverberating thunders,
+and hurled huge bowlders high in the air over the lake's quivering
+bosom.
+
+In winter it is almost as popular a pleasure resort as during the
+summer. The jingling of sleighbells, and the shouts and laughter of
+skating parties, can be heard almost constantly. The lake forms the
+grandest skating park on the Pacific Coast.
+
+Yet this same Donner Lake was the scene of one of the most thrilling,
+heart-rending tragedies ever recorded in California history. Interwoven
+with the very name of the lake are memories of a tale of destitution,
+loneliness, and despair, which borders on the incredible. It is a tale
+that has been repeated in many a miner's cabin, by many a hunter's
+campfire, and in many a frontiersman's home, and everywhere it has been
+listened to with bated breath.
+
+The pioneers of a new country are deserving of a niche in the country's
+history. The pioneers who became martyrs to the cause of the development
+of an almost unknown land, deserve to have a place in the hearts of
+its inhabitants. The far-famed Donner Party were, in a peculiar sense,
+pioneer martyrs of California. Before the discovery of gold, before the
+highway across the continent was fairly marked out, while untold dangers
+lurked by the wayside, and unnumbered foes awaited the emigrants, the
+Donner Party started for California. None but the brave and venturesome,
+none but the energetic and courageous, could undertake such a journey.
+In 1846, comparatively few had dared attempt to cross the almost
+unexplored plains which lay between the Mississippi and the fair young
+land called California. Hence it is that a certain grandeur, a certain
+heroism seems to cling about the men and women composing this party,
+even from the day they began their perilous journey across the plains.
+California, with her golden harvests, her beautiful homes, her dazzling
+wealth, and her marvelous commercial facilities, may well enshrine the
+memory of these noble-hearted pioneers, pathfinders, martyrs.
+
+The States along the Mississippi were but sparsely settled in 1846, yet
+the fame of the fruitfulness, the healthfulness, and the almost tropical
+beauty of the land bordering the Pacific, tempted the members of
+the Donner Party to leave their homes. These homes were situated in
+Illinois, Iowa, Tennessee, Missouri, and Ohio. Families from each of
+these States joined the train and participated in its terrible fate; yet
+the party proper was organized in Sangamon County, Illinois, by George
+and Jacob Donner and James F. Reed. Early in April, 1846, the party set
+out from Springfield, Illinois, and by the first week in May reached
+Independence, Missouri. Here the party was increased by additional
+members, and the train comprised about one hundred persons.
+
+Independence was on the frontier in those days, and every care was taken
+to have ample provisions laid in and all necessary preparations made for
+the long journey. Ay, it was a long journey for many in the party!
+Great as was the enthusiasm and eagerness with which these noble-hearted
+pioneers caught up the cry of the times, "Ho! for California!" it
+is doubtful if presentiments of the fate to be encountered were not
+occasionally entertained. The road was difficult, and in places almost
+unbroken; warlike Indians guarded the way, and death, in a thousand
+forms, hovered about their march through the great wilderness.
+
+In the party were aged fathers with their trusting families about them,
+mothers whose very lives were wrapped up in their children, men in the
+prime and vigor of manhood, maidens in all the sweetness and freshness
+of budding womanhood, children full of glee and mirthfulness, and babes
+nestling on maternal breasts. Lovers there were, to whom the journey was
+tinged with rainbow hues of joy and happiness, and strong, manly hearts
+whose constant support and encouragement was the memory of dear ones
+left behind in home-land. The cloud of gloom which finally settled down
+in a death-pall over their heads was not yet perceptible, though, as we
+shall soon see, its mists began to collect almost at the outset, in the
+delays which marked the journey.
+
+The wonderment which all experience in viewing the scenery along the
+line of the old emigrant road was peculiarly vivid to these people.
+Few descriptions had been given of the route, and all was novel and
+unexpected. In later years the road was broadly and deeply marked, and
+good camping grounds were distinctly indicated. The bleaching bones of
+cattle that had perished, or the broken fragments of wagons or cast-away
+articles, were thickly strewn on either side of the highway. But in 1846
+the way was through almost trackless valleys waving with grass, along
+rivers where few paths were visible, save those made by the feet of
+buffaloes and antelope, and over mountains and plains where little more
+than the westward course of the sun guided the travelers. Trading-posts
+were stationed at only a few widely distant points, and rarely did the
+party meet with any human beings, save wandering bands of Indians. Yet
+these first days are spoken of by all of the survivors as being crowned
+with peaceful enjoyment and pleasant anticipations. There were beautiful
+flowers by the roadside, an abundance of game in the meadows and
+mountains, and at night there were singing, dancing, and innocent plays.
+Several musical instruments, and many excellent voices, were in the
+party, and the kindliest feeling and good-fellowship prevailed among the
+members.
+
+The formation of the company known as the Donner Party was purely
+accidental. The union of so many emigrants into one train was not
+occasioned by any preconcerted arrangement. Many composing the Donner
+Party were not aware, at the outset, that such a tide of emigration was
+sweeping to California. In many instances small parties would hear
+of the mammoth train just ahead of them or just behind them, and by
+hastening their pace, or halting for a few days, joined themselves to
+the party. Many were with the train during a portion of the journey, but
+from some cause or other became parted from the Donner company before
+reaching Donner Lake. Soon after the train left Independence it
+contained between two and three hundred wagons, and when in motion was
+two miles in length.
+
+With much bitterness and severity it is alleged by some of the survivors
+of the dreadful tragedy that certain impostors and falsifiers claim
+to have been members of the Donner Party, and as such have written
+untruthful and exaggerated accounts of the sufferings of the party.
+While this is unquestionably true, it is barely possible that some who
+assert membership found their claim upon the fact that during a portion
+of the journey they were really in the Donner Party. Bearing this in
+mind, there is less difficulty in reconciling the conflicting statements
+of different narrators.
+
+The members of the party proper numbered ninety, and were as follows:
+
+George Donner, Tamsen Donner (his wife), Elitha C. Donner, Leanna C.
+Donner, Frances E. Donner, Georgia A. Donner and Eliza P. Donner. The
+last three were children of George and Tamsen Donner; Elitha and Leanna
+were children of George Donner by a former wife.
+
+Jacob Donner, Elizabeth Donner (his wife), Solomon Hook, William Hook,
+George Donner, Jr., Mary M. Donner, Isaac Donner, Lewis Donner and
+Samuel Donner. Jacob Donner was a brother of George; Solomon and William
+Hook were sons of Elizabeth Donner by a former husband.
+
+James Frazier Reed, Margaret W. Reed (his wife), Virginia E. Reed,
+Martha F. (Patty) Reed, James F. Reed, Jr., Thomas K. Reed, and Mrs.
+Sarah Keyes, the mother of Mrs. Reed.
+
+The two Donner families and the Reeds were from Springfield, Illinois.
+From the same place were Baylis Williams and his half-sister Eliza
+Williams, John Denton, Milton Elliott, James Smith, Walter Herron and
+Noah James.
+
+From Marshall County, Illinois, came Franklin Ward Graves, Elizabeth
+Graves (his wife), Mary A. Graves, William C. Graves, Eleanor Graves,
+Lovina Graves, Nancy Graves, Jonathan B. Graves, F. W. Graves, Jr.,
+Elizabeth Graves, Jr., Jay Fosdick and Mrs. Sarah Fosdick (nee Graves).
+With this family came John Snyder.
+
+From Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa, came Patrick Breen, Mrs. Margaret Breen,
+John Breen, Edward J. Breen, Patrick Breen, Jr., Simon P. Breen, James
+F. Breen, Peter Breen, and Isabella M. Breen. Patrick Dolan also came
+from Keokuk.
+
+William H. Eddy, Mrs. Eleanor Eddy, James P. Eddy, and Margaret Eddy
+came from Belleville, Illinois.
+
+From Tennessee came Mrs. Lavina Murphy, a widow, and her family, John
+Landrum Murphy, Mary M. Murphy, Lemuel B. Murphy, William G. Murphy,
+Simon P. Murphy, William M. Pike, Mrs. Harriet F. Pike (nee Murphy),
+Naomi L. Pike, and Catherine Pike. Another son-in-law of Mrs. Murphy,
+William M. Foster, with his wife, Mrs. Sarah A. C. Foster, and infant
+boy George Foster, came from St. Louis, Missouri.
+
+William McCutchen, Mrs. W. McCutchen, and Harriet McCutchen were from
+Jackson County, Missouri.
+
+Lewis Keseberg, Mrs. Phillipine Keseberg, Ada Keseberg, and L. Keseberg,
+Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Wolfinger, Joseph Rhinehart, Augustus Spitzer, and
+Charles Burger, came from Germany.
+
+Samuel Shoemaker came from Springfield, Ohio, Charles T. Stanton from
+Chicago, Illinois, Luke Halloran from St. Joseph, Missouri, Mr. Hardcoop
+from Antwerp, in Belgium, Antoine from New Mexico. John Baptiste was a
+Spaniard, who joined the train near the Santa Fe trail, and Lewis and
+Salvador were two Indians, who were sent out from California by Captain
+Sutter.
+
+The Breens joined the company at Independence, Missouri, and the Graves
+family overtook the train one hundred miles west of Fort Bridger. Each
+family, prior to its consolidation with the train, had its individual
+incidents. William Trimble, who was traveling with the Graves family,
+was slain by the Pawnee Indians about fifty miles east of Scott's Bluff.
+Trimble left a wife and two or three children. The wife and some of her
+relatives were so disheartened by this sad bereavement, and by the fact
+that many of their cattle were stolen by the Indians, that they gave up
+the journey to California, and turned back to the homes whence they had
+started.
+
+An amusing incident is related in the Healdsburg (Cal.) Flag, by Mr. W.
+C. Graves, of Calistoga, which occurred soon after his party left St.
+Joseph, Missouri. It was on the fourth night out, and Mr. Graves and
+four or five others were detailed to stand guard. The constant terror
+of the emigrants in those days was Indians. Both the Pawnees, the Sioux,
+and the Snakes were warlike and powerful, and were jealous, revengeful,
+and merciless toward the whites. That night a fire somehow started in
+the prairie grass about half a mile from camp. The west wind, blowing
+fierce and strong, carried the flames in great surging gusts through the
+tall prairie grass. A resin weed grows in bunches in this part of the
+country, generally attaining the height of four or five feet. The night
+being very dark, these weeds could be seen standing between the fire and
+the guards. As the flames swayed past the weeds, the impression was very
+naturally produced upon the mind of a timid beholder that the weeds were
+moving in the opposite direction. This optical illusion caused some of
+the guards to believe that the Indians had set fire to the grass, and
+were moving in immense numbers between them and the fire with intent to
+surround them, stampede the cattle, and massacre the entire party. The
+watcher next to Mr. Graves discovered the enemy, and rushed breathlessly
+to his comrade to impart the intelligence. Scarcely had Mr. Graves
+quieted him before it was evident that a general alarm had been spread
+in the camp. Two other guards had seen the Indians, and the aroused
+camp, armed to the teeth, marched out to give battle to the imaginary
+foe. It was a rich joke, and it was some time before those who were
+scared heard the last of the resin Indians.
+
+Only once, before reaching Salt Lake, did death invade the joyous Donner
+company. It was near the present site of Manhattan, Kansas, and Mrs.
+Sarah Keyes was the victim. This estimable lady was the mother of Mrs.
+J. F. Reed, and had reached her four score and ten years. Her aged frame
+and feeble health were not equal to the fatigues and exposure of the
+trip, and on the thirtieth of May they laid her tenderly to rest.
+She was buried in a coffin carefully fashioned from the trunk of a
+cottonwood tree, and on the brow of a beautiful knoll overlooking the
+valley. A grand old oak, still standing, guards the lonely grave of the
+dear old mother who was spared the sight of the misery in store for her
+loved ones. Could those who performed the last sad rites have caught a
+vision of the horrors awaiting the party, they would have known how good
+was the God who in mercy took her to Himself.
+
+
+
+Chapter II.
+
+
+
+     Mrs. Donner's Letters
+     Life on the Plains
+     An Interesting Sketch
+     The Outfit Required
+     The Platte River
+     Botanizing
+     Five Hundred and Eighteen Wagons for California
+     Burning "Buffalo Chips"
+     The Fourth of July at Fort Laramie
+     Indian Discipline
+     Sioux Attempt to Purchase Mary Graves
+     George Donner Elected Captain
+     Letter of Stanton
+     Dissension
+     One Company Split up into Five
+     The Fatal Hastings Cut-off
+     Lowering Wagons over the Precipice
+     The First View of Great Salt Lake.
+
+
+
+Presenting, as they do, an interesting glimpse of the first portion
+of the journey, the following letters are here introduced. They were
+written by Mrs. Tamsen Donner, and were published in the Springfield
+(Illinois) Journal. Thanks for copies of these letters are due to
+Mrs. Eliza P. Houghton of San Jose, Mrs. Donner's youngest daughter.
+Allusions are made in these letters to botanical researches. Mrs.
+Donner, C. T. Stanton, and perhaps one or two others who were prominent
+actors in the later history, were particularly fond of botany. Mrs.
+Donner made valuable collections of rare flowers and plants. Her
+journal, and a full description of the contents of her botanical
+portfolios, were to have been published upon her arrival in California.
+
+Though bearing the same date, the letters here presented were written at
+different times. The following appeared in the Springfield Journal, July
+23, 1846:
+
+Near the Junction of the North and South Platte, June 16, 1846.
+
+My Old Friend: We are now on the Platte, two hundred miles from Fort
+Laramie. Our journey so far has been pleasant, the roads have been good,
+and food plentiful. The water for part of the way has been indifferent,
+but at no time have our cattle suffered for it. Wood is now very scarce,
+but "buffalo chips" are excellent; they kindle quickly and retain heat
+surprisingly. We had this morning buffalo steaks broiled upon them that
+had the same flavor they would have had upon hickory coals.
+
+We feel no fear of Indians, our cattle graze quietly around our
+encampment unmolested.
+
+Two or three men will go hunting twenty miles from camp; and last night
+two of our men lay out in the wilderness rather than ride their horses
+after a hard chase.
+
+Indeed, if I do not experience something far worse than I have yet done,
+I shall say the trouble is all in getting started. Our wagons have not
+needed much repair, and I can not yet tell in what respects they could
+be improved. Certain it is, they can not be too strong. Our preparations
+for the journey might have been in some respects bettered.
+
+Bread has been the principal article of food in our camp. We laid in 150
+pounds of flour and 75 pounds of meat for each individual, and I fear
+bread will be scarce. Meat is abundant. Rice and beans are good articles
+on the road; cornmeal, too, is acceptable. Linsey dresses are the most
+suitable for children. Indeed, if I had one, it would be acceptable.
+There is so cool a breeze at all times on the plains that the sun does
+not feel so hot as one would suppose.
+
+We are now four hundred and fifty miles from Independence. Our route at
+first was rough, and through a timbered country, which appeared to be
+fertile. After striking the prairie, we found a first-rate road, and the
+only difficulty we have had, has been in crossing the creeks. In that,
+however, there has been no danger.
+
+I never could have believed we could have traveled so far with so
+little difficulty. The prairie between the Blue and the Platte rivers is
+beautiful beyond description. Never have I seen so varied a country, so
+suitable for cultivation. Everything was new and pleasing; the Indians
+frequently come to see us, and the chiefs of a tribe breakfasted at
+our tent this morning. All are so friendly that I can not help feeling
+sympathy and friendship for them. But on one sheet what can I say?
+
+Since we have been on the Platte, we have had the river on one side
+and the ever varying mounds on the other, and have traveled through the
+bottom lands from one to two miles wide, with little or no timber.
+The soil is sandy, and last year, on account of the dry season, the
+emigrants found grass here scarce. Our cattle are in good order, and
+when proper care has been taken, none have been lost. Our milch cows
+have been of great service, indeed. They have been of more advantage
+than our meat. We have plenty of butter and milk.
+
+We are commanded by Captain Russell, an amiable man. George Donner
+is himself yet. He crows in the morning and shouts out, "Chain up,
+boys--chain up," with as much authority as though he was "something in
+particular." John Denton is still with us. We find him useful in the
+camp. Hiram Miller and Noah James are in good health and doing well. We
+have of the best people in our company, and some, too, that are not so
+good.
+
+Buffaloes show themselves frequently.
+
+We have found the wild tulip, the primrose, the lupine, the eardrop, the
+larkspur, and creeping hollyhock, and a beautiful flower resembling the
+bloom of the beech tree, but in bunches as large as a small sugar-loaf,
+and of every variety of shade, to red and green.
+
+I botanize, and read some, but cook "heaps" more. There are four hundred
+and twenty wagons, as far as we have heard, on the road between here and
+Oregon and California.
+
+Give our love to all inquiring friends. God bless them. Yours, truly,
+
+Mrs. George Donner.
+
+The following letter was published in the journal of July 30, 1846:
+
+South Fork of the Nebraska, Ten Miles from the Crossing, Tuesday, June
+16, 1846.
+
+Dear Friend: To-day, at nooning, there passed, going to the States,
+seven men from Oregon, who went out last year. One of them was well
+acquainted with Messrs. Ide and Cadden Keyes, the latter of whom, he
+says, went to California. They met the advance Oregon caravan about
+150 miles west of Fort Laramie, and counted in all, for Oregon and
+California (excepting ours), 478 wagons. There are in our company over
+40 wagons, making 518 in all, and there are said to be yet 20 behind.
+To-morrow we cross the river, and, by reckoning, will be over 200 miles
+from Fort Laramie, where we intend to stop and repair our wagon wheels.
+They are nearly all loose, and I am afraid we will have to stop sooner,
+if there can be found wood suitable to heat the tires. There is no wood
+here, and our women and children are out now gathering "buffalo chips"
+to burn, in order to do the cooking. These chips burn well.
+
+Mrs. George Donner.
+
+At Fort Laramie a portion of the Donner Party celebrated the Fourth of
+July, 1846. Arriving there on the evening of the third, they pitched
+camp somewhat earlier than usual, and prepared a grand dinner for the
+Fourth. At the Fort were a large party of Sioux who were on the war-path
+against the Snakes or Pawnees. The Sioux were, perhaps, the most warlike
+Indian nation on the great prairies, and when dressed in their war
+paint and mounted on their fleet ponies, presented a truly imposing
+appearance. The utmost friendliness prevailed, and there was a mutual
+interchange of gifts and genial courtesies. When the Donner Party
+pursued their march, and had journeyed half a day from the Fort, they
+were overtaken and convoyed quite a distance by about three hundred
+young warriors. The escort rode in pairs alongside the train in true
+military fashion. Finally halting, they opened ranks; and as the wagons
+passed, each warrior held in his mouth a green twig or leaf, which was
+said to be emblematic of peacefulness and good feeling.
+
+The train was never seriously molested by the Sioux. On one occasion,
+about fifty warriors on horseback surrounded a portion of the train,
+in which was the Graves family. While generally friendly, a few of the
+baser sort persisted in attempting to steal, or take by force, trivial
+articles which struck their fancy. The main body of Indians were
+encamped about half a mile away, and when the annoyances became too
+exasperating, W. C. Graves mounted a horse, rode to the encampment,
+and notified the Chief of the action of his followers. Seizing an
+old-fashioned single-barreled shotgun, the Chief sprang upon his horse
+and fairly flew over the plain toward the emigrant wagons. When within
+about a hundred yards of the train he attracted attention by giving
+an Indian whoop, which was so full of rage and imprecation that the
+startled warriors forthwith desisted from their petty persecutions and
+scattered in every direction like frightened quail. One of the would-be
+marauders was a little tardy in mounting his pony, and as soon as the
+Chief got within range, the shotgun was leveled and discharged full at
+the unruly subject. Three of the buckshot entered the pony's side and
+one grazed the warrior's leg. As if satisfied that his orders to treat
+the emigrants in a friendly manner would not be again disregarded, the
+Chief wheeled his horse about, and in the most grave and stately manner
+rode back to his encampment.
+
+On another occasion, Mary Graves, who was a very beautiful young lady,
+was riding on horseback accompanied by her brother. They were a little
+in the rear of the train, and a band of Sioux Indians, becoming enamored
+with the maiden, offered to purchase her. They made very handsome
+offers, but the brother not being disposed to accept, one of the Indians
+seized the bridle of the girl's horse and attempted to carry her away
+captive. Perhaps the attempt was made in half jest. At all events the
+bridle was promptly dropped when the brother leveled his rifle at the
+savage.
+
+On the twentieth of July, 1846, George Donner was elected Captain of the
+train at the Little Sandy River. From that time forward it was known as
+the Donner Party.
+
+One incident, not at all unusual to a trip across the plains, is
+pointedly described in a letter written by C. T. Stanton to his brother,
+Sidney Stanton, now of Cazenovia, New York. The incident alluded to
+is the unfriendliness and want of harmony so liable to exist between
+different companies, and between members of the same company. From one
+of Mr. Stanton's letters the following extract is made:
+
+"At noon we passed Boggs' company on the Sweetwater; a mile further up
+the river, Dunlavy's; a mile further, West's; and about two miles beyond
+that, was Dunbar's. We encamped about half way between the two latter.
+Thus, within five miles were encamped five companies. At Indian Creek,
+twenty miles from Independence, these five companies all constituted
+one, but owing to dissensions and quarreling they became broken into
+fragments. Now, by accident, we all again once more meet and grasp the
+cordial hand; old enmities are forgot, and nothing but good feeling
+prevails. * * * * * The next morning we got rather a late start, owing
+to a difference of opinion arising in our company as to whether we
+should lie by or go ahead. Those wishing to lie by were principally
+young men who wished to have a day's hunting among the buffaloes, and
+there were also a few families out of meat who wished to lay in a supply
+before they left the buffalo country. A further reason was urged that
+the cattle were nearly fagged out by hard travel, and that they would
+not stand the journey unless we stopped and gave them rest. On the other
+side it was contended that if we stopped here the other companies would
+all get ahead, the grass would all he eaten off by their thousand head
+of cattle, and that consequently, when we came along, our cattle would
+starve. The go-ahead party finally ruled and we rolled out."
+
+As will presently be seen, the dissension existing in the company, and
+the petty differences of opinion and interest, were the fundamental
+causes of the calamities which befell the Donner Party.
+
+When the company was near Fort Bridger, Edward Breen's leg was broken by
+a fall from a horse. His mother refused to permit amputation, or rather
+left the question to Edward's decision, and of course, boy-like, he
+refused to have the operation performed. Contrary to expectation, the
+bone knitted, and in a month he walked without a crutch.
+
+At Fort Bridger, which was at this time a mere camp or trading post, the
+party heard much commendation bestowed upon a new route via Salt Lake.
+This route passed along the southern shore of the Lake, and rejoined the
+old Fort Hall emigrant road on the Humboldt. It was said to shorten the
+distance three hundred miles. The new route was known as the Hastings
+Cut-off, and was named after the famous Lansford W. Hastings, who was
+even then piloting a small company over the cut-off. The large trains
+delayed for three or four days at Fort Bridger, debating as to the best
+course to pursue. It is claimed that but for the earnest advice and
+solicitation of Bridger and Vasquez, who had charge of the fort, the
+entire party would have continued by the accustomed route. These men
+had a direct interest in the Hastings Cut-off, as they furnished the
+emigrants with supplies, and had employed Hastings to pilot the first
+company over the road to Salt Lake.
+
+After mature deliberation, the party divided, the greater portion going
+by Fort Hall and reaching California in safety. With the large train,
+which journeyed the old road, this narrative is no longer interested.
+Eighty-seven persons, however, took the Hastings Cut-off. Their names
+are included in the ninety mentioned in the preceding chapter, it being
+remembered that Mrs. Sarah Keyes had died, and that Lewis and Salvador
+were not yet members of the party. For several days the party traveled
+without much difficulty. They reached Weber River near the head of the
+well-known Weber Canyon. At the first crossing of this river, on the
+third of August, they found a letter from Hastings stuck in the split
+of a stick, informing them that the road down the Weber Canyon was in
+a terrible condition, and that it was doubtful if the sixty-six wagons
+which L. W. Hastings was then piloting through the canyon would ever
+succeed in reaching the plain. In the letter, Hastings advised all
+emigrants to avoid the canyon road, and pursue over the mountains
+a course which he faintly outlined. In order to obtain further
+information, and, if possible, to induce Hastings to return and act as
+guide, Messrs. Reed, Stanton, and Pike were sent forward to overtake the
+advance company. This was accomplished after a fatiguing trip, which
+so exhausted the horses of Stanton and Pike that these gentlemen were
+unable to return to the Donner Party. Hastings was overtaken at a point
+near the southern end of Great Salt Lake, and came back with Reed to the
+foot of the bluffs overlooking the present city of Salt Lake. Here he
+declared that he must return to the company he was piloting, and despite
+the urgent entreaties of Reed, decided that it was his duty to start
+back the next morning. He finally consented, however, to ascend to the
+summit of the Wahsatch Mountains, from which he endeavored, as best he
+could, to point out the direction in which the wagons must travel from
+the head of Weber Canyon. Reed proceeded alone on the route indicated,
+taking notes of the country and occasionally blazing trees to assist him
+in retracing the course.
+
+Wm. G. Murphy (now of Marysville, Cal.) says that the wagons remained in
+the meadows at the head of Weber Canyon until Reed's return. They then
+learned that the train which preceded them had been compelled to travel
+very slowly down the Weber River, filling in many irregular places
+with brush and dirt; that at last they had reached a place where vast
+perpendicular pillars of rock approached so closely on either side that
+the river had barely space to flow between, and just here the water
+plunged over a precipice. To lower the wagons down this precipice had
+been a dreadful task.
+
+The Donner Party unanimously decided to travel across the mountains in a
+more direct line toward Salt Lake. They soon found rolling highlands and
+small summit valleys on the divide between Weber River and Salt Lake.
+Following down one of the small streams, they found a varying, irregular
+canyon, down which they passed, filling its small stream with brush and
+rocks, crossing and recrossing it, making roads, breaking and mending
+wagons, until three weeks' time had expired. The entire country was
+heavily covered with timber and underbrush. When the party arrived at
+the outlet of this stream into Salt Lake Valley, they found it utterly
+impassable. It was exceedingly narrow, and was filled with huge rocks
+from the cliffs on either side. Almost all the oxen in the train were
+necessary in drawing each wagon out of the canyon and up the steep
+overhanging mountain. While in this canyon, Stanton and Pike came up
+to the company. These gentlemen encountered great hardships after their
+horses gave out, and were almost starved to death when they reached the
+train.
+
+Instead of reaching Salt Lake in a week, as had been promised, the party
+were over thirty days in making the trip. No words can describe what
+they endured on this Hastings Cut-off. The terrible delay was rendering
+imminent the dangers which awaited them on the Sierra Nevada. At last,
+upon ascending the steep rugged mountain before mentioned, the vision
+of Great Salt Lake, and the extensive plains surrounding it, burst upon
+their enraptured gaze. All were wild with joy and gratitude for their
+deliverance from the terrible struggle through which they had just
+passed, and all hoped for a prosperous, peaceful journey over pleasant
+roads throughout the remainder of the trip to California. Alas! there
+were trials in the way compared with which their recent struggles were
+insignificant. But for the fatal delay caused by the Hastings Cut-off,
+all would have been well, but now the summer was passed, their teams
+and themselves were well-nigh exhausted, and their slender stock of
+provisions nearly consumed.
+
+
+
+Chapter III.
+
+
+
+     A Grave of Salt
+     Members of the Mystic Tie
+     Twenty Wells
+     A Desolate Alkaline Waste
+     Abandoned on the Desert
+     A Night of Horror
+     A Steer Maddened by Thirst
+     The Mirage
+     Yoking an Ox and a Cow
+     "Cacheing" Goods
+     The Emigrant's Silent Logic
+     A Cry for Relief
+     Two Heroic Volunteers
+     A Perilous Journey
+     Letters to Capt. Sutter.
+
+
+
+Near the southern shore of great Salt Lake the Donner Party encamped
+on the third or fourth of September, 1846. The summer had vanished, and
+autumn had commenced tinting, with crimson and gold, the foliage on the
+Wahsatch Mountains. While encamped here, the party buried the second
+victim claimed by death. This time it was a poor consumptive named Luke
+Halloran. Without friend or kinsman, Halloran had joined the train,
+and was traveling to California in hopes that a change of climate might
+effect a cure. Alas! for the poor Irishman, when the leaves began to
+fall from the trees his spirit winged its flight to the better land.
+He died in the wagon of Captain George Donner, his head resting in Mrs.
+Tamsen Donner's lap. It was at sundown. The wagons had just halted for
+the night. The train had driven up slowly, out of respect to the dying
+emigrant. Looking up into Mrs. Donner's face, he said: "I die happy."
+Almost while speaking, he died. In return for the many kindnesses he
+had received during the journey, he left Mr. Donner such property as he
+possessed, including about fifteen hundred dollars in coin. Hon. Jas. F.
+Breen, of South San Juan, writes: "Halloran's body was buried in a bed
+of almost pure salt, beside the grave of one who had perished in the
+preceding train. It was said at the time that bodies thus deposited
+would not decompose, on account of the preservative properties of the
+salt. Soon after his burial, his trunk was opened, and Masonic papers
+and regalia bore witness to the fact that Mr. Halloran was a member of
+the Masonic Order. James F. Reed, Milton Elliott, and perhaps one or two
+others in the train, also belonged to the mystic tie."
+
+On the sixth day of September they reached a meadow in a valley called
+"Twenty Wells," as there were that number of wells of various sizes,
+from six inches to several feet in diameter. The water in these wells
+rose even with the surface of the ground, and when it was drawn out the
+wells soon refilled. The water was cold and pure, and peculiarly welcome
+after the saline plains and alkaline pools they had just passed. Wells
+similar to these were found during the entire journey of the following
+day, and the country through which they were passing abounded in
+luxuriant grass. Reaching the confines of the Salt Lake Desert, which
+lies southwest of the lake, they laid in, as they supposed, an ample
+supply of water and grass. This desert had been represented by Bridger
+and Vasquez as being only about fifty miles wide. Instead, for a
+distance of seventy-five miles there was neither water nor grass, but
+everywhere a dreary, desolate, alkaline waste. Verily, it was
+
+"A region of drought, where no river glides, Nor rippling brook with
+osiered sides; Where sedgy pool, nor bubbling fount, Nor tree, nor
+cloud, nor misty mount Appears to refresh the aching eye, But the barren
+earth and the burning sky, And the blank horizon round and round Spread,
+void of living sight or sound."
+
+When the company had been on the desert two nights and one day, Mr.
+Reed volunteered to go forward, and, if possible, to discover water.
+His hired teamsters were attending to his teams and wagons during his
+absence. At a distance of perhaps twenty miles he found the desired
+water, and hastened to return to the train. Meantime there was intense
+suffering in the party. Cattle were giving out and lying down helplessly
+on the burning sand, or frenzied with thirst were straying away into the
+desert. Having made preparations for only fifty miles of desert, several
+persons came near perishing of thirst, and cattle were utterly powerless
+to draw the heavy wagons. Reed was gone some twenty hours. During this
+time his teamsters had done the wisest thing possible, unhitched the
+oxen and started to drive them ahead until water was reached. It was
+their intention, of course, to return and get the three wagons and the
+family, which they had necessarily abandoned on the desert. Reed passed
+his teamsters during the night, and hastened to the relief of his
+deserted family. One of his teamster's horses gave out before morning
+and lay down, and while the man's companions were attempting to raise
+him, the oxen, rendered unmanageable by their great thirst, disappeared
+in the desert. There were eighteen of these oxen. It is probable they
+scented water, and with the instincts of their nature started out
+to search for it. They never were found, and Reed and his family,
+consisting of nine persons, were left destitute in the midst of the
+desert, eight hundred miles from California. Near morning, entirely
+ignorant of the calamity which had befallen him in the loss of his
+cattle, he reached his family. All day long they looked and waited in
+vain for the returning teamsters. All the rest of the company had driven
+ahead, and the majority had reached water. Toward night the situation
+grew desperate. The scanty supply of water left with the family was
+almost gone, and another day on the desert would mean death to all
+he held dear. Their only way left was to set out on foot. He took his
+youngest child in his arms, and the family started to walk the twenty
+miles. During this dreadful night some of the younger children became so
+exhausted that, regardless of scoldings or encouragements, they lay
+down on the bleak sands. Even rest, however, seemed denied the little
+sufferers, for a chilling wind began sweeping over the desert, and
+despite their weariness and anguish, they were forced to move forward.
+At one time during the night the horror of the situation was changed to
+intense fright. Through the darkness came a swift-rushing animal, which
+Reed soon recognized as one of his young steers. It was crazed and
+frenzied with thirst, and for some moments seemed bent upon dashing into
+the frightened group. Finally, however, it plunged madly away into
+the night, and was seen no more. Reed suspected the calamity which had
+prevented the return of the teamsters, but at the moment, the imminent
+peril surrounding his wife and children banished all thought of worrying
+about anything but their present situation. God knows what would have
+become of them had they not, soon after daylight, discovered the wagon
+of Jacob Donner. They were received kindly by his family, and conveyed
+to where the other members of the party were camped. For six or eight
+days the entire company remained at this spot. Every effort was made to
+find Reed's lost cattle. Almost every man in the train was out in the
+desert, searching in all directions. This task was attended with both
+difficulty and danger; for when the sun shone, the atmosphere appeared
+to distort and magnify objects so that at the distance of a mile every
+stone or bush would appear the size of an ox. Several of the men came
+near dying for want of water during this search. The desert mirage
+disclosed against the horizon, clear, distinct, and perfectly outlined
+rocks, mountain peaks, and tempting lakelets. Each jagged cliff, or
+pointed rock, or sharply-curved hill-top, hung suspended in air as
+perfect and complete as if photographed on the sky. Deceived, deluded by
+these mirages, in spite of their better judgment, several members of the
+company were led far out into the pathless depths of the desert.
+
+The outlook for Reed was gloomy enough. One cow and one ox were the only
+stock he had remaining. The company were getting exceedingly impatient
+over the long delay, yet be it said to their honor, they encamped on the
+western verge of the desert until every hope of finding Reed's cattle
+was abandoned. Finally, F. W. Graves and Patrick Breen each lent an ox
+to Mr. Reeds and by yoking up his remaining cow and ox, he had two yoke
+of cattle. "Cacheing," or concealing such of his property on the desert,
+as could not be placed in one wagon, he hitched the two yoke of cattle
+to this wagon and proceeded on the journey. The word cache occurs so
+frequently in this history that a brief definition of the interesting
+process of cacheing might not be amiss. The cache of goods or valuables
+was generally made in a wagon bed, if one, as in the present instance,
+was to be abandoned. A square hole, say six feet in depth, was dug in
+the earth, and in the bottom of this the box or wagon bed containing
+the articles was placed. Sand, soil, or clay of the proper stratum was
+filled in upon this, so as to just cover the box from sight. The ground
+was then tightly packed or trampled, to make it resemble, as much as
+possible, the earth in its natural state. Into the remaining hole would
+be placed such useless articles as could be spared, such as old tins,
+cast-off clothing, broken furniture, etc., and upon these the earth
+was thrown until the surface of the ground was again level. These
+precautions were taken to prevent the Indians from discovering and
+appropriating the articles cached. It was argued that the Indians, when
+digging down, would come to the useless articles, and not thinking there
+was treasure further down would abandon the task. "But," says Hon. James
+F. Breen, in speaking on this subject, "I have been told by parties who
+have crossed the plains, that in no case has the Indian been deceived
+by the emigrant's silent logic." The Indians would leave nothing
+underground, not even the dead bodies buried from time to time. One of
+the trains in advance of the Donner Party buried two men in one grave,
+and succeeding parties found each of the bodies unearthed, and were
+compelled to repeat the last sad rites of burial.
+
+Before the Donner Party started from the Desert camp, an inventory of
+the provisions on hand was accurately taken, and an estimate was made of
+the quantity required for each family, and it was found that there was
+not enough to carry the emigrants through to California. As if to render
+more emphatic the terrible situation of the party, a storm came during
+their last night at the camp, and in the morning the hill-tops were
+white with snow. It was a dreadful reminder of the lateness of the
+season, and the bravest hearts quailed before the horrors they knew must
+await them. A solemn council was held. It was decided that some one must
+leave the train, press eagerly forward to California, and obtaining a
+supply of provisions, return and meet the party as far back on the
+route as possible. It was a difficult undertaking, and perilous in the
+extreme. A call was made for volunteers, and after a little reflection
+two men offered their services. One was Wm. McCutchen, who had joined
+the train from Missouri, and the other was C. T. Stanton, of Chicago,
+a man who afterwards proved himself possessed of the sublimest heroism.
+Taking each a horse, they received the tearful, prayerful farewells of
+the doomed company, and set out upon their solitary journey.
+
+Would they return? If they reached the peaceful, golden valleys of
+California, would they turn back to meet danger, and storms, and death,
+in order to bring succor to those on the dreary desert? McCutchen
+might come, because he left dear ones with the train, but would
+Stanton return? Stanton was young and unmarried. There were no ties
+or obligations to prompt his return, save his plighted word and the
+dictates of honor and humanity.
+
+They bore letters from the Donner Party to Captain Sutter, who was in
+charge at Sutter's Fort. These letters were prayers for relief, and
+it was believed would secure assistance from the generous old Captain.
+Every eye followed Stanton and McCutchen until they disappeared in the
+west. Soon afterward the train resumed its toilsome march.
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.
+
+
+
+     Gravelly Ford
+     The Character of James F. Reed
+     Causes Which Led to the Reed-Snyder Tragedy
+     John Snyder's Popularity
+     The Fatal Altercation
+     Conflicting Statements of Survivors
+     Snyder's Death
+     A Brave Girl
+     A Primitive Trial
+     A Court of Final Resort
+     Verdict of Banishment
+     A Sad Separation
+     George and Jacob Donner Ahead at the Time
+     Finding Letters in Split Sticks
+     Danger of Starvation.
+
+
+
+Gravelly ford, on the Humboldt River, witnessed a tragedy which greatly
+agitated the company. Its results, as will be seen, materially affected
+the lives not only of the participants, but of several members of the
+party during the days of horror on the mountains, by bringing relief
+which would otherwise have been lacking. The parties to the tragedy were
+James F. Reed and John Snyder. Reed was a man who was tender, generous,
+heroic, and whose qualities of true nobility shone brilliantly
+throughout a long life of usefulness. His name is intimately interwoven
+with the history of the Donner Party, from first to last. Indeed, in the
+Illinois papers of 1846-7 the company was always termed the "Reed and
+Donner Party." This title was justly conferred at the time, because he
+was one of the leading spirits in the organization of the enterprise. In
+order to understand the tragedy which produced the death of John Snyder,
+and the circumstances resulting therefrom, the reader must become better
+acquainted with the character of Mr. Reed.
+
+The following brief extract is from "Powers' Early Settlers of Sangamon
+County:" "James Frazier Reed was born November 14, 1800, in County
+Armagh, Ireland. His ancestors were of noble Polish birth, who chose
+exile rather than submission to the Russian power, and settled in the
+north of Ireland. The family name was originally Reednoski, but in
+process of time the Polish termination of the name was dropped, and the
+family was called Reed. James F. Reed's mother's name was Frazier, whose
+ancestors belonged to Clan Frazier, of Scottish history. Mrs. Reed and
+her son, James F., came to America when he was a youth, and settled in
+Virginia. He remained there until he was twenty, when he left for the
+lead mines of Illinois, and was engaged in mining until 1831, when he
+came to Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois."
+
+Among the papers of Mr. Reed is a copy of the muster roll of a company
+which enlisted in the Blackhawk war, and in this roll are the names
+of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, and James F. Reed. At the
+termination of this war, Mr. Reed returned to Springfield, engaged
+in the manufacture of cabinet furniture, and amassed a considerable
+fortune. He was married in 1835 to Mrs. Margaret Backenstoe, whose
+maiden name was Keyes. The death of his wife's mother, Mrs. Sarah Keyes,
+has already been mentioned as occurring on the Big Blue River, near
+Manhattan, Kansas.
+
+During the progress of the train, Mr. Reed was always a prominent,
+active member. Full of life and enthusiasm, fearless of danger, he was
+ready at all times to risk his life for the company's welfare. On the
+desert, we have seen that his lonely expedition in search of water cost
+him his valuable oxen, and left him and his family almost destitute.
+
+The deplorable affair about to be narrated was only the natural
+outgrowth of the trying circumstances in which the company were placed.
+The reader must bear in mind that many petty causes combined to produce
+discord and dissension among the members of the Donner Party. Coming
+from so many different States, being of different nationalities and
+modes of thought, delayed on the road much longer than was expected,
+rendered irritable by the difficulties encountered on the journey,
+annoyed by losses of stock, fearful of unknown disasters on the Sierra,
+and already placed on short allowances of provisions, the emigrants were
+decidedly inharmonious.
+
+The action of the company, moreover, was doubtless influenced in a
+greater or less degree by Snyder's popularity. A young man, not over
+twenty-three years old, he was tall, straight, and of erect, manly
+carriage, and his habits of life as a frontiersman had developed him
+into a muscular, athletic being. He excelled and led in all the out-door
+sports most in favor with Western men, such as jumping, running, and
+wrestling. His manner was gentle, retired, and timid to a degree verging
+on bashfulness, until roused by the influence of passion. The lion in
+the man was dormant until evoked by the fiercer emotions. His complexion
+was dark, but as you studied his face you could not repress the
+suspicion that Nature had marked him for a blonde, and that constant
+exposure to the wind and sun and rain of the great plains of the West
+had wrought the color change, and the conviction was strong that the
+change was an improvement on Nature. His features were cast in a mold of
+great beauty--such beauty as we seldom look for in a man. He was
+never moody, despondent, or cast down, and at all times, and under all
+circumstances, possessed the faculty of amusing himself and entertaining
+others. In the evening camp, when other amusements failed, or when
+anticipated troubles depressed the spirits of the travelers, it was his
+custom to remove the "hindgate" of his wagon, lay it on the ground, and
+thereon perform the "clog dance," "Irish jigs," the "pigeon wing," and
+other fantastic steps. Many an evening the Donner Party were prevented
+from brooding over their troubles by the boyish antics of the
+light-hearted youth.
+
+As stated above, the train had reached Gravelly Ford. Already the
+members of the company were beginning to scan eagerly the western plain
+in hopes of discovering the relief which it was believed Stanton and
+McCutchen would bring from Sutter's Fort. Of course there were the
+usual accidents and incidents peculiar to a journey across the plains.
+Occasionally a wagon would need repairing. Occasionally there would be a
+brief halt to rest and recruit the jaded cattle. The Indians had stolen
+two of Mr. Graves' oxen, and a couple of days later had stolen one of
+the horses.
+
+In traveling, the Donner Party observed this rule: If a wagon drove in
+the lead one day, it should pass back to the rear on the succeeding day.
+This system of alternating allowed each his turn in leading the train.
+On this fifth of October, 1846, F. W. Graves was ahead, Jay Fosdick
+second, John Snyder third, and the team of J. F. Reed fourth. Milton
+Elliott was driving Reed's team. Arriving at the foot of a steep, sandy
+hill, the party was obliged to "double teams," that is, to hitch five or
+six yoke of oxen to one wagon. Elliott and Snyder interchanged hot words
+over some difficulty about the oxen. Fosdick had attached his team to
+Graves' and had drawn Graves' wagon up the hill. Snyder, being nettled
+at something Elliott had said, declared that his team could pull up
+alone. During the excitement Snyder made use of very bad language, and
+was beating his cattle over the head with his whip-stock. One account
+says that Reed's team and Snyder's became tangled. At all events, Snyder
+was very much enraged. Reed had been off hunting on horseback, and
+arriving at this moment, remonstrated with Snyder for beating the
+cattle, and at the same time offered him the assistance of his team.
+Snyder refused the proffered aid, and used abusive language toward both
+Reed and Elliott. Reed attempted to calm the enraged man. Both men were
+of fiery, passionate dispositions, and words began to multiply rapidly.
+When Reed saw that trouble was likely to occur, he said something about
+waiting until they got up the hill and settling this matter afterwards.
+Snyder evidently construed this to be a threat, and with an oath
+replied, "We will settle it now." As Snyder uttered these words,
+he struck Reed a blow on the head with the butt-end of his heavy
+whip-stock. This blow was followed in rapid succession by a second,
+and a third. As the third stroke descended, Mrs. Reed ran between her
+husband and the furious man, hoping to prevent the blow. Each time the
+whip-stock descended on Reed's head it cut deep gashes. He was blinded
+with the blood which streamed from his wounds, and dazed and stunned by
+the terrific force of the blows. He saw the cruel whip-stock uplifted,
+and knew that his wife was in danger, but had only time to cry "John!
+John!" when down came the stroke full upon Mrs. Reed's head and
+shoulders. The next instant John Snyder was staggering, speechless
+and death-stricken. Reed's hunting-knife had pierced his left breast,
+severing the first and second ribs and entering the left lung.
+
+No other portion of the History of the Donner Party, as contributed by
+the survivors, has been so variously stated as this Reed-Snyder affair.
+Five members of the party, now living, claim to have been eyewitnesses.
+The version of two of these, Mrs. J. M. Murphy and Mrs. Frank Lewis,
+is the one here published. In the theory of self-defense they are
+corroborated by all the early published accounts. This theory was first
+advanced in Judge J. Quinn Thornton's work in 1849, and has never
+been disputed publicly until within the last two or three years. Due
+deference to the valuable assistance rendered by Wm. G. Murphy, of
+Marysville, and W. C. Graves, of Calistoga, demands mention of the fact
+that their accounts differ in important respects from the one given
+above. This is not surprising in view of the thirty-three years which
+have elapsed since the occurrence. The history of criminal jurisprudence
+justifies the assertion that eye-witnesses of any fatal difficulty
+differ materially in regard to important particulars, even when their
+testimony is taken immediately after the difficulty. It is not strange,
+therefore, that after the lapse of an ordinary life-time a dozen
+different versions should have been contributed by the survivors
+concerning this unfortunate tragedy. James F. Reed, after nearly a
+quarter of a century of active public life in California, died honored
+and respected. During his life-time this incident appeared several times
+in print, and was always substantially as given in this chapter.
+With the single exception of a series of articles contributed to the
+Healdsburg Flag by W. C. Graves, two or three years ago, no different
+account has ever been published. This explanatory digression from the
+narrative is deemed necessary out of respect to the two gentlemen who
+conscientiously disagree with Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Lewis. On all other
+important subjects the survivors are harmonious or reconcilable.
+
+W. C. Graves, now of Calistoga, caught the dying man in his arms, and in
+a few minutes he was carried a little way up the hill and laid upon the
+ground. Reed immediately regretted the act and threw the knife from him.
+His wife and daughters gathered about him and began to stanch the blood
+that flowed from the gashes on his head. He gently pushed them aside and
+went to the assistance of the dying man. He and Snyder had always been
+firm friends, and Snyder had been most active in securing a team for
+Reed after the latter had lost his cattle in the desert. Snyder expired
+in about fifteen minutes, and Reed remained by his side until the last.
+Patrick Breen came up, and Snyder said, "Uncle Patrick, I am dead." It
+is not certain that he spoke again, though Reed's friends claim that he
+said to Reed, "I am to blame."
+
+Snyder's death fell like a thunderbolt upon the Donner Party. Camp was
+immediately pitched, the Reed family being a little removed down the
+hill from the main body of emigrants. Reed felt that he had only
+acted in defense of his own life and in defense of the wife he adored.
+Nevertheless, it was evident that trouble was brewing in the main camp
+where Snyder's body was lying.
+
+The Reed family were in a sad situation. They commenced the journey with
+a more costly and complete outfit than the other emigrants, and thereby
+had incurred the envy of some of their less fortunate companions. They
+had a fine race horse and good stock, and Virginia had a beautiful pony
+of her own, and was fond of accompanying her father on his horseback
+excursions. From these and other circumstances the Reeds had acquired
+the name of being "aristocratic." Ordinarily, this is a term which would
+excite a smile, but on this dreadful day it had its weight in inflaming
+the minds of the excited emigrants. On the desert Reed had cached many
+valuable articles, but all his provisions had been distributed among his
+companions. This, however, was forgotten in the turbulent camp, and
+the destitute, desolate family could plainly catch the sound of voices
+clamoring for Reed's death.
+
+Meantime, Virginia Reed was dressing the wounds on her father's head.
+Mrs. Reed was overwhelmed with grief and apprehension, and the father
+came to Virginia for assistance. This brave little woman was only twelve
+years old, yet in this and all other acts of which there is a record
+she displayed a nerve and skillfulness which would have done credit to
+a mature woman. The cuts in Reed's scalp were wide and deep. Indeed, the
+scars remained to his dying day. In San Jose, long years afterwards,
+as James F. Reed lay dead, the gentle breeze from an open window softly
+lifted and caressed his gray hair, disclosing plainly the scars left by
+these ugly wounds.
+
+Reed entertained none but the friendliest sentiments toward Snyder.
+Anxious to do what he could for the dead, he offered the boards of his
+wagon-bed from which to make a coffin for Snyder. This offer, made with
+the kindliest, most delicate feeling, was rejected by the emigrants. At
+the funeral, Reed stood sorrowfully by the grave until the last clod was
+placed above the man who had been one of his best friends. A council
+was held by the members of the company. A council to decide upon Reed's
+fate. It was in the nature of a court, all-powerful, from whose decision
+there was no appeal. Breathlessly the fond wife and affectionate
+children awaited the verdict. The father was idolized by the mother and
+the little ones, and was their only stay and support.
+
+The friendship of the Donner Party for John Snyder, the conflicting and
+distorted accounts of the tragedy, and the personal enmity of certain
+members of the company toward Reed, resulted in a decree that he should
+be banished from the train. The feeling ran so high that at one time
+the end of a wagon-tongue was propped up with an ox-yoke by some of the
+emigrants with the intention of hanging Reed thereon, but calmer counsel
+prevailed.
+
+When the announcement was communicated to Reed that he was to be
+banished, he refused to comply with the decree. Conscious that he had
+only obeyed the sacred law of self-defense, he refused to accede to an
+unjust punishment. Then came the wife's pleadings! Long and earnestly
+Mrs. Reed reasoned and begged and prayed with her husband. All was of no
+avail until she urged him to remember the want and destitution in which
+they and the entire company were already participants. If he remained
+and escaped violence at the hands of his enemies, he might nevertheless
+see his children starve before his eyes, and be helpless to aid them.
+But if he would go forward, if he would reach California, he could
+return with provisions, and meet them on the mountains at that point
+on the route where they would be in greatest need. It was a fearful
+struggle, but finally the mother's counsels prevailed. Prior to setting
+out upon his gloomy journey, Mr. Reed made the company promise to care
+for his family.
+
+At the time of the Snyder tragedy, George and Jacob Donner, with their
+wagons and families, were two days in advance of the main train. Walter
+Herron was with them, and, when Reed came up, Herron concluded to
+accompany him to California.
+
+It was contemplated that Reed should go out into the wilderness alone,
+and with neither food nor ammunition. Happily this part of the programme
+was thwarted. The faithful Virginia, in company with Milton Elliott,
+followed Mr. Reed after he had started, and carried him his gun and
+ammunition. The affectionate girl also managed to carry some crackers to
+him, although she and all the company were even then on short allowance.
+
+The sad parting between Reed and his family, and the second parting with
+the devoted Virginia, we pass over in silence. James F. Reed, Jr., only
+five years old, declared that he would go with his father, and assist
+him in obtaining food during the long journey. Even the baby, only two
+and a half years old, would fret and worry every time the family sat
+down to their meals, lest father should find nothing to eat on his
+difficult way. Every day the mother and daughters would eagerly search
+for the letter Mr. Reed was sure to leave in the top of some bush, or
+in a split stick by the wayside. When he succeeded in killing geese or
+ducks, as he frequently did along the Humboldt and Truckee, he would
+scatter the feathers about his camping-ground, that his family might see
+that he was supplied with food. It is hardly necessary to mention that
+Mrs. Reed and the children regarded the father's camping-places as
+hallowed ground, and as often as possible kindled their evening fires in
+the same spot where his had been kindled.
+
+But a day came when they found no more letters, no further traces of the
+father. Was he dead? Had the Indians killed him? Had he starved by the
+way? No one could answer, and the mother's cheek grew paler and her dear
+eyes grew sadder and more hopeless, until Virginia and Patty both feared
+that she, too, was going to leave them. Anxious, grief-stricken, filled
+with the belief that her husband was dead, poor Mrs. Reed was fast
+dying of a broken heart. But suddenly all her life, and energy, and
+determination were again aroused into being by a danger that would
+have crushed a nature less noble. A danger that is the most terrible,
+horrible, that ever tortured human breast; a danger--that her children,
+her babes, must starve to death!
+
+
+
+Chapter V.
+
+
+
+     Great Hardships
+     The Sink of the Humboldt
+     Indians Stealing Cattle
+     An Entire Company Compelled to Walk
+     Abandoned to Die
+     Wolfinger Murdered
+     Rhinehart's Confession
+     Arrival of C. T. Stanton
+     A Temporary Relief
+     A Fatal Accident
+     The Sierra Nevada Mountains
+     Imprisoned in Snow
+     Struggles for Freedom
+     A Hopeless Situation
+     Digging for Cattle in Snow
+     How the Breen Cabin Happened to be Built
+     A Thrilling Sketch of a Solitary Winter
+     Putting up Shelters
+     The Donners have Nothing but Tents
+     Fishing for Trout.
+
+
+
+Starvation now stared the emigrants in the face. The shortest allowance
+capable of supporting life was all that was portioned to any member of
+the company. At times, some were forced to do without food for a day or
+more, until game was procured. The poor cattle were also in a
+pitiable condition. Owing to the lateness of the season, the grass was
+exceedingly scanty and of a poor quality. Frequently the water was bad,
+and filled with alkali and other poisonous deposits. George Donner,
+Jacob Donner, Wolfinger, and others, lost cattle at various points along
+the Humboldt. Mr. Breen lost a fine mare. The Indians were constantly
+hovering around the doomed train, ready to steal cattle, but too
+cowardly to make any open hostile attack. Arrows were shot into several
+of the oxen by Indians who slipped up near them during the night-time.
+At midnight, on the twelfth of October, the party reached the sink of
+the Humboldt. The cattle, closely guarded, were turned out to graze
+and recruit their wasted strength. About dawn on the morning of the
+thirteenth the guard came into camp to breakfast. During the night
+nothing had occurred to cause the least apprehension, and no indications
+of Indians had been observed. Imagine the consternation in camp when it
+was discovered that during the temporary absence of the guard twenty-one
+head of cattle had been stolen by the redskins. This left the company
+in terribly destitute circumstances. All had to walk who were able. Men,
+women, and children were forced to travel on foot all day long, and in
+many cases were compelled to carry heavy burdens in order to lessen
+the loads drawn by the weary cattle. Wm. G. Murphy remembers distinctly
+seeing his brother carrying a copper camp-kettle upon his head. The
+Graves family, the Breens, the Donners, the Murphys, the Reeds, all
+walked beside the wagons until overpowered with fatigue. The men became
+exhausted much sooner, as a rule, than the women. Only the sick, the
+little children, and the utterly exhausted, were ever allowed to ride.
+Eddy and his wife had lost all their cattle, and each carried one of
+their children and such personal effects as they were able. Many in the
+train were without shoes, and had to travel barefooted over the weary
+sands, and flinty, sharp-edged stones.
+
+On the ninth of October a death had resulted from this necessity
+of having to walk. It was a case of desertion, which, under other
+circumstances, would have been unpardonably heartless. An old man named
+Hardcoop was traveling with Keseberg. He was a cutler by trade, and had
+a son and daughter in the city of Antwerp, in Belgium. It is said
+he owned a farm near Cincinnati, Ohio, and intended, after visiting
+California to dispose of this farm, and with the proceeds return to
+Antwerp, for the purpose of spending his declining years with his
+children. He was a man of nearly three-score years, and the hardships of
+the journey had weakened his trembling limbs and broken down his health.
+Sick, feeble, helpless as he was, this old man was compelled to walk
+with the others. At last, when his strength gave way, he was forced to
+lie down by the roadside to perish of cold and hunger. Who can picture
+the agony, the horror, the dreary desolation of such a death? The poor
+old man walked until his feet actually burst!--walked until he sank
+utterly exhausted by the roadside! It was a terrible death! To see the
+train disappear in the distance; to know he was abandoned to die of
+exposure and starvation; to think that the wolves would devour his flesh
+and gnaw his bones; to lie down on the great desert, hungry, famished,
+and completely prostrated by fatigue--to meet death thus is too dreadful
+to contemplate.
+
+No one made any attempt to return and find the poor old fellow. This,
+however, is partially excused by the overwhelming dangers which now
+threatened the entire company. Each hour's delay rendered death in the
+Sierra Nevada Mountains more imminent.
+
+About the fourteenth of October, beyond the present site of Wadsworth,
+another tragedy occurred. Wolfinger, who was supposed to be quite
+wealthy, was in the rear of the train, traveling with Keseberg. At
+nightfall, neither of the Germans made his appearance. It happened
+that both their wives had walked ahead, and were with the emigrants.
+Considering it suspicious that the men did not arrive, and fearing some
+evil had befallen them, a party returned to ascertain the cause of
+the delay. Before proceeding far, however, Keseberg was met traveling
+leisurely along. He assured them that Wolfinger was only a little
+way behind, and would be along in a few moments. Reassured by this
+information, the party returned with Keseberg to camp and awaited the
+arrival of Wolfinger. The night passed, and the missing man had
+not appeared. Mrs. Wolfinger was nearly frantic. She was a tall,
+queenly-looking lady, of good birth and much refinement. She was
+recently from Germany, and understood but little English, yet she was
+evidently a wellbred lady. Nearly all the survivors remember the
+elegant dresses and costly jewelry she wore during the first part of the
+journey. Her grief at her husband's disappearance was so heart-rending
+that three young men at last consented to start back in the morning and
+endeavor to find Wolfinger. W. C. Graves, from whom this information is
+obtained, was one of the three who returned. Five miles back the wagon
+was found standing in the road. The oxen had been unhitched, but were
+still chained together, and were quietly grazing at a little distance.
+There were no signs of Indians, but Wolfinger was not to be found.
+At the time it was strongly conjectured that Keseberg had murdered
+Wolfinger for his money, and had concealed the body. This was doubtless
+unjust, for when Joseph Rhinehart was dying, some weeks later, in George
+Donner's tent, he confessed that he (Rhinehart) had something to do
+with the murder of Wolfinger. The men hitched the oxen to the wagon, and
+drove on until they overtook the emigrants, who, owing to the dangers
+by which they were encompassed, felt compelled to pursue their onward
+journey. The team was given to Mrs. Wolfinger, and she employed a German
+by the name of Charles Burger to drive it thereafter. Little was said
+about the affair at the time. Mrs. Wolfinger supposed the Indians had
+killed her husband.
+
+On the nineteenth of October, C. T. Stanton was met returning with
+provisions. The company was near the present town of Wadsworth, Nevada.
+A great rejoicing was held over the brave man's return. McCutchen
+had been severely ill, and was unable to return with Stanton. But the
+latter, true to his word, recrossed the Sierra, and met the emigrants at
+a time when they were on the verge of starvation. He had brought seven
+mules, five of which were loaded with flour and dried beef. Captain
+Sutter had furnished these mules and the provisions, together with two
+Indian vaqueros, without the slightest compensation or security.
+The Indians, Lewis and Salvador, would assist in caring for the
+pack-animals, and would also be efficient guides. Without Stanton's
+aid the entire party would have been lost; not a single soul would have
+escaped. The provisions, though scant, were sufficient to entirely alter
+the situation of affairs. Had the party pressed immediately forward,
+they could have passed the summits before the storms began. For some
+cause, however, it was concluded to rest the cattle for a few days
+near the present site of Reno, preparatory to attempting to ascend
+the difficult Sierra. Three or four days' time was lost. This loss was
+fatal. The storms on the mountains generally set in about Thanksgiving,
+or during the latter days of November. The emigrants trusted that the
+storm season of 1846 would not begin earlier than usual. Alas! the
+terrible consequences of this mistaken trust!
+
+After the arrival of Stanton, it was still deemed necessary to take
+further steps for the relief of the train. The generosity of Captain
+Sutter, as shown to Stanton, warranted them in believing that he would
+send still further supplies to the needy emigrants. Accordingly, two
+brothers-in-law, William Foster and William Pike, both brave and daring
+spirits, volunteered to go on ahead, cross the summits, and return with
+provisions as Stanton had done. Both men had families, and both were
+highly esteemed in the company. At the encampment near Reno, Nevada,
+while they were busily preparing to start, the two men were cleaning
+or loading a pistol. It was an old-fashioned "pepper-box." It happened,
+while they were examining it, that wood was called for to replenish
+the fire. One of the men offered to procure it, and in order to do so,
+handed the pistol to the other. Everybody knows that the "pepper-box"
+is a very uncertain weapon. Somehow, in the transfer, the pistol was
+discharged. William Pike was fatally wounded, and died in about twenty
+minutes. Mrs. Pike was left a widow, with two small children. The
+youngest, Catherine, was a babe of only a few months old, and Naomi was
+only three years of age. The sadness and distress occasioned by this
+mournful accident, cast a gloom over the entire company, and seemed an
+omen of the terrible fate which overshadowed the Donner Party.
+
+Generally, the ascent of the Sierra brought joy and gladness to weary
+overland emigrants. To the Donner Party it brought terror and dismay.
+The company had hardly obtained a glimpse of the mountains, ere the
+winter storm clouds began to assemble their hosts around the loftier
+crests. Every day the weather appeared more ominous and threatening. The
+delay at the Truckee Meadows had been brief, but every day ultimately
+cost a dozen lives. On the twenty-third of October, they became
+thoroughly alarmed at the angry heralds of the gathering storm, and with
+all haste resumed the journey. It was too late! At Prosser Creek, three
+miles below Truckee, they found themselves encompassed with six inches
+of snow. On the summits, the snow was from two to five feet in depth.
+This was October 28, 1846. Almost a month earlier than usual, the Sierra
+had donned its mantle of and snow. The party were prisoners. All was
+consternation. The wildest confusion prevailed. In their eagerness,
+many, went far in advance of the main train. There was little concert
+of action or harmony of plan. All did not arrive at Donner Lake the
+same day. Some wagons and families did not reach the lake until the
+thirty-first day of October, some never went further than Prosser Creek,
+while others, on the evening of the twenty-ninth, struggled through the
+snow, and reached the foot of the precipitous cliffs between the summit
+and the upper end of the lake. Here, baffled, wearied, disheartened,
+they turned back to the foot of the lake.
+
+Several times during the days which succeeded, parties attempted to
+cross the mountain barrier. W. C. Graves says the old emigrant road
+followed up Cold Stream, and so crossed the dividing ridge. Some wagons
+were drawn up this old road, almost to the top of the pass, others were
+taken along the north side of Donner Lake, and far up toward the summit.
+Some of these wagons never were returned to the lake, but were left
+imbedded in the snow. These efforts to cross the Sierra were quite
+desultory and irregular, and there was great lack of harmony and system.
+Each family or each little group of emigrants acted independently.
+
+At last, one day, a determined and systematic attempt was made to cross
+the summit. Nearly the entire train was engaged in the work. The road,
+of course, was entirely obliterated by the snow. Guided only by the
+general contour of the country, all hands pressed resolutely forward.
+Here, large bowlders and irregular jutting cliffs would intercept
+the way; there, dizzy precipices, yawning chasms, and deep, irregular
+canyons would interpose, and anon a bold, impassable mountain of rock
+would rear its menacing front directly across their path. All day long
+the men and animals floundered through the snow, and attempted to
+break and trample a road. Just before nightfall they reached the abrupt
+precipice where the present wagon-road intercepts the snow-sheds of the
+Central Pacific. Here the poor mules and oxen had been utterly unable to
+find a foothold on the slippery, snow-covered rocks. All that day it had
+been raining slightly--a dismal, drizzling, discouraging rain. Most of
+the wagons had been left at the lake, and the mules and oxen had been
+packed with provisions and necessary articles. Even at this day some of
+the survivors are unable to repress a ripple of merriment as they recall
+the manner in which the oxen bucked and bellowed when the unaccustomed
+packs were strapped upon their backs. Stanton had stoutly insisted upon
+taking the mules over the mountains. Perhaps he did not wish to return
+to Capt. Sutter without the property which he had borrowed. Many in
+the train dissented from this proposition, and endeavored to induce the
+Indians, Lewis and Salvador, to leave Stanton, and guide them over the
+summits. The Indians realized the imminent danger of each hour's
+delay, and would probably have yielded to the solicitations of these
+disaffected parties, had not Stanton made them believe that Capt. Sutter
+would hang them if they returned to the Fort without the mules. This
+incident is mentioned to illustrate the great differences of opinion and
+interest which prevailed. Never, from the moment the party encountered
+the first difficulties on the Hastings Cut-off until this fatal night in
+November, did the members of the company ever agree upon any important
+proposition. This night all decided upon a plan for the morrow. The
+great and overwhelming danger made them forget their petty animosities,
+and united them in one harmonious resolve. On the morrow the mules and
+cattle were all to be slain, and the meat was to be stored away for
+future emergency. The wagons, with their contents, were to be left
+at the lake, and the entire party were to cross the summits on foot.
+Stanton had become perfectly satisfied that the mules could not reach
+the mountain-top, and readily consented to the proposed plan.
+
+Returning to the lake they sought their weary couches, comforted with
+the thought that tomorrow should see all the Donner Party safely over
+the summit. That night a heavy snow fell at the lake. It was a night of
+untold terror! The emigrants suffered a thousand deaths. The pitiless
+snow came down in large, steady masses. All understood that the storm
+meant death. One of the Indians silently wrapped his blanket about him
+and in deepest dejection seated himself beside a tall pine. In this
+position he passed the entire night, only moving occasionally to keep
+from being covered with snow. Mrs. Reed spread down a shawl, placed her
+four children, Virginia, Patty, James, and Thomas, thereon, and putting
+another shawl over them, sat by the side of her babies during all the
+long hours of darkness. Every little while she was compelled to lift the
+upper shawl and shake off the rapidly accumulating snow.
+
+With slight interruptions, the storm continued several days. The mules
+and oxen that had always hovered about camp were blinded and bewildered
+by the storm, and straying away were literally buried alive in the
+drifts. What pen can describe the horror of the position in which the
+emigrants found themselves! It was impossible to move through the deep,
+soft snow without the greatest effort. The mules were gone, and were
+never found. Most of the cattle had perished, and were wholly hidden
+from sight. The few oxen which were found were slaughtered for beef. All
+were not killed during any one day, but the emigrants gave this business
+their immediate attention, because aside from the beef and a few slight
+provisions, the entire party were completely destitute. Mrs. Breen was
+compelled to attend personally to the slaughtering of their cattle,
+because her husband was an invalid. This family had by far the largest
+stock of meat. Too great praise can not be ascribed to Mrs. Breen for
+the care and forethought with which she stored up this food for her
+children. The meat was simply laid away in piles, like cordwood, and by
+the action of the frost was kept fresh until consumed. Mrs. Reed had no
+cattle to kill. She succeeded, however, in purchasing two beeves from
+Mr. Graves, and two from Mr. Breen, pledging herself to pay when the
+journey was ended. Mr. Eddy also purchased one ox of Mr. Graves.
+
+The flesh of many of the cattle which strayed away, and were buried
+several feet under the snow, was nevertheless recovered by their owners.
+It was soon ascertained that the cattle had endeavored to seek shelter
+from the fury of the storm by getting under the branches of the bushiest
+trees. Going to these trees, the emigrants would thrust down long poles
+with sharpened nails in the ends of them. By thus probing about in the
+snow, the whereabouts of a number of cattle was discovered, and the
+bodies were speedily dug out of the drifts.
+
+Realizing that the winter must be passed in the mountains, the emigrants
+made such preparations as they could for shelter. One cabin was already
+constructed. It was located about a quarter of a mile below the foot of
+the lake. It had been built in November, 1844, by Moses Schallenberger,
+Joseph Foster, and Allen Montgomery. Moses Schallenberger now resides
+three and a half miles from San Jose, and when recently interviewed
+by Mrs. S. O. Houghton, nee Eliza P. Donner, gave a very complete and
+interesting account of the building of this cabin, and the sufferings
+endured by his party. This cabin, known as the Breen cabin, is so
+intimately connected and interwoven with future chapters in the
+History of the Donner Party, that the following items, taken from Mr.
+Schallenberger's narration, can not prove uninteresting:
+
+"Mr. Schallenberger's party reached Donner Lake about the middle
+of November, 1844, having with them a large quantity of goods for
+California. Their cattle being very poor, and much fatigued by the
+journey, the party decided to remain here long enough to build a cabin
+in which to store their goods until spring. They also decided to leave
+some one to look after their stores, while the main portion of the party
+would push on to the settlement. Foster, Montgomery, and Schallenberger
+built the cabin. Two days were spent in its construction. It was built
+of pine saplings, and roofed with pine brush and rawhides. It was twelve
+by fourteen feet, and seven or eight feet high, with a chimney in one
+end, built "western style." One opening, through which light, air, and
+the occupants passed, served as a window and door. A heavy fall of snow
+began the day after the cabin was completed and continued for a number
+of days. Schallenberger, who was only seventeen years old, volunteered
+to remain with Foster and Montgomery. The party passed on, leaving very
+little provisions for the encamped. The flesh of one miserably poor cow
+was their main dependence, yet the young men were not discouraged. They
+were accustomed to frontier life, and felt sure they could provide for
+themselves. Bear and deer seemed abundant in the surrounding mountains.
+Time passed; the snow continued falling, until it was from ten to
+fifteen feet deep. The cow was more than half consumed, and the game had
+been driven out of the mountains by the storms.
+
+"The sojourners in that lonely camp became alarmed at the prospect of
+the terrible fate which seemed to threaten them, and they determined to
+find their way across the mountains. They started and reached the summit
+the first night after leaving their camp. Here, young Schallenberger was
+taken ill with severe cramps. The following day he was unable to proceed
+more than a few feet without falling to the ground. It was evident to
+his companions that he could go no farther. They did not like to leave
+him, nor did they wish to remain where death seemed to await them.
+Finally Schallenberger told them if they would take him back to the
+cabin he would remain there and they could go on. This they did, and
+after making him as comfortable as possible, they bade him good-by,
+and he was left alone in that mountain wild. A strong will and an
+unflinching determination to live through all the threatening dangers,
+soon raised him from his bed and nerved him to action. He found some
+steel traps among the goods stored, and with them caught foxes, which
+constituted his chief or only article of food, until rescued by the
+returning party, March 1, 1845."
+
+The Breen family moved into the Schallenberger cabin. Against the west
+side of this cabin, Keseberg built a sort of half shed, into which he
+and his family entered. The Murphys erected a cabin nearer the lake.
+The site of this cabin is plainly marked by a large stone about ten or
+twelve feet high, one side of which rises almost perpendicularly from
+the ground. Against this perpendicular side the Murphys erected the
+building which was to shelter them during the winter. It was about three
+hundred yards from the shore of Donner Lake, and near the wide marshy
+outlet. The Breen and Murphy cabins were distant from each other about
+one hundred and fifty yards. The Graves family built a house close by
+Donner Creek, and half or three quarters of a mile further down the
+stream. Adjoining this, forming a double cabin, the Reeds built. The
+Donner brothers, Jacob and George, together with their families, camped
+in Alder Creek Valley, six or seven miles from Donner Lake. They were,
+if possible, in a worse condition than the others, for they had only
+brush sheds and their tents to shield them from the wintry weather. Mrs.
+John App (Leanna C. Donner), of Jamestown, Tuolumne County, writes: "We
+had no time to build a cabin. The snow came on so suddenly that we had
+barely time to pitch our tent, and put up a brush shed, as it were, one
+side of which was open. This brush shed was covered with pine boughs,
+and then covered with rubber coats, quilts, etc. My uncle, Jacob Donner,
+and family, also had a tent, and camped near us."
+
+Crowded in their ill-prepared dwellings, the emigrants could not feel
+otherwise than gloomy and despondent. The small quantity of provisions
+became so nearly exhausted that it is correct to say they were compelled
+to live on meat alone, without so much as salt to give it a relish.
+There was an abundance of beautiful trout in the lake, but no one
+could catch them. W. C. Graves tells how he went fishing two or three
+different times, but without success. The lake was not frozen over at
+first, and fish were frequently seen; but they were too coy and wary to
+approach such bait as was offered. Soon thick ice covered the water, and
+after that no one attempted to fish. In fact, the entire party seemed
+dazed by the terrible calamity which had overtaken them.
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.
+
+
+
+     Endeavors to Cross the Mountains
+     Discouraging Failures
+     Eddy Kills a Bear
+     Making SnowShoes
+     Who Composed the "Forlorn Hope"
+     Mary A. Graves
+     An Irishman
+     A Generous Act
+     Six Days' Rations
+     Mary Graves Account
+     Snow-Blind
+     C. T. Stanton's Death
+     "I am Coming Soon"
+     Sketch of Stanton's Early Life
+     His Charity and Self-Sacrifice
+     The Diamond Breastpin
+     Stanton's Last Poem.
+
+
+
+All knew that death speedily awaited the entire company unless some
+could cross over the mountain barrier and hasten back relief parties.
+Out of the list of ninety persons mentioned in the first chapter, only
+Mrs. Sarah Keyes, Halloran, Snyder, Hardcoop, Wolfinger, and Pike had
+perished, and only three, Messrs. Reed, Herron, and McCutchen, had
+reached California. This left eighty-one persons at the mountain camps.
+It was resolved that at the earliest possible moment the strongest and
+ablest of the party should endeavor to cross the summits and reach the
+settlements. Accordingly, on the twelfth of November, a party of twelve
+or fifteen persons set out from the cabins. It was found impossible,
+however, to make any considerable headway in the soft, deep snow, and at
+midnight they returned to the cabins. They had not succeeded in getting
+more than a mile above the head of the lake. In this party were Mr. F.
+W. Graves and his two daughters, Mary A. Graves, and Mrs. Sarah Fosdick.
+The rest, with the exception of Jay Fosdick and Wm. H. Eddy, were young,
+unmarried men, as, for instance, Stanton, Smith, Spitzer, Elliott,
+Antoine, John Baptiste, and the two Indians. It was comparatively a
+trifling effort, but it seemed to have the effect of utterly depressing
+the hopes of several of these men. With no one in the camps dependent
+upon them, without any ties of relationship, or bonds of affection,
+these young men were be first to attempt to escape from their prison
+walls of snow. Failing in this, many of them never again rallied or made
+a struggle for existence. Not so, however, with those who were heads
+of families. A gun was owned by William Foster, and with it, on the
+fourteenth of November, three miles north of Truckee, near the present
+Alder Creek Mill, Mr. Eddy succeeded in killing a bear. This event
+inspired many hearts with courage; but, alas it was short-lived. No
+other game could be found except two or three wild ducks. What were
+these among eighty-one people! Mr. F. W. Graves was a native of Vermont,
+and his boyhood days had been spent in sight of the Green Mountains.
+Somewhat accustomed to snow, and to pioneer customs, Mr. Graves was the
+only member of the party who understood how to construct snow-shoes. The
+unsuccessful attempt made by the first party proved that no human being
+could walk upon the loose snow without some artificial assistance. By
+carefully sawing the ox-bows into strips, so as to preserve their curved
+form, Mr. Graves, by means of rawhide thongs, prepared very serviceable
+snow-shoes. Fourteen pair of shoes were made in this manner. It was
+certain death for all to remain in camp, and yet the first attempt had
+shown that it was almost equally certain death to attempt to reach the
+settlements. There was not food for all, and yet the ones who undertook
+to cross the mountains were undoubtedly sacrificing their lives for
+those who remained in camp. If some should go, those who were left
+behind might be able to preserve life until spring, or until relief
+came. The stoutest hearts quailed before the thought of battling with
+the deep drifts, the storms, and the unknown dangers which lurked on
+the summits. The bravest shuddered at the idea of leaving the cabins
+and venturing out into the drear and dismal wilderness of snow. Yet they
+could count upon their fingers the days that would elapse before the
+provisions would be exhausted, and starvation would ensue, if none left
+the camps.
+
+Day after day, with aching hearts and throbbing brows, the poor
+imprisoned wretches gazed into each other's faces in blank despair.
+Who should be sacrificed? Who would go out and seek a grave 'neath the
+crashing avalanche, the treacherous drifts, or in the dreary famished
+wilderness, that those left behind might live? Who would be the forlorn
+hope of the perishing emigrants?
+
+Once, Messrs. Patrick Breen, Patrick Dolan, Lewis Keseberg, and W.
+H. Eddy, are said to have attempted to reach the summit. On another
+occasion these same parties, with Mrs. Reed and family, Mr. Stanton and
+the two Indians, made an unsuccessful attempt. Still another time, a
+large party, among whom were Mrs. Murphy and the older members of her
+family, made the effort, and even succeeded in crossing the topmost
+ridge and reaching Summit Valley, one and a half miles west of the
+summit. But all these parties were forced to return to the cabins, and
+each failure confirmed the belief that no living being could cross the
+mountains. In this manner time dragged wearily along until the tenth,
+or, as some say, the sixteenth of December. The mere matter of the date
+is of trifling importance. At all events a forlorn hope was organized.
+Seventeen names were enrolled as volunteers. Of these, Charles Burger
+went only a short distance, turning back weary and exhausted. Wm. G.
+Murphy, who is described as a most brave and resolute boy of eleven
+years of age, accompanied the party as far as the head of Donner Lake.
+He and his brother Lemuel were without snowshoes. It was expected they
+would step in the beaten tracks of those who had shoes, but this was
+soon proven to be utterly impracticable. The party made snow-shoes for
+Lemuel on the first night, out of the aparajos which had been brought by
+Stanton from Sutter's Fort. Wm. G. Murphy saved his life by returning
+to the cabins. No human being could have endured the trip without
+snow-shoes. Fifteen remained in the party, and these pressed forward
+without so much as daring to look back to the dear ones whose lives
+depended upon this terrible venture. Without forgetting William G.
+Murphy and Charles Burger, who started with this little band, the first
+party who crossed the Sierra will in future be termed the fifteen.
+Who composed this party? Mothers, whose babes would starve unless the
+mothers went; fathers, whose wives and children would perish if the
+fathers did not go; children, whose aged parents could not survive
+unless the children, by leaving, increased the parents' share of food.
+Each were included in the forlorn hope.
+
+It was time for some one to leave the cabins. During the days that had
+elapsed, no word had been received from the Donner brothers at Alder
+Creek, nor from the emigrants who camped with them. Alder Creek is a
+branch of Prosser Creek, and the Donners encamped on the former stream
+about a mile and a half above the junction.
+
+On the ninth of December, Milton Elliott and Noah James started back to
+learn some tidings of these people. Soon after they left the camps at
+the lake, a terrific storm came down from the mountains, and as nothing
+had been heard from them, it was considered certain they had perished.
+
+About this time, starvation and exposure had so preyed upon one of the
+company, Augustus Spitzer, that one day he came reeling and staggering
+into the Breen cabin and fell prostrate and helpless upon the floor.
+Poor fellow, he never rallied, although by careful nursing and kindest
+attentions he lingered along for some weeks. The emigrants were no
+longer on short allowance, they were actually starving! Oh! the horror!
+the dread alarm which prevailed among the company! C. T. Stanton, ever
+brave, courageous, lion-hearted, said, "I will bring help to these
+famishing people or lay down my life." F. W. Graves, who was one of the
+noblest men who ever breathed the breath of life, was next to volunteer.
+Mr. and Mrs. Graves had nine children, the youngest being only nine
+months old. Generously had they parted with the cattle which they
+brought to the lake, dividing equally with those families who had
+no food. Mary A. Graves and her elder sister, Mrs. Sarah Fosdick,
+determined to accompany their father, and as will presently be seen,
+their hearts failed not during trials which crushed strong men. Mary
+Graves was about nineteen years old. She was a very beautiful girl,
+of tall and slender build, and exceptionally graceful carriage. Her
+features, in their regularity, were of classic Grecian mold. Her eyes
+were dark, bright, and expressive. A fine mouth and perfect set of
+teeth, added to a luxuriant growth of dark, rebelliously wavy hair,
+completed an almost perfect picture of lovely girlhood. Jay Fosdick
+resolved to share with his wife the perils of the way. Mrs. Murphy
+offered to take care of the infant children of her married daughters,
+Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Pike, if they would join the party. The dear, good
+mother argued that what the daughters would eat would keep her and the
+little ones from starving. It was nobly said, yet who can doubt but
+that, with clearer vision, the mother saw that only by urging them to
+go, could she save her daughters' lives. With what anguish did Mrs.
+Harriet F. Pike enroll her name among those of the "Forlorn Hope,"
+and bid good-by to her little two-year-old Naomi and her nursing babe,
+Catherine! What bitter tears were shed by Mr. and Mrs. Foster when they
+kissed their beautiful baby boy farewell! Alas! though they knew it not,
+it was a long, long farewell. Mrs. Eddy was too feeble to attempt the
+journey, and the family were so poorly provided with food that Mr. Eddy
+was compelled to leave her and the two little children in the cabins,
+and go with the party. Mrs. McCutchen also had an infant babe, and Mrs.
+Graves employed the same reasoning with her that Mrs. Murphy had so
+effectively used with Mrs. Pike and Mrs. Foster. That these three young
+mothers left their infant children, their nursing babes, with others,
+and started to find relief, is proof stronger than words, of the
+desperate condition of the starving emigrants. The Mexican Antoine, the
+two Indians Lewis and Salvador, and an Irishman named Patrick Dolan,
+completed the fifteen. This Patrick Dolan deserves more than a passing
+word. He had owned a farm in Keokuk, Iowa, and selling it, had taken as
+the price, a wagon, four oxen, and two cows. With these he joined the
+Donner Party, and on reaching the lake had killed his cattle and stored
+them away with those killed by the Breens. Dolan was a bachelor, and
+about forty years of age. He was possessed of two or three hundred
+dollars in coin, but instead of being miserly or selfish, was
+characterized by generous openheartedness. "When it became apparent that
+there was to be suffering and starvation" (this quotation is from the
+manuscript of Hon. James F. Breen), "Dolan determined to lighten the
+burden at the camps, and leave with the party that was to attempt the
+passage of the summit, so that there should be less to consume the scant
+supply of provisions. Previous to his departure, he asked my father
+(Patrick Breen) to attend to the wants of Reed's family, and to give of
+his (Dolan's) meat to Reed's family as long as possible." Accordingly,
+Mrs. Reed and her children were taken into Breen's cabin, where, as
+mentioned above, Dolan's meat was stored. Was ever a more generous act
+recorded? Patrick Dolan had no relative in the Donner Party, and no
+friends, save those whose friendship had been formed upon the plains.
+With the cattle which belonged to him he could have selfishly subsisted
+until relief came, but, whole-souled Irishman that he was, he gave food
+to the mothers and the children and went out into the waste of snow to
+perish of starvation! How many who live to-day owe their existence to
+Patrick Dolan's self-sacrifice! This blue-eyed, brown haired Irishman
+is described as being of a jovial disposition, and inclined to look
+upon the bright side of things. Remembering how he gave his life for
+strangers, how readily can we appreciate Mr. Breen's tender tribute: "He
+was a favorite with children, and would romp and play with a child." As
+a token of appreciation for his kindness, Mrs. Reed gave Patrick Dolan a
+gold watch and a Masonic emblem belonging to her husband, bidding him
+to keep them until he was rewarded for his generosity. The good mother's
+word had a significance she wot not of. When Mrs. Reed reached Sutter's
+Fort she found these valuables awaiting her. They had been brought in by
+Indians. Patrick Dolan had kept them until his death--until the angels
+came and bore him away to his reward.
+
+This party of fifteen had taken provisions to last only six days. At the
+end of this time they hoped to reach Bear Valley, so they said, but it
+is more than probable they dared not take more food from their dear
+ones at the cabins. Six days' rations! This means enough of the poor,
+shriveled beef to allow each person, three times a day, a piece the size
+of one's two fingers. With a little coffee and a little loaf sugar,
+this was all. They had matches, Foster's gun, a hatchet, and each a thin
+blanket. With this outfit they started to cross the Sierra. No person,
+unaccustomed to snow-shoes, can form an idea of the difficulty which is
+experienced during one's first attempt to walk with them. Their shoes
+would sink deep into the loose, light snow, and it was with great effort
+they made any progress. They had been at Donner Lake from forty-two to
+forty-six days, and on this first night of their journey had left it
+four miles behind them. After a dreadful day's work they encamped, in
+full sight of the lake and of the cabins. This was harder for the aching
+hearts of the mothers than even the terrible parting from their little
+ones. To see the smoke of the cabins, to awake from their troubled
+dreams, thinking they heard the cry of their starving babes, to stifle
+the maternal yearnings which prompted them to turn back and perish with
+their darlings clasped to their breasts, were trials almost unbearable.
+The next day they traveled six miles. They crossed the summit, and the
+camps were no longer visible. They were in the solemn fastnesses of the
+snow-mantled Sierra. Lonely, desolate, forsaken apparently by God and
+man, their situation was painfully, distressingly terrible. The snow
+was, wrapped about cliff and forest and gorge. It varied in depth from
+twelve to sixty feet.
+
+Mrs. M. A. Clarke (Mary Graves), now of White River, Tulare County,
+speaking of this second day, says: "We had a very slavish day's travel,
+climbing the divide. Nothing of interest occurred until reaching the
+summit. The scenery was too grand for me to pass without notice, the
+changes being so great; walking now on loose snow, and now stepping on a
+hard, slick rock a number of hundred yards in length. Being a little
+in the rear of the party, I had a chance to observe the company ahead,
+trudging along with packs on their backs. It reminded me of some
+Norwegian fur company among the icebergs. My shoes were ox-bows,
+split in two, and rawhide strings woven in, something in form of the
+old-fashioned, split-bottomed chairs. Our clothes were of the bloomer
+costume, and generally were made of flannel. Well do I remember a remark
+one of the company made here, that we were about as near heaven as we
+could get. We camped a little on the west side of the summit the second
+night."
+
+Here they gathered a few boughs, kindled a fire upon the surface of the
+snow, boiled their coffee, and ate their pitiful allowance of beef; then
+wrapping their toil-worn bodies in their blankets, lay down upon the
+snow. As W. C. Graves remarks, it was a bed that was soft, and white,
+and beautiful, and yet it was a terrible bed--a bed of death. The third
+day they walked five miles. Starting almost at dawn, they struggled
+wearily through the deep drifts, and when the night shadows crept over
+crag and pine and mountain vale, they were but five miles on their
+journey. They did not speak during the day, except when speech was
+absolutely necessary. All traveled silently, and with downcast eyes.
+The task was beginning to tell upon the frames of even the strongest and
+most resolute. The hunger that continually gnawed at their vitals, the
+excessive labor of moving the heavy, clumsy snow-shoes through the soft,
+yielding snow, was too much for human endurance. They could no longer
+keep together and aid each other with words of hope. They struggled
+along, sometimes at great distances apart. The fatigue and dazzling
+sunlight rendered some of them snowblind. One of these was the
+noble-hearted Stanton. On this third day he was too blind and weak to
+keep up with the rest, and staggered into the camp long after the others
+had finished their pitiful supper. Poor, brave, generous Stanton! He
+said little, but in his inner heart he knew that the end of his journey
+was almost at hand.
+
+Who was this heroic being who left the beautiful valleys of the
+Sacramento to die for strangers? See him wearily toiling onward during
+the long hours of the fourth day. The agony and blindness of his eyes
+wring no cry from his lips, no murmur, no word of complaint. With
+patient courage and heroic fortitude he strives to keep pace with his
+companions, but finds it impossible. Early in the morning he drops to
+the rear, and is soon lost to sight. At night he drags his weary limbs
+into camp long after his comrades are sleeping 'neath the silent stars.
+It must be remembered that they had been accustomed to short allowance
+of food for months, while he had been used to having an abundance. Their
+bodies had been schooled to endure famine, privations, and long, weary
+walks. For many days before reaching the mountains, they had been used
+to walking every day, in order to lighten the burdens of the perishing
+oxen. Fatigues which exhausted them crushed Stanton. The weather was
+clear and pleasant, but the glare of the sun during the day had been
+like molten fire to their aching eyes.
+
+On the morning of the fifth day Stanton was sitting smoking by the
+smoldering fire when the company resumed its journey. Mary Graves, who
+had a tender heart for the suffering of others, went kindly up to him,
+and asked him if he were coming. "Yes," he replied, "I am coming
+soon." Was he answering her, or the unseen spirits that even then were
+beckoning him to the unknown world? "Yes, I am coming soon!" These were
+his last words. His companions were too near death's door to return when
+they found he came not, and so he perished. He had begged them piteously
+to lead him, during the first days of his blindness, but seeming
+to realize that they were unable to render assistance, he ceased to
+importune, and heroically met his fate. He did not blame his comrades.
+They were weak, exhausted, and ready to die of starvation. With food
+nearly gone, strength failing, hope lost, and nothing left but the last,
+blind, clinging instinct of life, it was impossible that the perishing
+company should have aided the perishing Stanton. He was a hero of the
+highest, noblest, grandest stamp. No words can ever express a fitting
+tribute to his memory. He gave his life for strangers who had not the
+slightest claim to the sacrifice. He left the valleys where friends,
+happiness, and abundance prevailed, to perish amidst chilling
+snow-drifts--famished and abandoned. The act of returning to save the
+starving emigrants is as full of heroic grandeur as his death is replete
+with mournful desolation.
+
+In May, 1847, W. C. Graves, in company with a relief party, found the
+remains of C. T. Stanton near the spot where he had been left by his
+companions. The wild animals had partially devoured his body, but the
+remains were easily identified by means of his clothing and pistols.
+
+The following sketch of this hero is kindly furnished by his brother,
+Sidney Stanton, of Cazenovia, New York:
+
+"Charles Tyler Stanton was born at Pompey, Onondaga County, New York,
+March 11, 1811. He was five feet five inches in height. He had brown
+eyes and brown hair. He possessed a robust constitution, and although
+rather slender during his youth, at the age of fifteen he became strong
+and hearty, and could endure as great hardships as any of his brothers.
+He had five brothers and four sisters, and was the seventh child. His
+grandparents, on his father's side, were well off at the close of the
+revolutionary war, but sold their large farms, and took Continental
+money in payment. Soon afterward this money became worthless, and they
+lost all. They were at the time living in Berkshire, Massachusetts,
+but soon after removed west to the county where C. T. Stanton was born.
+There were in his father's family fourteen children--seven sons and
+seven daughters."
+
+In his younger days Stanton was engaged as a clerk in a store. He was
+honest, industrious, and greatly beloved by those with whom he came in
+contact. His early education was limited, but during his employment as
+clerk he used every possible endeavor to improve his mind. During his
+journey across the plains, he was regarded as somewhat of a savant,
+on account of his knowledge of botany, geology, and other branches of
+natural science. His disposition was generous to a fault. He never was
+happier than when bestowing assistance upon needy friends. His widowed
+mother, for whom he entertained the most devoted affection, was kindly
+cared for by him until her death in 1835. After this sad event he
+removed to Chicago. At Chicago he made money rapidly for a time, and his
+hand was ever ready to give aid to those about him. Charity and heroic
+self-sacrifice appear to have been his predominant characteristics. They
+stand out in bold relief, not only in his early history, but during his
+connection with the Donner Party. While in the mountains he had no money
+to give, but instead he gave his strength, his energy, his love, his
+all, his very life, for his companions.
+
+That he had a premonition of the gloomy fate which overtook him in the
+Sierra, or at least that he fully realized the perils to which he was
+exposing his life, is indicated by the following incident: When he set
+out from Sutter's Fort to return to the Donner train with provisions, he
+left a vest with Captain Sutter. In one of the pockets of this vest was
+subsequently found a package directed to the Captain with the following
+memorandum: "Captain Sutter will send the within, in the event of my
+death, to Sidney Stanton, Syracuse, New York." The package contained a
+diamond breastpin. Mr. Sidney Stanton writes as follows concerning this
+keepsake:
+
+"I will give you a short history or account of the pin which was left
+for me at Sutter's Fort, which Mr. McKinstry forwarded to me. This was
+an event so peculiar at the time. He visited me here at Syracuse, while
+he was prospering in Chicago. He was on his way to New York, and wanted
+a sum of money, which I advanced. Before leaving he fastened this pin on
+the dress of my wife, remarking that she must consider it as a present
+from him. Nothing more was thought of this event until he again wanted
+money. Misfortune had overtaken him, and this event gave him much pain,
+not so much on his own account as because he could not relieve the
+distress of dear friends when asked for aid. I sent him a little more
+money; I had not much to spare, and in talking the matter over with my
+wife, she asked, 'Why not send him the pin? It is valuable, and in time
+of need he might dispose of it for his comfort.' In saying this she
+took the ground that it was left with her as a pledge, not as a gift. I
+therefore handed it to my sister to send to him for this purpose. But it
+appears by his keeping it and sending it back in the way he did, that he
+did consider it a gift, and hence he would not and did not dispose of it
+for necessary things for his own comfort. This pin was the only thing of
+value which he had at the time of his death."
+
+Stanton was an excellent writer. His descriptions of his travels from
+Chicago to the South would make a good-sized and a very interesting
+book. His last composition is given below. It is an appropriate ending
+to this brief outline of the history of one who should be regarded as
+one of the noblest of California's pioneer heroes:
+
+           "To My Mother In Heaven."
+
+
+     "Oh, how that word my soul inspires
+     With holy, fond, and pure desires!
+        Maternal love, how bright the flame!
+        For wealth of worlds I'd not profane
+        Nor idly breathe thy sacred name,
+           My mother."
+
+     "Thy sainted spirit dwells on high.
+     How oft I weep, how oft I sigh
+        Whene'er I think of bygone time,
+        Thy smile of love, which once was mine,
+        That look so heavenly and divine,
+           My mother."
+
+     "Thy warning voice in prayers of love,
+     Ascending to the throne above
+        With tones of eloquence so rife,
+        Hath turned my thoughts from worldly strife,
+        And cheered me through my wayward life,
+           My mother."
+
+     "When death shall close my sad career,
+     And I before my God appear
+        There to receive His last decree
+        My only prayer there will be
+        Forever to remain with thee,
+           My mother."
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.
+
+
+
+     A Wife's Devotion
+     The Smoky Gorge
+     Caught in a Storm
+     Casting Lots to See Who should Die
+     A Hidden River
+     The Delirium of Starvation
+     Franklin Ward Graves
+     His Dying Advice
+     A Frontiersman's Plan
+     The Camp of Death
+     A Dread Resort
+     A Sister's Agony
+     The Indians Refuse to Eat
+     Lewis and Salvador Flee for Their Lives
+     Killing a Deer
+     Tracks Marked by Blood
+     Nine Days without Food.
+
+
+
+Let no one censure Stanton's companions for abandoning their brave
+comrade. In less than twenty-four hours all were without food, unless,
+indeed, it was Mr. Eddy, who, in his narration published by Judge
+Thornton, states that on the day of Stanton's death he found half a
+pound of bear's meat which had been secreted in a little bag by his
+wife. Attached to this meat was a paper, upon which his wife had written
+in pencil a note signed, "Your own dear Eleanor." Mr. Eddy had not
+discovered this meat until the sorest hour of need, and the hope
+expressed in Mrs. Eddy's note, that it would be the means of saving his
+life, was literally fulfilled. There is something extremely touching in
+the thought that this devoted wife, who, as will presently be seen,
+was starving to death in the cabins, saved her husband's life by
+clandestinely concealing about his person a portion of the food which
+should have sustained herself and her infant children.
+
+In the account given by Mary Graves, is mentioned the following incident
+in the fourth day's travel: "Observing by the way a deep gorge at the
+right, having the appearance of being full of smoke, I wanted very much
+to go to it, but the Indians said no, that was not the way. I prevailed
+on the men to fire the gun, but there was no answer. Every time we
+neared the gorge I would halloo at the top of my voice, but we received
+no answer."
+
+On this day the horror of the situation was increased by the
+commencement of a snow-storm. As the flakes fell thick and fast, the
+party sat down in the snow utterly discouraged and heartsick.
+
+Mary Graves says: "What to do we did not know. We held a consultation,
+whether to go ahead without provisions, or go back to the cabins, where
+we must undoubtedly starve. Some of those who had children and families
+wished to go back, but the two Indians said they would go on to Captain
+Sutter's. I told them I would go too, for to go back and hear the cries
+of hunger from my little brothers and sisters was more than I could
+stand. I would go as far as I could, let the consequences be what they
+might."
+
+There, in the deep, pitiless storm, surrounded on all sides by desolate
+wastes of snow, the idea was first advanced that life might be sustained
+if some one were to perish. Since leaving the cabins, they had at no
+time allowed themselves more than one ounce of meat per meal, and for
+two entire days they had not tasted food. The terrible pangs of hunger
+must be speedily allayed or death was inevitable. Some one proposed that
+lots be cast to see who should die. The terrible proposition met with
+opposition from Foster and others, but slips of paper were actually
+prepared by some of the men, and he who drew the longest--the fatal
+slip--was Patrick Dolan. Who should take Dolan's life? Who was to be
+the executioner of the man who had so generously given up the food which
+might have sustained his life, and joined the forlorn hope that others
+might live? With one accord they rose to their feet and staggered
+forward. As if to banish from their minds the horrid thought of taking
+Dolan's life, they attempted to pursue their journey.
+
+With the greatest exertion and suffering they managed to crawl, and
+stagger, and flounder along until they attained a distance of two or
+three miles. Here they camped, and passed a most wretched, desolate
+night. The morning dawned; it was dreary, rainy, and discouraging. The
+little party set out as usual, but were too weak and lifeless to travel.
+The soft snow clung to their feet in heavy lumps like snow-balls.
+Instead of making a fire in a new place, Mary Graves says they crawled
+back to the camp-fire of the night previous. Here they remained until
+night came on--a night full of horrors. The wind howled through the
+shrieking forests like troops of demons. The rain had continued all day,
+but finally changed to snow and sleet, which cut their pinched faces,
+and made them shiver with cold. All the forces of nature seemed
+to combine for their destruction. At one time during the night, in
+attempting to kindle a fire, the ax or hatchet which they had carried
+was lost in the loose snow.
+
+A huge fire was kindled at last, with the greatest difficulty, and
+in order to obtain more warmth, all assisted in piling fuel upon the
+flames. Along in the night, Mr. Foster thinks it was near midnight, the
+heat of the flames and the dropping coals and embers thawed the snow
+underneath the fire until a deep, well-like cavity was formed about
+the fire. Suddenly, as if to intensify the dreadful horrors of the
+situation, the bottom of this well gave way, and the fire disappeared!
+The camp and the fire had been built over a stream of water, and the
+fire had melted through the overlying snow until it had fallen into the
+stream! Those who peered over the brink of the dark opening about which
+they were gathered, could hear, far down in the gloom, during the lull
+of the storm, the sound of running waters.
+
+If there is anything lacking in this picture of despair, it is furnished
+in the groans and cries of the shivering, dying outcasts, and the
+demoniacal shrieks and ravings of Patrick Dolan, who was in the delirium
+which precedes death. It was not necessary that life should be taken
+by the members of the company. Death was busily at work, and before the
+wild winter night was ended, his ghastly victims were deaf to wind or
+storm.
+
+When the fire disappeared, it became apparent that the entire forlorn
+hope would perish before morning if exposed to the cold and storm. W.
+H. Eddy says the wind increased until it was a perfect tornado. About
+midnight, Antoine overcome by starvation, fatigue, and the bitter cold,
+ceased to breathe. Mr. F. W. Graves was dying. There was a point beyond
+which an iron nerve and a powerful constitution were unable to sustain a
+man. This point had been reached, and Mr. Graves was fast passing away.
+He was conscious, and calling his weeping, grief-stricken daughters to
+his side, exhorted them to use every means in their power to prolong
+their lives. He reminded them of their mother, of their little brothers
+and sisters in the cabin at the lake. He reminded Mrs. Pike of her poor
+babies. Unless these daughters succeeded in reaching Sutter's Fort,
+and were able to send back relief, all at the lake must certainly die.
+Instances had been cited in history, where, under less provocation,
+human flesh had been eaten, yet Mr. Graves well knew that his daughters
+had said they would never touch the loathsome food.
+
+Was there not something noble and grand in the dying advice of this
+father? Was he not heroic when he counseled that all false delicacy be
+laid aside and that his body be sacrificed to support those that were to
+relieve his wife and children?
+
+Earnestly pleading that these afflicted children rise superior to their
+prejudices and natural instincts--Franklin Ward Graves died. A sublimer
+death seldom is witnessed. In the solemn darkness, in the tempestuous
+storm, on the deep, frozen snow-drifts, overcome by pain and exposure,
+with the pangs of famine gnawing away his life, this unselfish father,
+with his latest breath urged that his flesh be used to prolong the lives
+of his companions. Truly, a soul that could prompt such utterances
+had no need, after death, for its mortal tenement--it had a better
+dwelling-place on high.
+
+With two of their little number in the icy embraces of death, some plan
+to obtain warmth for the living was immediately necessary. W. H. Eddy
+proposed a frontiersman's method. It was for all to huddle closely
+together in a circle, lie down on a blanket with their heads outward,
+and be covered with a second blanket. Mr. Eddy arranged his companions,
+spread the blanket over them, and creeping under the coverlid, completed
+the circle. The wind swept the drifting snow in dense clouds over their
+heads. The chilling air, already white with falling snowflakes, became
+dense with the drifting masses. In a little while the devoted band
+were completely hidden from wind, or storm, or piercing cold, by a
+deep covering of snow. The warmth of their bodies, confined between the
+blankets, under the depth of snow, soon rendered them comfortably
+warm. Their only precaution now was to keep from being buried
+alive. Occasionally some member of the party would shake the rapidly
+accumulating snow from off their coverlid.
+
+They no longer were in danger of freezing. But while the elements were
+vainly waging fierce war above their heads, hunger was rapidly sapping
+the fountains of life, and claiming them for its victims. When, for a
+moment, sleep would steal away their reason, in famished dreams they
+would seize with their teeth the hand or arm of a companion. The
+delirium of death had attacked one or two, and the pitiful wails and
+cries of these death-stricken maniacs were heart-rending. The dead, the
+dying, the situation, were enough to drive one crazy.
+
+The next day was ushered in by one of the most furious storms ever
+witnessed on the Sierra. All the day long, drifts and the fast-falling
+snow circled above them under the force of the fierce gale. The air was
+a frozen fog of swift-darting ice-lances. The fine particles of snow
+and sleet, hurled by maddened storm-fiends, would cut and sting so that
+one's eyes could not be opened in the storm, and the rushing gale would
+hurl one prostrate on the snow. Once or twice the demented Dolan escaped
+from his companions and disappeared in the blinding storm. Each time he
+returned or was caught and dragged 'neath the covering, but the fatal
+exposure chilled the little life remaining in his pulses. During the
+afternoon he ceased to shriek, or struggle, or moan. Patrick Dolan, the
+warm-hearted Irishman, was starved to death.
+
+Mr. Eddy states, in Thornton's work, that they entered this Camp of
+Death, Friday, December 25, Christmas. According to his version they
+started from the cabins on the sixteenth day of December, with scanty
+rations for six days. On the twenty-second they consumed the last morsel
+of their provisions. Not until Sunday noon, December 27, did the storm
+break away. They had been over four days without food, and two days and
+a half without fire. They were almost dead.
+
+Is there a mind so narrow, so uncharitable, that it can censure these
+poor dying people for the acts of this terrible day? With their loved
+ones perishing at Donner Lake, with the horror of a lingering death
+staring them in the face, can the most unfeeling heart condemn them?
+
+Emerging from the dreary prison-house, they attempted to kindle a fire.
+Their matches were wet and useless. Their flint-lock gun would give
+forth a spark, but without some dry material that would readily ignite,
+it was of no avail.
+
+On this morning of the twenty-seventh Eddy says that he blew up a
+powder-horn in an effort to strike fire under the blankets. His face and
+hands were much burned. Mrs. McCutchen and Mrs. Foster were also burned,
+but not seriously. For some time all efforts to obtain a fire proved
+fruitless. Their garments were drenched by the storm. Mrs. Pike had a
+mantle that was lined with cotton. The lining of this was cut open, and
+the driest portion of the cotton was exposed to the sun's rays, in the
+hope that it could be made to catch the spark from the flint. At last
+they were successful. A fire was kindled in a dead tree, and the
+flames soon leaped up to the loftiest branches. The famished, shivering
+wretches gathered round the burning tree. So weak and lifeless were they
+that when the great pine limbs burned off and fell crashing about them,
+neither man nor woman moved or attempted to escape the threatening
+danger. All felt that sudden death would be welcome. They were stunned
+and horrified by the dreadful alternative which it was evident they must
+accept.
+
+The men finally mustered up courage to approach the dead. With averted
+eyes and trembling hand, pieces of flesh were severed from the inanimate
+forms and laid upon the coals. It was the very refinement of torture to
+taste such food, yet those who tasted lived. One could not eat. Lemuel
+Murphy was past relief. A boy about thirteen years old, Lemuel was
+dearly loved by his sisters, and, full of courage, had endeavored to
+accompany them on the fearful journey. He was feeble when he started
+from the cabins, and the overwhelming sufferings of the fatal trip had
+destroyed his remaining strength. Starvation is agony during the first
+three days, apathy and inanition during the fourth and perhaps the
+fifth, and delirium from that time until the struggle ceases. When the
+delirium commences, hope ends. Lemuel was delirious Sunday morning, and
+when food was placed to his lips he either could not eat or was too near
+death to revive. All day Mrs. Foster held her brother's head in her lap,
+and by every means in her power sought to soothe his death agonies. The
+sunlight faded from the surrounding summits. Darkness slowly emerged
+from the canyons and enfolded forest and hill-slope in her silent
+embrace. The glittering stars appeared in the heavens, and the bright,
+full moon rose over the eastern mountain crests. The silence, the
+profound solitude, the ever-present wastes of snow, the weird moonlight,
+and above all the hollow moans of the dying boy in her lap, rendered
+this night the most impressive in the life of Mrs. Foster. She says she
+never beholds a bright moonlight without recurring with a shudder to
+this night on the Sierra. At two o'clock in the morning Lemuel Murphy
+ceased to breathe. The warm tears and kisses of the afflicted sisters
+were showered upon lips that would never more quiver with pain.
+
+Until the twenty-ninth of December they remained at the "Camp of Death."
+Would you know more of the shuddering details? Does the truth require
+the narration of the sickening minutiae of the terrible transactions of
+these days? Human beings were never called upon to undergo more trying
+ordeals. Dividing into groups, the members of each family were spared
+the pain of touching their own kindred. Days and perhaps weeks of
+starvation were awaiting them in the future, and they dare not neglect
+to provide as best they might. Each of the four bodies was divested
+of its flesh, and the flesh was dried. Although no person partook of
+kindred flesh, sights were often witnessed that were blood-curdling.
+Mrs. Foster, as we have seen, fairly worshiped her brother Lemuel. Has
+human pen power to express the shock of horror this sister received when
+she saw her brother's heart thrust through with a stick, and broiling
+upon the coals? No man can record or read such an occurrence without a
+cry of agony! What, then, did she endure who saw this cruel sight?
+
+These are facts. They are given just as they came from the lips of Mrs.
+Foster, a noble woman, who would have died of horror and a broken heart
+but for her starving babe, her mother, and her little brothers and
+sisters who were at Donner Lake. Mary Graves corroborates Mrs. Foster,
+and W. H. Eddy gave a similar version to Judge Thornton.
+
+The Indian guides, Lewis and Salvador, would not eat this revolting
+food. They built a fire away from the company, and with true Indian
+stoicism endured the agonies of starvation without so much as beholding
+the occurrences at the other camp-fire.
+
+Starved bodies possess little flesh, and starving people could carry but
+light burdens through such snow-drifts. On these accounts, the provision
+which the Almighty seemed to have provided to save their lives, lasted
+only until the thirty-first On New Year's morning they ate their
+moccasins and the strings of their snow-shoes. On the night before,
+Lewis and Salvador caught the sound of ominous words, or perceived
+glances that were filled with dreadful import, and during the darkness
+they fled.
+
+For several days past the party had been lost. The Indians could not
+recognize the country when it was hidden from thirty to fifty feet in
+snow. Blindly struggling forward, they gradually separated into three
+parties. On the fourth, W. H. Eddy and Mary Graves were in advance with
+the gun. A starved deer crossed their path and providentially was slain.
+Drinking its warm blood and feasting upon its flesh, this couple waited
+for the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Foster, Mrs. McCutchen, and Mrs. Pike,
+who were some distance behind. Night came and passed and they did not
+arrive. Indeed, Foster was dying for lack of nourishment. Behind this
+party were Mr. and Mrs. Jay Fosdick. During the night, Mr. Fosdick
+perished, and the faithful wife, after remaining with him until morning,
+struggled forward and met Mrs. Foster and a companion. Mrs. Fosdick
+related the death of her husband, and upon being informed of Foster's
+condition, consented that her husband's body be converted into food. It
+was done. This was the first time that women's hands had used the knife,
+but by the act a life was saved. Mrs. Fosdick, although dying, would not
+touch the food, and but for the venison would not have lived to see the
+setting of the sun. But what was one small deer among so many famished
+people? Hide, head, feet, entrails, all were eaten. On the sixth, the
+last morsel was consumed. They were now without hope. Their journey
+was apparently interminable. Wearied, foot-sore, freezing at night and
+tortured by hunger during the day, life could not last many hours. Some
+one must die; else none could live and reach the long-talked-of relief.
+Would it be Eddy, whose wife and two children were behind? Would it be
+Mrs. Pike, who left two babes? Mrs. McCutchen, who left one? Mr. or Mrs.
+Foster, whose baby boy was at the cabin? Or would it be Mary Graves
+or Mrs. Fosdick, who had left mother and family? On the night of the
+seventh, they lay down upon the snow without having tasted a mouthful
+of food during the day. Continued famine and exhaustion had so weakened
+their frames that they could not survive another day. Yet, on the
+morning of the seventh, they arose and staggered onward. Soon they
+halted and gathered about some freshly made tracks. Tracks marked by
+blood! Tracks that they knew had been made by Lewis and Salvador, whose
+bare feet were sore and bleeding from cuts and bruises inflicted by the
+cruel, jagged rocks, the frozen snow, and flinty ice. These Indians had
+eaten nothing for nine days, and had been without fire or blankets for
+four days. They could not be far ahead.
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.
+
+
+
+     Starvation at Donner Lake
+     Preparing Rawhide for Food
+     Eating the Firerug
+     Shoveling Snow off the Beds
+     Playing they were Tea-cups of Custard
+     A Starving Baby
+     Pleading with Silent Eloquence
+     Patrick Breen's Diary
+     Jacob Donner's Death
+     A Child's Vow
+     A Christmas Dinner
+     Lost on the Summits
+     A Stump Twenty-two Feet High
+     Seven Nursing Babes at Donner Lake
+     A Devout Father
+     A Dying Boy
+     Sorrow and Suffering at the Cabins.
+
+
+
+How fared it with those left at Donner Lake? About the time the fifteen
+began their terrible journey, Baylis Williams starved to death. Such
+food as the rest had was freely given to him, but it did not is satisfy
+the demands of his nature. Quietly, uncomplainingly, he had borne
+the pangs of famine, and when the company first realized his dreadful
+condition, he was in the delirium which preceded death. What words can
+portray the emotions of the starving emigrants, when they saw one of
+their number actually perish of hunger before their eyes! Williams died
+in the Graves cabin, and was buried near the house by W. C. Graves and
+John Denton.
+
+All the Donner Party were starving. When the cattle were killed the
+hides had been spread over the cabins in lieu of shingles. These were
+now taken down and eaten. All the survivors describe the method of
+preparing this miserable substitute for food. The narration by Mrs. J.
+M. Murphy (Virginia E. Reed), of San Jose, is among the most vivid. She
+says the green rawhides were cut into strips and laid upon the coals, or
+held in the flames until the hair was completely singed off. Either side
+of the piece of hide was then scraped with a knife until comparatively
+clean, and was placed in a kettle and boiled until soft and pulpy. There
+was no salt, and only a little pepper, and yet this substance was all
+that was between them and starvation. When cold, the boiled hides
+and the water in which they were cooked, became jellied and exactly
+resembled glue. The tender stomachs of many of the little children
+revolted at this disagreeable diet, and the loathing they acquired for
+the sight of this substance still exists in the minds of some of the
+survivors. To this day, Thomas K. Reed, of San Jose, who was then a tiny
+three-year-old, can not endure the sight of calf's-foot jelly, or of
+similar dishes, because of its resemblance to the loathed food which was
+all his mother could give him in the cabins at Donner Lake.
+
+William G. Murphy describes how they gathered up the old, castaway
+bones of the cattle-bones from which all the flesh had been previously
+picked-and boiled, and boiled, and boiled them until they actually would
+crumble between the teeth, and were eaten. The little children, playing
+upon the fire-rug in his mother's cabin, used to cut off little pieces
+of the rug, toast them crisp upon the coals, and then eat them. In this
+manner, before any one was fairly aware of the fact, the fire-rug was
+entirely consumed.
+
+The Donner families, at Prosser Creek, were, if possible, in even a
+sadder condition. In order to give a glimpse of the suffering endured in
+these two tents, the following is quoted from a letter written by Mrs.
+W. A. Babcock (Georgia A. Donner, now residing at Mountain View, Santa
+Clara County): "The families shared with one another as long as they had
+anything to share. Each one's portion was very small. The hides were
+boiled, and the bones were burned brown and eaten. We tried to eat a
+decayed buffalo robe, but it was too tough, and there was no nourishment
+in it. Some of the few mice that came into camp were caught and eaten.
+Some days we could not keep a fire, and many times, during both days and
+nights, snow was shoveled from off our tent, and from around it, that we
+might not be buried alive. Mother remarked one day that it had been two
+weeks that our beds and the clothing upon our bodies had been wet. Two
+of my sisters and myself spent some days at Keseberg's cabin. The first
+morning we were there they shoveled the snow from our bed before we
+could get up. Very few can believe it possible for human beings to live
+and suffer the exposure and hardships endured there."
+
+Oh! how long and dreary the days were to the hungry children! Even their
+very plays and pastimes were pathetic, because of their piteous silent
+allusion to the pangs of starvation. Mrs. Frank Lewis (Patty Reed), of
+San Jose, relates that the poor, little, famishing girls used to fill
+the pretty porcelain tea-cups with freshly fallen snow, daintily dip it
+out with teaspoons and eat it, playing it was custard.
+
+Dear Mrs. Murphy had the most sacred and pitiful charge. It was the wee
+nursing babe, Catherine Pike, whose mother had gone with the "Forlorn
+Hope," to try, if possible, to procure relief. All there was to give
+the tiny sufferer, was a little gruel made from snow water, containing
+a slight sprinkling of coarse flour. This flour was simply ground wheat,
+unbolted. Day after day the sweet little darling would lie helplessly
+upon its grandmother's lap, and seem with its large, sad eyes to be
+pleading for nourishment. Mrs. Murphy carefully kept the little handful
+of flour concealed--there was only a handful at the very beginning--lest
+some of the starving children might get possession of the treasure.
+Each day she gave Catherine a few teaspoonfuls of the gruel. Strangely
+enough, this poor little martyr did not often cry with hunger, but with
+tremulous, quivering mouth, and a low, subdued sob or moan, would appear
+to be begging for something to eat. The poor, dumb lips, if gifted with
+speech, could not have uttered a prayer half so eloquent, so touching.
+Could the mother, Mrs. Pike, have been present, it would have broken her
+heart to see her patient babe dying slowly, little by little. Starvation
+had dried the maternal breasts long before Mrs. Pike went away, so that
+no one can censure her for leaving her baby. She could only have done as
+Mrs. Murphy did, give it the plain, coarse gruel, and watch it die, day
+by day, upon her lap.
+
+Up to this time, but little has been said of Patrick Breen. He was an
+invalid during the winter of 1846 and '47. A man of more than ordinary
+intelligence, a devout Catholic, a faithful and devoted father, his life
+furnishes a rare type of the pioneer Californian. To Mr. Breen we are
+indebted for the most faithful and authentic record of the days spent at
+the cabins. This record is in the form of a diary, in which the events
+of the day were briefly noted in the order of their occurrence. Lewis
+Keseberg kept a similar diary, but it was subsequently accidentally
+destroyed. Mrs. Tamsen Donner kept a journal, but this, with her
+paintings and botanical collections, disappeared at the fatal tent on
+Alder Creek. Mr. Breen's diary alone was preserved. He gave it into
+Col. McKinstry's possession in the spring of 1847, and on the fourth of
+September of that year it was published in the Nashville (Tenn.) Whig.
+A copy of the Whig of that date is furnished by Wm. G. Murphy, of
+Marysville. Other papers have published garbled extracts from this
+diary, but none have been reliable. The future history of the events
+which transpired at the cabins will be narrated in connection with this
+diary.
+
+It must be remembered that the lake had always been known as "Truckee
+Lake," it having been named after an old Indian guide who had rendered
+much assistance to the Schallenberger party in 1844. The record appears
+without the slightest alteration. Even the orthography of the name of
+the lake is printed as it was written, "Truckey."
+
+The diary commences as follows:
+
+"Truckey's Lake, November 20, 1846."
+
+"Came to this place on the thirty-first of last month; went into the
+pass; the snow so deep we were unable to find the road, and when within
+three miles from the summit, turned back to this shanty on Truckey's
+Lake; Stanton came up one day after we arrived here; we again took our
+teams and wagons, and made another unsuccessful attempt to cross in
+company with Stanton; we returned to this shanty; it continued to snow
+all the time. We now have killed most part of our cattle, having to
+remain here until next spring, and live on lean beef, without bread
+or salt. It snowed during the space of eight days, with little
+intermission, after our arrival, though now clear and pleasant, freezing
+at night; the snow nearly gone from the valleys."
+
+"November 21. Fine morning; wind northwest; twenty-two of our company
+about starting to cross the mountains this day, including Stanton and
+his Indians."
+
+"Nov. 22. Froze last night; fine and clear to-day; no account from those
+on the mountains."
+
+"Nov. 23. Same weather; wind west; the expedition cross the mountains
+returned after an unsuccessful attempt."
+
+"Nov. 25. Cloudy; looks like the eve of a snow-storm; our mountaineers
+are to make another trial to-morrow, if fair; froze hard last night."
+
+"Nov. 26. Began to snow last evening; now rains or sleets; the party do
+not start to-day."
+
+"Nov. 27. Still snowing; now about three feet deep; wind west; killed my
+last oxen to-day; gave another yoke to Foster; wood hard to be got."
+
+"Nov. 30. Snowing fast; looks as likely to continue as when it
+commenced; no living thing without wings can get about."
+
+"Dec. 1. Still snowing; wind west; snow about six or seven and a half
+feet deep; very difficult to get wood, and we are completely housed up;
+our cattle all killed but two or three, and these, with the horses
+and Stanton's mules, all supposed to be lost in the snow; no hopes of
+finding them alive."
+
+"Dec. 3. Ceases snowing; cloudy all day; warm enough to thaw."
+
+"Dec. 5. Beautiful sunshine; thawing a little; looks delightful after
+the long storm; snow seven or eight feet deep."
+
+"Dec. 6. The morning fine and clear; Stanton and Graves manufacturing
+snow-shoes for another mountain scrabble; no account of mules."
+
+"Dec. 8. Fine weather; froze hard last night; wind south-west; hard work
+to find wood sufficient to keep us warm or cook our beef."
+
+"Dec. 9. Commenced snowing about eleven o'clock; wind northwest; took in
+Spitzer yesterday, so weak that he can not rise without help; caused by
+starvation. Some have scanty supply of beef; Stanton trying to get some
+for him self and Indians; not likely to get much."
+
+"Dec. 10. Snowed fast all night, with heavy squalls of wind; continues
+to snow; now about seven feet in depth."
+
+"Dec. 14. Snows faster than any previous day; Stanton and Graves,
+with several others, making preparations to cross the mountains on
+snow-shoes; snow eight feet on a level."
+
+"Dec. 16. Fair and pleasant; froze hard last night; the company started
+on snow-shoes to cross the mountains; wind southeast."
+
+"Dec. 17. Pleasant; William Murphy returned from the mountain party last
+evening; Baylis Williams died night before last; Milton and Noah started
+for Donner's eight days ago; not returned yet; think they are lost in
+the snow."
+
+"Dec. 19. Snowed last night; thawing to-day; wind northwest; a little
+singular for a thaw."
+
+"Dec. 20. Clear and pleasant; Mrs. Reed here; no account from Milton
+yet. Charles Burger started for Donner's; turned back; unable to
+proceed; tough times, but not discouraged. Our hope is in God. Amen."
+
+"Dec. 21. Milton got back last night from Donner's camp. Sad news; Jacob
+Donner, Samuel Shoemaker, Rhinehart, and Smith are dead; the rest of
+them in a low situation; snowed all night, with a strong southwest
+wind."
+
+Jacob Donner was the first to die at Prosser Creek. He expired while
+sitting at the table in his tent, with his head bowed upon his hands,
+as if in deep meditation. The following terse account is from the gifted
+pen of Mrs. S. O. Houghton (Eliza P. Donner), of San Jose: "Jacob Donner
+was a slight man, of delicate constitution, and was in poor health when
+we left Springfield, Illinois. The trials of the journey reduced
+his strength and exhausted his energy. When we reached the place of
+encampment in the mountains he was discouraged and gave up in despair.
+Not even the needs of his family could rouse him to action. He was
+utterly dejected and made no effort, but tranquilly awaited death."
+
+"Dec. 23. Clear to-day; Milton took some of his meat away; all well at
+their camp. Began this day to read the 'Thirty Days' Prayers;' Almighty
+God, grant the requests of unworthy sinners!
+
+"Dec. 24. Rained all night, and still continues; poor prospect for any
+kind of comfort, spiritual or temporal."
+
+As will be seen by various references throughout this diary, Mr. Breen
+was a devout Catholic. During the darkest hour of trial the prayers were
+regularly read. That this might be done during the long weary evenings,
+as well as by day, pieces of pitch pine were split and laid carefully in
+one corner of the cabin, which would be lighted at the fire, and would
+serve as a substitute for candles. Those of the survivors who are living
+often speak of the times when they held these sticks while Mr. Breen
+read the prayers. So impressive were these religious observances that
+one girl, a bright, beautiful child, Virginia E. Reed, made a solemn vow
+that if God would hear these prayers, and deliver her family from the
+dangers surrounding them, she would become a Catholic. God did save her
+family, and she kept her vow. She is to-day a fervent Catholic.
+
+"Dec. 25. Began to snow yesterday, snowed all night, and snows yet
+rapidly; extremely difficult to find wood; uttered our prayers to God
+this Christmas morning; the prospect is appalling, but we trust in Him."
+
+What a desolate Christmas morning that was for the snow-bound victims!
+All were starving. Something to eat, something to satisfy the terrible
+cravings of appetite, was the constant wish of all. Sometimes the wishes
+were expressed aloud, but more frequently a gloomy silence prevailed.
+When anything was audibly wished for, it was invariably something whose
+size was proportional to their hunger. They never wished for a meal,
+or a mouthful, but for a barrel full, a wagon load, a house full, or a
+storehouse full.
+
+On Christmas eve the children spoke in low, subdued tones, of the visits
+Santa Claus used to make them in their beautiful homes, before they
+started across the plains. Now they knew that no Santa Claus could find
+them in the pathless depths of snow.
+
+One family, the Reeds, were in a peculiarly distressing situation. They
+knew not whether the father was living or dead. No tidings had reached
+them since his letters ceased to be found by the wayside. The meat they
+had obtained from the Breen and Graves families was now gone, and on
+Christmas morning their breakfast was a "pot of glue," as the boiled
+rawhide was termed. But Mrs. Reed, the dear, tender-hearted mother, had
+a surprise in store for her children this day. When the last ox had been
+purchased, Mrs. Reed had placed the frozen meat in one corner of the
+cabin, so that pieces could be chipped off with a knife or hatchet. The
+tripe, however, she cleaned carefully and hung on the outside of the
+cabin, on the end of a log, close to the ground. She knew that the snow
+would soon conceal this from view. She also laid away secretly, one
+teacupful of white beans, about half that quantity of rice, the same
+measure of dried apples, and a piece of bacon two inches square. She
+knew that if Christmas found them alive, they would be in a terribly
+destitute condition. She therefore resolved to lay these articles away,
+and give them to her starving children for a Christmas dinner. This was
+done. The joy and gladness of these poor little children knew no bounds
+when they saw the treasures unearthed and cooking on the fire. They
+were, just this one meal, to have all they could eat! They laughed,
+and danced, and cried by turns. They eagerly watched the dinner as
+it boiled. The pork and tripe had been cut in dice like pieces.
+Occasionally one of these pieces would boil up to the surface of the
+water for an instant, then a bean would take a peep at them from
+the boiling kettle, then a piece of apple, or a grain of rice. The
+appearance of each tiny bit was hailed by the children with shouts
+of glee. The mother, whose eyes were brimming with tears, watched her
+famished darlings with emotions that can be imagined. It seemed too sad
+that innocent children should be brought to such destitution that the
+very sight of food should so affect them! When the dinner was prepared,
+the mother's constant injunction was, "Children, eat slowly, there is
+plenty for all." When they thought of the starvation of to-morrow, they
+could not repress a shade of sadness, and when the name of papa was
+mentioned all burst into tears. Dear, brave papa! Was he struggling to
+relieve his starving family, or lying stark and dead 'neath the snows of
+the Sierra? This question was constantly uppermost in the mother's mind.
+
+"Dec. 27. Cleared off yesterday, and continues clear; snow nine feet
+deep; wood growing scarce; a tree, when felled, sinks into the snow, and
+is hard to be got at."
+
+"Dec. 30. Fine clear morning; froze hard last night. Charles Burger died
+last evening about 10 o'clock."
+
+"Dec. 31. Last of the year. May we, with the help of God, spend the
+coming year better than we have the past, which we propose to do if
+it is the will of the Almighty to deliver us from our present dreadful
+situation. Amen. Morning fair, but cloudy; wind east by south; looks
+like another snow-storm. Snow-storms are dreadful to us. The snow at
+present is very deep."
+
+"Jan. 1, 1847. We pray the God of mercy to deliver us from our present
+calamity, if it be His holy will. Commenced snowing last night, and
+snows a little yet. Provisions getting very scanty; dug up a hide from
+under the snow yesterday; have not commenced on it yet."
+
+"Jan. 3. Fair during the day, freezing at night. Mrs. Reed talks of
+crossing the mountains with her children."
+
+"Jan. 4. Fine morning; looks like spring. Mrs. Reed and Virginia, Milton
+Elliott, and Eliza Williams started a short time ago with the hope of
+crossing the mountains; left the children here. It was difficult for
+Mrs. Reed to part with them."
+
+This expedition was only one of many that the emigrants attempted. The
+suffering that was endured at these times was indescribable. The broken,
+volcanic nature of the summits rendered it extremely difficult to keep
+from getting lost. The white, snowy cliffs were everywhere the same.
+This party became bewildered and lost near the beautiful Lake Angeline,
+which is close to the present "Summit Station" of the Central Pacific.
+Had they attempted to proceed, all would undoubtedly have perished.
+
+Within half a mile of the wagon road which now extends from Donner Lake
+to the Summit are places where rocks and cliffs are mingled in wildest
+confusion. Even in summertime it is difficult to find one's way among
+the broken, distorted mountain tops. In the mighty upheaval which
+produced the Sierra Nevada, these vast mounds or mountains of frowning
+granite were grouped into weird, fantastic labyrinths. Time has wrought
+little effect upon their hold precipitous sides, and made slight
+impress upon their lofty and almost inaccessible crests. Between these
+fragmentary mountains, in shapely, symmetrical bowls which have been
+delved by the fingers of the water nymphs and Undines, lie beautiful
+lakelets. Angeline is but one of a dozen which sparkle like a chain
+of gems between Donner Lake and the snowy, overhanging peaks of Mount
+Stanford. The clefts and fissures of the towering granite cliffs are
+filled, in summer, with dainty ferns, clinging mosses, and the loveliest
+of mountain wild flowers, and the rims of the lakelets are bordered with
+grasses, shrubbery, and a wealth of wild blossoms. But in winter this
+region exhibits the very grandeur of desolation. No verdure is visible
+save the dwarfed and shattered pines whose crushed branches mark the
+path of the rushing avalanche. The furious winds in their wild sport
+toss and tumble the snow-drifts here and there, baring the sterile
+peaks, and heaping the white masses a hundred feet deep into chasm and
+gorge. The pure, clear lakes, as if in very fear, hide their faces from
+the turbulent elements in mantles of ice. The sun is darkened by dense
+clouds, and the icy, shivering, shrieking stormfiends hold undisturbed
+their ghastly revels. On every side are lofty battlements of rock,
+whose trembling burden of snow seems ever ready to slide from its glassy
+foundations of ice, and entomb the bewildered traveler.
+
+Into this interminable maze of rocks and cliffs and frozen lakelets,
+the little party wandered. Elliott had a compass, but it soon proved
+worthless, and only added to their perplexed and uncertain state of
+mind. They were out five days. Virginia's feet became so badly frozen
+that she could not walk. This occurrence saved the party. Reluctantly
+they turned back toward the cabins, convinced that it was madness to
+attempt to go forward. They reached shelter just as one of the most
+terrible storms of all that dreadful winter broke over their heads. Had
+they delayed their return a few hours, the path they made in ascending
+the mountains, and by means of which they retraced their steps, would
+have been concealed, and death would have been certain.
+
+"Jan. 6. Eliza came back yesterday evening from the mountains, unable to
+proceed; the others kept ahead."
+
+"Jan. 8. Mrs. Reed and the others came back; could not find their way
+on the other side of the mountains. They have nothing but hides to live
+on."
+
+"Jan. 10. Began to snow last night; still continues; wind
+west-north-west."
+
+"Jan. 13. Snowing fast; snow higher than the shanty; it must be thirteen
+feet deep. Can not get wood this morning; it is a dreadful sight for us
+to look upon."
+
+One of the stumps near the Graves-Reed cabin, cut while the snow was at
+its deepest, was found, by actual measurement, to be twenty-two feet in
+height. Part of this stump is standing to-day.
+
+"Jan. 14. Cleared off yesterday. The sun, shining brilliantly, renovates
+our spirits. Praise be to the God of heaven."
+
+"Jan. 15. Clear to-day again. Mrs. Murphy blind; Landrum not able to
+get wood; has but one ax between him and Keseberg. It looks like another
+storm; expecting some account from Sutter's soon."
+
+"Jan. 17. Eliza Williams came here this morning; Landrum crazy last
+night; provisions scarce; hides our main subsistence. May the Almighty
+send us help."
+
+"Jan. 21. Fine morning; John Baptiste and Mr. Denton came this morning
+with Eliza; she will not eat hides. Mrs.--sent her back to live or die
+on them."
+
+The blanks which occasionally occur were in the original diary. The
+delicacy which prompted Patrick Breen to omit these names can not fail
+to be appreciated. What, if there was sometimes a shade of selfishness,
+or an act of harshness? What if some families had more than their
+destitute neighbors? The best provided had little. All were in reality
+strangely generous. All divided with their afflicted companions. The
+Reeds had almost nothing to eat when they arrived at the cabins, yet
+this family is the only one which reached the settlements without some
+one member having to partake of human flesh.
+
+"Jan. 22. Began to snow after sunrise; likely to continue; wind north."
+
+"Jan. 23. Blew hard and snowed all night; the most severe storm we have
+experienced this winter; wind west."
+
+"Jan. 26. Cleared up yesterday; to-day fine and pleasant: wind south; in
+hopes we are done with snow-storms. Those who went to Sutter's not yet
+returned; provisions getting scant; people growing weak, living on a
+small allowance of hides."
+
+"Jan. 27. Commenced snowing yesterday; still continues to-day. Lewis
+Keseberg, Jr., died three days ago; food growing scarce; don't have fire
+enough to cook our hides."
+
+"Jan. 30. Fair and pleasant; wind west; thawing in the sun. John and
+Edward Breen went to Graves' this morning. Mrs.--seized on Mrs. N 's
+goods until they would be paid; they also took the hides which herself
+and family subsisted upon. She regained two pieces only, the balance
+they have taken. You may judge from this what our fare is in camp. There
+is nothing to be had by hunting, yet perhaps there soon will be."
+
+"Jan. 31. The sun does not shine out brilliant this morning; froze hard
+last night; wind northwest. Landrum Murphy died last night about ten
+o'clock; Mrs. Reed went to Graves' this morning to look after goods."
+
+Landrum Murphy was a large and somewhat overgrown young man. The hides
+and burnt bones did not contain sufficient nourishment to keep him
+alive. For some hours before he died, he lay in a semi-delirious state,
+breathing heavily and seemingly in little or no pain. Mrs. Murphy went
+to the Breen camp, and asked Mrs. Breen for a piece of meat to save her
+starving boy. Mrs. Breen gave her the meat, but it was too late, Landrum
+could not eat. Finally he sank into a gentle slumber. His breathing grew
+less and less distinct, and ere they were fairly aware of it life was
+extinct.
+
+"Feb. 4. Snowed hard until twelve o'clock last night; many uneasy for
+fear we shall all perish with hunger; we have but little meat left, and
+only three hides; Mrs. Reed has nothing but one hide, and that is on
+Graves' house; Milton lives there, and likely will keep that. Eddy's
+child died last night."
+
+"Feb. 5. It snowed faster last night and to-day than it has done this
+winter before; still continues without intermission; wind south-west.
+Murphy's folks and Keseberg say they can not eat hides. I wish we had
+enough of them. Mrs. Eddy is very weak."
+
+"Feb. 7. Ceased to snow at last; to-day it is quite pleasant.
+McCutchen's child died on the second of this month."
+
+This child died and was buried in the Graves cabin. Mr. W. C. Graves
+helped dig the grave near one side of the cabin, and laid the little one
+to rest. One of the most heart-rending features of this Donner tragedy
+is the number of infants that suffered. Mrs. Breen, Pike, Foster,
+McCutchen, Eddy, Keseberg, and Graves each had nursing babes when the
+fatal camp was pitched at Donner Lake.
+
+"Feb. 8. Fine, clear morning. Spitzer died last night, and we will bury
+him in the snow; Mrs. Eddy died on the night of the seventh."
+
+"Feb. 9. Mrs. Pike's child all but dead; Milton is at Murphy's, not
+able to get out of bed; Mrs. Eddy and child were buried to-day; wind
+south-east."
+
+Feb. 10. Beautiful morning; thawing in the sun; Milton Elliott died last
+night at Murphy's cabin, and Mrs. Reed went there this morning to see
+about his effects. John Denton trying to borrow meat for Graves; had
+none to give; they had nothing but hides; all are entirely out of meat,
+but a little we have; our hides are nearly all eat up, but with God's
+help spring will soon smile upon us."
+
+"Feb. 12. Warm, thawy morning."
+
+"Feb. 14. Fine morning, but cold. Buried Milton in the snow; John Denton
+not well."
+
+"Feb. 15. Morning cloudy until nine o'clock, then cleared off warm. Mrs.
+---- refused to give Mrs. ---- any hides. Put Sutter's pack hides on her
+shanty, and would not let her have them."
+
+"Feb. 16. Commenced to rain last evening, and turned to snow during the
+night, and continued until morning; weather changeable, sunshine and
+then light showers of hail, and wind at times. We all feel unwell. The
+snow is not getting much less at present."
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.
+
+
+
+     The Last Resort
+     Two Reports of a Gun
+     Only Temporary Relief
+     Weary Traveling
+     The Snow Bridges
+     Human Tracks!
+     An Indian Rancherie
+     Acorn Bread
+     Starving Five Times!
+     Carried Six Miles
+     Bravery of John Rhodes
+     A Thirty-two Days Journey
+     Organizing the First Relief Party
+     Alcalde Sinclair's Address
+     Captain R. P. Tucker's Companions.
+
+
+
+It is recorded of Lewis and Salvador that they came willingly to
+the relief of the emigrants. Two of Sutter's best trained vaqueros,
+faithful, honest, reliable, they seemed rather proud when chosen to
+assist Stanton in driving the mules laden with provisions for the
+starving train. Now they were dying! Horrified at the sight of human
+beings eating the flesh of their comrades, they withdrew from the
+whites at the "Camp of Death." After that they always camped apart,
+but continued to act as guides until they became certain that their own
+lives were in danger. Then they fled. Starving, exhausted, with frozen
+and bleeding feet, the poor wretches dragged their weary bodies onward
+until they reached a little streamlet, and here they lay down to die.
+Nine days, with no other food than they could find in the snow, was too
+much even for their hardy natures. They were unable to move when the
+famished "Seven" passed. Yes, passed! for the starving emigrants went on
+by the poor fellows, unable to deprive them of the little spark of life
+left in their wasted bodies. Traveling was now slow work for the dying
+whites. They only went about two hundred yards. In a few more hours,
+perhaps that very night, they would die of starvation. Already the
+terrible phantasies of delirium were beginning to dance before their
+sunken eyes. Ere the Indians would cease breathing some of the Seven
+would be past relief. There were two men and five women. William Foster
+could see that his wife--the woman who was all the world to him--was
+fast yielding to the deadly grasp of the fiends of starvation. For
+the sake of his life she had stifled the most sacred instincts of her
+womanly nature, and procured him food from Fosdick's body. Should he see
+her die the most terrible of deaths without attempting to rescue her?
+Reader, put yourself in this man's place. Brave, generous, heroic, full
+of lion-like nobility, William Foster could not stoop to a base action.
+Contemplate his position! Lying there prostrate upon the snow was Mrs.
+Pike, the woman whom, accidentally, he had rendered a widow. Her babes
+were dying in the cabins. His own boy was at the cabins. His comrades,
+his wife, were in the last stages of starvation. He, also, was dying.
+Eddy had not nerve enough, the women could not, and William Foster
+must-what! Was it murder? No! Every law book, every precept of that
+higher law, self-preservation, every dictate of right, reason or
+humanity, demanded the deed. The Indians were past all hope of aid. They
+could not lift their heads from their pillow of snow. It was not simply
+justifiable--it was duty; it was a necessity.
+
+He told them, when he got back, that he was compelled to take their
+lives. They did not moan or struggle, or appear to regret that their
+lingering pain was to cease. The five women and Eddy heard two reports
+of a gun.
+
+The "Forlorn Hope" might yet save those who were dying at Donner Lake.
+
+Even this relief was but temporary. Taking the wasted flesh from the
+bones, drying it, and staggering forward, the little band speedily
+realized that they were not yet saved. It was food for only a few days.
+Then they again felt their strength failing. Once more they endured the
+excruciating torments which precede starvation.
+
+In the very complete account of this trip, which is kindly furnished by
+Mary Graves, are many interesting particulars concerning the suffering
+of these days. "Our only chance for camp-fire for the night," she says,
+"was to hunt a dead tree of some description, and set fire to it. The
+hemlock being the best and generally much the largest timber, it was our
+custom to select the driest we could find without leaving our course.
+When the fire would reach the top of the tree, the falling limbs would
+fall all around us and bury themselves in the snow, but we heeded them
+not. Sometimes the falling, blazing limbs would brush our clothes, but
+they never hit us; that would have been too lucky a hit. We would sit
+or lie on the snow, and rest our weary frames. We would sleep, only to
+dream of something nice to eat, and awake again to disappointment. Such
+was our sad fate! Even the reindeer's wretched lot was not worse! 'His
+dinner and his bed were snow, and supper he had not.' Our fare was the
+same! We would strike fire by means of the flintlock gun which we had
+with us. This had to be carried by turns, as it was considered the only
+hope left in case we might find game which we could kill. We traveled
+over a ridge of mountains, and then descended a deep canyon, where one
+could scarcely see the bottom. Down, down we would go, or rather slide,
+for it is very slavish work going down hill, and in many cases we were
+compelled to slide on our shoes as sleds. On reaching the bottom we
+would plunge into the snow, so that it was difficult getting out, with
+the shoes tied to our feet, our packs lashed to our backs, and ourselves
+head and ears under the snow. But we managed to get out some way, and
+one by one reached the bottom of the canyon. When this was accomplished
+we had to ascend a hill as steep as the one we had descended. We would
+drive the toes of our shoes into the loose snow, to make a sort of step,
+and one by one, as if ascending stair-steps, we climbed up. It took us
+an entire day to reach the top of the mountain. Each time we attained
+the summit of a mountain, we hoped we should be able to see something
+like a valley, but each time came disappointment, for far ahead was
+always another and higher mountain. We found some springs, or, as we
+called them, wells, from five to twenty feet under ground, as you might
+say, for they were under the snow on which we walked. The water was so
+warm that it melted the snow, and from some of these springs were large
+streams of running water. We crossed numbers of these streams on bridges
+of snow, which would sometimes form upon a blade of grass hanging over
+the water; and from so small a foundation would grow a bridge from
+ten to twenty-five feet high, and from a foot and a half to three feet
+across the top. It would make you dizzy to look down at the water, and
+it was with much difficulty we could place our clumsy ox-bow snow-shoes
+one ahead of the other without falling. Our feet had been frozen and
+thawed so many times that they were bleeding and sore. When we stopped
+at night we would take off our shoes, which by this time were so badly
+rotted by constant wetting in snow, that there was very little left of
+them. In the morning we would push our shoes on, bruising and numbing
+the feet so badly that they would ache and ache with walking and the
+cold, until night would come again. Oh! the pain! It seemed to make the
+pangs of hunger more excruciating."
+
+Thus the party traveled on day after day, until absolute starvation
+again stared them in the face. The snow had gradually grown less deep,
+until finally it disappeared or lay only in patches. Their strength was
+well-nigh exhausted, when one day Mary Graves says: "Some one called
+out, 'Here are tracks!' Some one asked, 'What kind of tracks human?'
+'Yes, human!' Can any one imagine the joy these footprints gave us? We
+ran as fast as our strength would carry us."
+
+Turning a chaparral point, they came in full view of an Indian
+rancherie. The uncivilized savages were amazed. Never had they seen such
+forlorn, wretched, pitiable human beings, as the tattered, disheveled,
+skeleton creatures who stood stretching out their arms for assistance.
+At first, they all ran and hid, but soon they returned to the aid of
+these dying wretches. It is said that the Indian women and children
+cried, and wailed with grief at the affecting spectacle of starved men
+and women. Such food as they had was speedily offered. It was bread
+made of acorns. This was eagerly eaten. It was at least a substitute for
+food. Every person in the rancherie, from the toddling papooses to the
+aged chief, endeavored to aid them.
+
+After what had recently happened, could anything be more touching than
+these acts of kindness of the Indians?
+
+After briefly resting, they pressed forward. The Indians accompanied and
+even led them, and constantly supplied them with food. With food? No,
+it was not such food as their weakened, debilitated systems craved. The
+acorn bread was not sufficient to sustain lives already so attenuated by
+repeated starvations. All that the starved experience in the way of pain
+and torture before they die, had been experienced by these people at
+least four different times. To their horror, they now discovered that
+despite the acorn bread, they must die of hunger and exhaustion a
+fifth and last time. So sick and weak did they become, that they were
+compelled to lie down and rest every hundred yards. Finally, after being
+with the Indians seven days, they lay down, and felt that they never
+should have strength to take another step. Before them, in all its
+beauty and loveliness, spread the broad valley of the Sacramento. Behind
+them were the ever-pleading faces of their starving dear ones. Yet
+neither hope nor affection could give them further strength. They were
+dying in full view of the long-desired haven of rest.
+
+One of the number was hardly so near death's door as his companions. It
+was W. H. Eddy. As a last resort, their, faithful allies, the Indians,
+took him upon either side, and fairly carried him along. His feet moved,
+but they were frozen, and blistered, and cracked, and bleeding. Left
+alone, he would have fallen helplessly to the earth. It was as terrible
+a journey as ever mortal man performed. How far he traveled, he knew
+not. During the last six miles his path was marked by blood-stains from
+his swollen feet.
+
+By making abridgments from valuable manuscript contributed by George W.
+Tucker, of Calistoga, this narrative may be appropriately continued.
+Mr. Tucker's father and relatives had reached Johnson's Ranch on the
+twenty-fifth of October, 1846. They had been with the Donner Party
+until Fort Bridger was reached, and then took the Fort Hall road.
+Their journey had been full of dangers and difficulties, and reaching
+Johnson's Ranch, the first settlement on the west side of the Sierra,
+they determined to remain during the winter.
+
+One evening, about the last of January, Mr. Tucker says a man was seen
+coming down Bear River, accompanied by an Indian. His haggard, forlorn
+look showed he was in great distress. When he reached us, he said he was
+of the Donner Party. He told briefly how the train had been caught in
+the snow east of the mountains, and was unable to get back or forward.
+He told how the fifteen had started, and that six beside himself were
+still alive. That the six were back in the mountains, almost starved.
+R. P. Tucker and three other men started at once with provisions, the
+Indian acting as guide. They reached them, fifteen miles back, some time
+during the night, and brought them in the next day. The names of the
+seven were W. H. Eddy, William Foster, Mrs. S. A. C. Foster, Mrs. H. F.
+Pike, Mrs. William McCutchen, Mrs. Sarah Fosdick, and Mary Graves. It
+had been thirty-two days since they left Donner Lake!
+
+At Johnson's Ranch there were only three or four families of poor
+emigrants. Nothing could be done toward relieving those at Donner Lake
+until help could arrive from Sutter's Fort. A rainy winter had flooded
+Bear River, and rendered the Sacramento plains a vast quagmire. Yet one
+man volunteered to go to Sacramento with the tale of horror, and get men
+and provisions. This man was John Rhodes. Lashing two pine logs together
+with rawhides, and forming a raft, John Rhodes was ferried over Bear
+River. Taking his shoes in his hands, and rolling his pants up above his
+knees, he started on foot through water that frequently was from one to
+three feet deep. Some time during the night he reached the Fort.
+
+A train in the mountains! Men, women, and children starving! It was
+enough to make one's blood curdle to think of it! Captain Sutter,
+generous old soul, and Alcalde Sinclair, who lived at Norris' Ranch two
+and a half miles from the Fort, offered provisions, and five or six men
+volunteered to carry them over the mountains. In about a week, six men,
+fully provided with supplies, reached Johnson's Ranch. Meantime the
+Tuckers and their neighbors had slaughtered five or six fat cattle, and
+had dried or "jerked" the meat. The country was scoured for horses and
+mules, and for saddles and pack-saddles, but at last, in ten or twelve
+days, they were ready to start. Alcalde Sinclair had come up from the
+Fort, and when all were ready to begin their march, he made them a
+thrilling little address. They were, he said, starting out upon a
+hazardous journey. Nothing could justify them in attempting so perilous
+an undertaking except the obligations due to their suffering fellow-men.
+He urged them to do all in their power, without sacrificing their lives,
+to save the perishing emigrants from starvation and death. He then
+appointed Reasin P. Tucker, the father of our informant, captain of the
+company. With a pencil he carefully wrote down the name of each man in
+the relief party. The names were John Rhodes, Daniel Rhodes, Aquilla
+Glover, R. S. Mootrey, Joseph Foster, Edward Coffeemire, M. D. Ritchie,
+James Curtis, William H. Eddy, William Coon, R. P. Tucker, George W.
+Tucker, and Adolph Brueheim. Thus the first relief party started.
+
+
+
+Chapter X.
+
+
+
+     A Lost Age in California History
+     The Change Wrought by the Discovery of Gold
+     The Start from Johnson's Ranch
+     A Bucking Horse
+     A Night Ride
+     Lost in the Mountains
+     A Terrible Night
+     A Flooded Camp
+     Crossing a Mountain Torrent
+     Mule Springs
+     A Crazy Companion
+     Howlings of Gray Wolves
+     A Deer Rendezvous
+     A Midnight Thief
+     Frightening Indians
+     The Diary of the First Relief Party.
+
+
+
+California, at this time, was sparsely settled, and it was a fearful
+undertaking to cross the snowy mountains to the relief of the
+storm-bound emigrants. A better idea of the difficulties to be
+encountered by the various relief parties can not be presented than
+by quoting from the manuscript of George W. Tucker. This gentleman
+was sixteen years old at the time of the occurrences narrated, and his
+account is vouched for as perfectly truthful and reliable. This sketch,
+like the remainder of this book, treats of an epoch in California
+history which has been almost forgotten. The scene of his adventures is
+laid in a region familiar to thousands of miners and early Californians.
+Along the route over which he passed with so much difficulty, scores of
+mining camps sprung up soon after the discovery of gold, and every
+flat, ravine, and hill-slope echoed to pick, and shovel, and pan, and
+to voices of legions of men. Truly, his narration relates to a lost, an
+almost unremembered era in the history of the famous mining counties,
+Placer and Nevada. In speaking of the first relief party, he says:
+
+"We mounted our horses and started. The ground was very soft among
+the foothills, but we got along very well for two or three miles after
+leaving Johnson's ranch. Finally, one of our packhorses broke through
+the crust, and down he went to his sides in the mud. He floundered and
+plunged until the pack turned underneath his body. He then came out of
+the mud, bucking and kicking; and he bucked and kicked, and kicked and
+bucked, till he cleared himself of the pack, pack-saddle and all, and
+away he went back to the ranch. We gathered up the pack, put it upon the
+horse Eddy was riding, and the party traveled on. Eddy and myself were
+to go back to the ranch, catch the horse, and returning, overtake them.
+We failed to find the horse that day, but the next morning an Indian got
+on my horse, and, about nine o'clock, succeeded in finding the missing
+animal. My horse, however, was pretty well run down when he got back.
+Eddy and myself started about ten o'clock. We had to travel in one day
+what the company had traveled in two days. About the time we started it
+commenced clouding up, and we saw we were going to have a storm. We went
+on until about one o'clock, when my horse gave out. It commenced raining
+and was very cold. Eddy said he would ride on and overtake the company,
+if possible, and have them stop. He did not overtake them until about
+dark, after they had camped.
+
+"My horse could only go in a slow walk, so I walked and led him to keep
+from freezing. The rain continued to increase in volume, and by dark it
+was coming down in torrents. It was very cold. The little stream began
+to rise, but I waded through, though sometimes it came up to my armpits.
+It was very dark, but I kept going on in hopes I would come in sight of
+the camp-fire. But the darkness increased, and it was very difficult to
+find the road. I would get down on my knees and feel for the road with
+my hands. Finally, about nine o'clock, it became so dark that I could
+not see a tree until I would run against it, and I was almost exhausted
+dragging my horse after me. I had lost the road several times, but found
+it by feeling for the wagon-ruts. At last I came to where the road made
+a short turn around the point of a hill, and I went straight ahead until
+I got forty or fifty yards from the road. I crawled around for some time
+on my knees, but could not find it. I knew if the storm was raging in
+the morning as it was then, if I got very far from the road, I could not
+tell which was east, west, north, or south, I might get lost and perish
+before the storm ceased, so I concluded to stay right there until
+morning. I had no blanket, and nothing on me but a very light coat and
+pair of pants. I tied my horse to a little pine tree, and sitting down,
+leaned against the tree. The rain came down in sheets. The wind blew,
+and the old pine trees clashed their limbs together. It seemed to me
+that a second deluge had come. I would get so cold that I would get up
+and walk around for a while. It seemed to me I should surely freeze.
+Toward morning I began to get numb, and felt more comfortable, but that
+was the longest and hardest night I ever experienced.
+
+"In the morning, when it became light enough so that I could see two or
+three rods, I got up, but my legs were so numb that I could not walk. I
+rolled around until I got up a circulation, and could stand on my
+feet. Leaving my horse tied to the tree, I found the road, went about a
+hundred yards around the point of a hill, and saw the camp-fire up in a
+little flat about a quarter of a mile from where I had spent the night.
+Going up to camp, I found the men all standing around a fire they had
+made, where two large pines had fallen across each other. They had laid
+down pine bark and pieces of wood to keep them out of the water. They
+had stood up all night. The water was running two or three inches deep
+all through the camp. When I got to the fire, and began to get warm, my
+legs and arms began to swell so that I could hardly move or get my hands
+to my face.
+
+"It never ceased raining all that day nor the next night, and we were
+obliged to stand around the fire. Everything we had was wet. They had
+stacked up our dried beef and flour in a pile, and put the saddles and
+pack saddles over it as well as they could, but still it got more or
+less wet. The third morning it stopped raining about daylight, and the
+sun came out clear and warm. We made scaffolds and spread our meat all
+out, hung up our blankets and clothing on lines, and by keeping up fires
+and with the help of the sun, we managed to get everything dry by night.
+The next morning we packed up and started on until we came to a little
+valley, where we found some grass for our horses. We stayed there that
+night. The next day we got to Steep Hollow Creek, one of the branches
+of Bear River. This stream was not more than a hundred feet wide, but it
+was about twenty feet deep, and the current was very swift. We felled a
+large pine tree across it, but the center swayed down so that the water
+ran over it about a foot deep. We tied ropes together and stretched them
+across to make a kind of hand railing, and succeeded in carrying over
+all our things. We undertook to make our horses swim the creek, and
+finally forced two of them into the stream, but as soon as they struck
+the current they were carried down faster than we could run. One of them
+at last reached the bank and got ashore, but the other went down under
+the tree we had cut, and the first we saw of him he came up about twenty
+yards below, heels upward. He finally struck a drift about a hundred
+yards below, and we succeeded in getting him out almost drowned. We then
+tied ropes together, part of the men went over, and tying a rope to each
+horse, those on one side would force him into the water, and the others
+would draw him across. We lost a half day at this place. That night we
+climbed a high mountain, and came to snow. Camped that night without any
+feed for our horses. The next day, about noon, we reached Mule Springs.
+The snow was from three to four feet deep, and it was impossible to go
+any farther with the horses. Unpacking the animals, Joe Varro and Wm.
+Eddy started back with them to Johnson's Ranch. The rest of us went
+to work and built a brush tent in which to keep our provisions. We set
+forks into the ground, laid poles across, and covered them with cedar
+boughs. We finished them that evening, and the next morning ten of
+the men fixed up their packs, consisting of dried beef and flour, and
+started on foot, each one carrying about seventy-five pounds. They left
+Billy Coon and myself to watch the provisions until they returned. I
+have never been in that country since, but I think Mule Springs is on
+the opposite side of Bear River from Dutch Flat.
+
+"After the men had all gone, I amused myself the first day by getting
+wood and cutting cedar limbs to finish our camp with. My companion,
+Billy Coon, was partially insane, and was no company at all. He would
+get up in the morning, eat his food, and then lie down and sleep for
+two or three hours. He would only talk when he was spoken to; and all he
+knew was to sleep and eat. I got very lonesome, and would sit for
+hours thinking of our situation. Sixty miles from any human habitation!
+Surrounded with wild Indians and wild beasts! Then, when I would look
+away at the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra, and think that my father
+and the rest of the men where there, toiling under the heavy loads which
+they carried, I became still more gloomy. When night would come, the
+big gray wolves that had collected on the mountains facing to the south,
+where the snow had melted off, would set up their howlings. This, with
+the dismal sound of the wind roaring through the tall pine trees, was
+almost unendurable. To this day, when I am in pine timber, and hear the
+wind sighing through the tree-tops, I always think of the Donner Party
+and of those lonely days in the mountains.
+
+"The third day after the men left I became so lonesome that I took
+the gun and went down in the direction in which I had heard the wolves
+howling. When I got down out of the snow, I found the deer had collected
+there by the hundreds. I killed two deer; went up and got Billy Coon,
+and we carried them up to camp. We hung one on each corner of our brush
+tent, not more than six feet from our bed, and not more than four feet
+from the fire. Next morning one of the deer was gone! I supposed the
+Indians had found us out and stolen it; but when I looked for tracks I
+found the thief had been a California lion. I tracked him two or three
+hundred yards, but he had walked off with the deer so easily, I thought
+he might keep it. That afternoon I went down to kill another deer, but
+when I reached a point from which I could see down to the river, I saw
+the smoke of an Indian camp. I was afraid to shoot for fear the Indians
+would hear the gun, and finding out we were there, would come up and
+give us trouble. I started back, and when in sight of camp I sat down
+on a log to rest. While sitting there I saw three Indians coming up
+the hill. I sat still to see what they would do. They came up to within
+sight of the camp, and all crawled up behind a large sugar-pine tree,
+and sat there watching the camp. I did not like their movements, so
+thought I would give them a scare. I leveled the old gun at the tree,
+about six feet above their heads, and fired away. They got away from
+there faster than they came, and I never saw them afterwards."
+
+"On the fifth day after the men left, three of them came back to the
+camp. They informed me they had been three days in traveling from Mule
+Springs to Bear Valley, a distance of twelve miles. These three had
+found it impossible to stand the journey, but the other seven had
+started on from Bear Valley. It was thought they could never get over to
+Truckee Lake, for the snow was so soft it was impossible to carry their
+heavy loads through from ten to thirty feet of it."
+
+M. D. Ritchie and R. P. Tucker kept a diary of the journey of the first
+relief party, which, thanks to Patty Reed, now Mrs. Frank Lewis, is
+before us. It is brief, concise, pointed, and completes the narration of
+Mr. George W. Tucker. Mr. Ritchie's diary reads:
+
+"Feb. 5, 1847. First day traveled ten miles. Bad roads; often miring
+down horses and mules. On the sixth and seventh traveled fifteen
+miles. Road continued bad; commenced raining before we got to camp, and
+continued to rain all that day and night very severe. Lay by here on the
+eighth to dry our provisions and clothing."
+
+"Feb. 9. Traveled fifteen miles. Swam the animals over one creek, and
+carried the provisions over on a log."
+
+"Feb. 10. Traveled four miles; came to the snow; continued about four
+miles further. Animals floundering in snow, and camped at the Mule
+Springs."
+
+"Feb. 11. Mr. Eddy started back with the animals; left William Coon and
+George Tucker to guard what provisions were left in camp; the other ten
+men, each taking about fifty pounds, except Mr. Curtis, who took about
+twenty-five pounds. Traveled on through the snow, having a very severe
+day's travel over mountains, making about six miles. Camped on Bear
+River, near a cluster of large pines."
+
+"Feb. 12. Moved camp about two miles, and stopped to make snow-shoes;
+tried them on and found them of no benefit; cast them away."
+
+"Feb. 13. Made Bear Valley. Upon digging for Curtis' wagon, found the
+snow ten feet deep, and the provisions destroyed by the bears. Rain and
+snow fell on us all night."
+
+By Curtis' wagon is meant a cache made by Reed and McCutchen, which will
+be described in the next chapter.
+
+"Feb. 14. Fine weather."
+
+From this time forward, the journal was kept by Reasin P. Tucker.
+
+"Feb. 15. Fine day. Three of our men decline going any further--W. D.
+Ritchie, A. Brueheim, and James Curtis. Only seven men being left,
+the party was somewhat discouraged. We consulted together, and under
+existing circumstances I took it upon myself to insure every man who
+persevered to the end, five dollars per day from the time they entered
+the snow. We determined to go ahead, and camped to-night on Yuba River,
+after traveling fifteen miles."
+
+"Feb. 16. Traveling very bad, and snowing. Made but five miles, and
+camped in snow fifteen feet deep."
+
+"Feb. 17. Traveled five miles."
+
+"Feb. 18. Traveled eight miles, and camped on the head of the Yuba; on
+the pass we suppose the snow to be thirty feet deep."
+
+The "pass" was the Summit. Relief was close at hand. Would it find the
+emigrants?
+
+
+
+Chapter XI.
+
+
+
+     Hardships of Reed and Herron
+     Generosity of Captain Sutter
+     Attempts to Cross the Mountains with Provisions
+     Curtis' Dog
+     Compelled to Turn Back
+     Hostilities with Mexico
+     Memorial to Gov. Stockton
+     Yerba Buena's Generosity
+     Johnson's Liberality
+     Pitiful Scenes at Donner Lake
+     Noble Mothers
+     Dying rather than Eat Human Flesh
+     A Mother's Prayer
+     Tears of Joy
+     Eating the Shoestrings.
+
+
+
+James F. Reed encountered the most disheartening trials after leaving
+the Donner Party. He and Walter Herron were reduced to the utmost verge
+of starvation while on the Sierra Nevada. At one time they discovered
+five beans in the road, one after the other, and at another time they
+ate of the rancid tallow which was found in a tar bucket under an old
+wagon.
+
+Mr. Reed has told the rest in an article contributed by him to the Rural
+Press. It explains so well the difficulties of getting relief to the
+emigrants, that it is copied:
+
+"When I arrived at Captain Sutter's, making known my situation to him,
+asking if he would furnish me horses and saddles to bring the women and
+children out of the mountains (I expected to meet them at the head of
+Bear Valley by the time I could return there), he at once complied with
+the request, also saying that he would do everything possible for me
+and the company. On the evening of my arrival at the Captain's, I found
+Messrs. Bryant, Lippencott, Grayson, and Jacobs, some of the early
+voyagers in the Russel Company, they having left that company at Fort
+Laramie, most of them coming on horseback.
+
+"During the evening a meeting was held, in which I participated,
+adopting a memorial to the commander of Sutter's Fort, to raise one or
+more companies of volunteers, to proceed to Los Angeles, we being at
+war with Mexico at this time. The companies were to be officered by the
+petitioners. Being requested to take command of one of the companies,
+I declined, stating that it would be necessary for the captain to stay
+with the company; also that I had to return to the mountains for the
+emigrants, but that I would take a lieutenancy. This was agreed to,
+and I was on my return to the emigrants to enlist all the men I could
+between there and Bear Valley. On my way up I enlisted twelve or
+thirteen.
+
+"The second night after my arrival at Captain Sutter's, we had a light
+rain; next morning we could see snow on the mountains. The Captain
+stated that it was low down and heavy for the first fall of the season.
+The next day I started on my return with what horses and saddles Captain
+Sutter had to spare. He furnished us all the flour needed, and a hind
+quarter of beef, giving us an order for more horses and saddles at
+Mr. Cordway's, near where Marysville is located. In the mean time, Mr.
+McCutchen joined us, he being prevented from returning with Mr. Stanton
+on account of sickness. After leaving Mr. Johnson's ranch we had thirty
+horses, one mule, and two Indians to help drive.
+
+"Nothing happened until the evening before reaching the head of Bear
+Valley, when there commenced a heavy rain and sleet, continuing all
+night. We drove on until a late hour before halting. We secured the
+flour and horses, the rain preventing us from kindling a fire. Next
+morning, proceeding up the valley to where we were to take the mountain,
+we found a tent containing a Mr. Curtis and wife. They hailed us as
+angels sent for their delivery, stating that they would have perished
+had it not been for our arrival. Mrs. Curtis stated that they had killed
+their dog, and at the time of our arrival had the last piece in the
+Dutch oven baking. We told them not to be alarmed about anything to eat,
+for we had plenty, both of flour and beef, and that they were welcome
+to all they needed. Our appetites were rather keen, not having eaten
+anything from the morning previous. Mr. Curtis remarked that in the
+oven was a piece of the dog and we could have it. Raising the lid of the
+oven, we found the dog well baked, and having a fine savory smell. I cut
+out a rib, smelling and tasting, found it to be good, and handed it over
+to McCutchen, who, after smelling it some time, tasted it and pronounced
+it very good dog. We partook of Curtis' dog. Mrs. Curtis immediately
+commenced making bread, and in a short time had supper for all.
+
+"At the lower end of the valley, where we entered, the snow was eighteen
+inches in depth, and when we arrived at the tent, it was two feet.
+Curtis stated that his oxen had taken the back track, and that he had
+followed them by the trail through the snow. In the morning, before
+leaving, Mrs. Curtis got us to promise to take them into the settlement
+when on our return with the women and children. Before leaving, we gave
+them flour and beef sufficient to keep them until our return, expecting
+to do so in a few days."
+
+"We started, following the trail made by the oxen, and camped a number
+of miles up the mountain. In the night, hearing some of the horses going
+down the trail, we went to where the Indians had lain down, and found
+them gone. McCutchen mounted his horse and rode down to Curtis'
+camp, and found that the Indians had been there, stopped and warmed
+themselves, and then started down the valley. He returned to camp about
+the middle of the night.
+
+"Next morning we started, still on the trail of the oxen, but
+unfortunately, the trail turned off to the left from our direction. We
+proceeded on, the snow deepening rapidly, our horses struggling to get
+through; we pushed them on until they would rear upon their hind feet to
+breast the snow, and when they would alight they would sink in it until
+nothing was seen of them but the nose and a portion of the head. Here we
+found that it was utterly impossible to proceed further with the horses.
+Leaving them, we proceeded further on foot, thinking that we could get
+in to the people, but found that impossible, the snow being soft and
+deep."
+
+"I may here state that neither of us knew anything about snow-shoes,
+having always lived in a country where they never were used."
+
+"With sorrowful hearts, we arrived that night at the camp of Mr. Curtis,
+telling them to make their arrangements for leaving with us in the
+morning. Securing our flour in the wagon of Mr. Curtis, so that we could
+get it on our return, we packed one horse with articles belonging to
+Mr. and Mrs. Curtis, and started down the valley to where the snow was
+light, and where there was considerable underbrush, so that our famished
+animals could browse, they not having eaten anything for several days."
+
+"After packing Mr. Curtis' horse for him the next morning, we started;
+in a short time, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis proceeded ahead, leaving the
+pack-horse behind for us to drive, instead of his leading him; we
+having our hands full in driving the loose ones, they scattering in all
+directions. The pack turned on the horse. Mr. Curtis was requested to
+return and help repack and lead his horse, but he paid no attention
+to us. We stood this for some time; finally, McCutchen became angry,
+started after him, determined to bring him back; when he got with him
+he paid no attention to McCutchen's request to return; Mac becoming more
+exasperated, hit him several times over the shoulders with his riatta.
+This brought him to his senses. He said that if Mac would not kill him,
+he would come back and take care of the pack animal, and he did."
+
+"As soon as we arrived at Captain Sutter's, I made a statement of all
+the circumstances attending our attempt to get into the mountains. He
+was no way surprised at our defeat. I also gave the Captain the number
+of head of cattle the company had when I left them. He made an estimate,
+and stated that if the emigrants would kill the cattle, and place the
+meat in the snow for preservation, there was no fear of starvation
+until relief could reach them. He further stated that there were no
+able-bodied men in that vicinity, all having gone down the country with
+and after Fremont to fight the Mexicans. He advised me to proceed to
+Yerba Buena, now San Francisco, and make my case known to the naval
+officer in command."
+
+"I left Captain Sutter's, by the way of San Jose, for San Francisco,
+being unable to come by water. When I arrived at San Jose, I found
+the San Francisco side of the bay was occupied by the Mexicans. Here
+I remained, and was attached to a company of volunteers, commanded by
+Captain Webber, until after the fight at Santa Clara."
+
+"The road now being clear, I proceeded to San Francisco with a petition
+from some of the prominent citizens of San Jose, asking the commander of
+the navy to grant aid to enable me to return to the mountains."
+
+It is proper, perhaps, to interrupt the narrative in the Rural Press
+for the purpose of introducing the memorial referred to by Mr. Reed. The
+copy of the original document was recently found among his papers by his
+daughter, Patty Reed.
+
+"To his Excellency, R. F. Stockton, Governor and Commander-in-Chief,
+by sea and land, of the United States Territory of California: We, the
+undersigned citizens and residents of the Territory of California, beg
+leave respectfully to present to your Excellency the following memorial,
+viz.: That, whereas, the last detachment of emigrants from the United
+States to California have been unable, from unavoidable causes, to
+reach the frontier settlements, and are now in the California mountains,
+seventy-five or one hundred miles east from the Sacramento Valley,
+surrounded by snow, most probably twenty feet deep, and being about
+eighty souls in number, a large proportion of whom are women and
+children, who must shortly be in a famishing condition from scarcity
+of provisions, therefore, the undersigned most earnestly beseech your
+Excellency to take into consideration the propriety of fitting out an
+expedition to proceed on snowshoes immediately to the relief of the
+sufferers. Your memorialists beg leave to subscribe themselves, very
+respectfully, yours, etc."
+
+"January, 1847."
+
+The article in the Rural Press continues: "Arriving at San Francisco, I
+presented my petition to Commodore Hull, also making a statement of the
+condition of the people in the mountains as far as I knew, the number of
+them, and what would be needed in provisions and help to get them out.
+He made an estimate of the expense, and said that he would do anything
+within reason to further the object, but was afraid that the department
+at Washington would not sustain him if he made the general outfit. His
+sympathy was that of a man and a gentleman.
+
+"I also conferred with several of the citizens of Yerba Buena; their
+advice was not to trouble the Commodore further; that they would call a
+meeting of the citizens and see what could be done. At the meeting, the
+situation of the people was made known, and committees were appointed to
+collect money. Over a thousand dollars was raised in the town, and the
+sailors of the fleet gave over three hundred dollars. At the meeting,
+Midshipman Woodworth volunteered to go into the mountains. Commodore
+Hull gave me authority to raise as many men, with horses, as would be
+required. The citizens purchased all the supplies necessary for the
+outfit, and placed them on board the schooner, for Hardy's Ranch, mouth
+of Feather River. Midshipman Woodworth took charge of the schooner, and
+was the financial agent of the government."
+
+"I left in a boat for Napa by way of Sonoma, to procure men and horses,
+and when I arrived at Mr. Gordon's, on Cache Creek, I had all the men
+and horses needed. From here I proceeded to the mouth of Feather River
+for the purpose of meeting Mr. Woodworth with the provisions. When we
+reached the river the boat had not arrived. The water was very high in
+the river, the tule lands being overflowed. From here I sent a man to
+a point on the Sacramento River opposite Sutter's Fort, to obtain
+information of the boat with our provisions; he returned and reported
+the arrival of the boat at the Fort."
+
+"Before leaving Yerba Buena, news came of a party of fifteen persons
+having started from the emigrant encampment, and only seven getting to
+Johnson's. I was here placed in a quandary--no boat to take us across
+the river, and no provisions for our party to take into the mountains.
+We camped a short distance back from the river, where we killed a number
+of elk for the purpose of using the skins in covering a skeleton boat.
+Early next morning we started for the river, and to our delight saw a
+small schooner, belonging to Perry McCan, which had arrived during the
+night. We immediately crossed, McCutchen and myself, to the opposite
+bank of the river. I directed the men to cross and follow us to
+Johnson's Ranch. We arrived there early that day. Making known our
+situation, he drove his cattle up to the house, saying, 'There are the
+cattle, take as many as you need.' We shot down five head, staid up all
+night, and with the help of Mr. Johnson and his Indians, by the time the
+men arrived the next morning, we had the meat fire-dried and ready to be
+placed in bags. Mr. Johnson had a party of Indians making flour by hand
+mills, they making, during the night, nearly two hundred pounds."
+
+"We packed up immediately and started. After reaching the snow, the meat
+and flour was divided into suitable packs for us to carry, we leaving
+the horses here. At Johnson's I learned that a relief party had passed
+in a few days previous, being sent by Captain Sutter and Mr. Sinclair."
+
+This was the party commanded by Captain Reasin P. Tucker, whose journey
+over the mountains as far as the summit was described in the last
+chapter. Reed was faithful and energetic in endeavoring to recross the
+mountains. Mr. McCutchen, also, did all in his power to reach the wife
+and baby he left behind. The snow belt is about four times as wide on
+the west side of the summit as it is on the east side. It was almost
+impossible for relief parties to cross the mountains. Captain Tucker's
+party was composed of men of great nerve and hardihood, yet, as will be
+seen, the trip was almost as much as their lives were worth.
+
+On the morning of the nineteenth of February, 1847, the relief party of
+Captain R. P. Tucker began the descent of the gorge leading to Donner
+Lake.
+
+Let us glance ahead at the picture soon to be unfolded to their gaze.
+The mid-winter snows had almost concealed the cabins. The inmates lived
+subterranean lives. Steps cut in the icy snow led up from the doorways
+to the surface. Deep despair had settled upon all hearts. The dead
+were lying all around, some even unburied, and nearly all with only a
+covering of snow. So weak and powerless had the emigrants become, that
+it was hardly possible for them to lift the dead bodies up the steps
+out of the cabins. All were reduced to mere skeletons. They had lived
+on pieces of rawhide, or on old, castaway bones, which were boiled or
+burned until capable of being eaten. They were so reduced that it seemed
+as if only a dry, shriveled skin covered their emaciated frames. The
+eyes were sunken deep in their sockets, and had a fierce, ghastly,
+demoniacal look. The faces were haggard, woe-begone, and sepulchral.
+One seldom heard the sound of a voice, and when heard, it was weak,
+tremulous, pitiful. Sometimes a child would moan and sob for a mouthful
+of food, and the poor, helpless mothers, with breaking hearts, would
+have to soothe them, as best they could, with kind words and tender
+caresses. Food, there was none. Oh! what words can fitly frame a tribute
+for those noble mothers! When strong men gave up, and passively awaited
+the delirium of death, the mothers were actively administering to the
+wants of the dying, and striving to cheer and comfort the living. Marble
+monuments never bore more heroic names than those of Margaret W. Reed,
+Lavina Murphy, Elizabeth Graves, Margaret Breen, Tamsen Donner, and
+Elizabeth Donner. Their charity, fortitude, and self-sacrifice failed
+not in the darkest hour. Death came so often now, that little notice
+was taken of his approach, save by these mothers. A dreadful want of
+consciousness precedes starvation. The actual death is not so terrible.
+The delirious would rave of feasts, and rich viands, and bountiful
+stores of food. As the shadows of death more closely enveloped the poor
+creatures, the mutterings grew unintelligible, and were interrupted,
+now and then, by startled cries of frenzy, which gradually grew fainter,
+until the victims finally slumbered. From this slumber there was no
+awakening. The breathing became feebler and more irregular, and finally
+ceased. It was not so terrible to the unconscious dying, as to the
+weeping mother who watched by the sufferer's side.
+
+It was always dark and gloomy enough in the snow-covered cabins,
+but during the fierce, wild storms, the desolation became almost
+unendurable. The rushing gale, the furious storm, the lashing of
+storm-rent pine boughs, or the crash of giant trees overthrown by the
+hurricane, filled the souls of the imprisoned emigrants with nameless
+dread. Sometimes the silent darkness of the night would shudder with
+the howl of the great gray wolves which in those days infested the
+mountains. Too well did they know that these gaunt beasts were howling
+for the bodies of the living as well as of the dead.
+
+Wood grew plentifully at short distances from the cabins, but for these
+weak, starving creatures to obtain it was a herculean task. To go out
+when the storms were raging, would be almost impossible for a well,
+strong man. To struggle through the deep, loose drifts, reaching
+frequently to the waist, required, at any time, fearful exertion. The
+numb, fleshless fingers could hardly guide, or even wield the ax. Near
+the site of the Breen cabin, to-day, stands a silent witness of the
+almost superhuman exertions that were made to procure fuel. On the
+side of a pine tree are old seams and gashes, which, by their irregular
+position, were evidently made by hands too weak to cut down a tree.
+Hundreds of blows, however, were struck, and the marks of the ax-blade
+extend up and down the side of the tree for a foot and a half. Bark
+seared with age has partly covered portions of the cuts, but in one
+place the incision is some inches deep. At the foot of this pine was
+found a short, decayed ax-handle, and a broad-bladed, old-fashioned
+ax-head. The mute story of these witnesses is unmistakable. The poor
+starved being who undertook the task, never succeeded.
+
+Trees felled, frequently buried themselves out of sight in the loose
+snow, or at best, only the uppermost branches could be obtained. Without
+fire, without food, without proper shelter from the dampness occasioned
+by the melting snows, in the bitter, biting wintry weather, the men,
+women, and children were huddled together, the living and the dead. When
+Milton Elliott died, there were no men to assist in removing the
+body from the deep pit. Mrs. Reed and her daughter, Virginia, bravely
+undertook the task. Tugging, pushing, lifting as best they could, the
+corpse was raised up the icy steps. He died in the Murphy cabin by the
+rock. A few days before he died, he crawled over to the Breen cabin,
+where were Mrs. Reed and her children. For years he had been one of the
+members of this family, he worked for Mr. Reed in the mill and furniture
+establishment owned by the latter in Jamestown, Illinois. He drove the
+same yoke of oxen, "Bully" and "George," who were the wheel-oxen of
+Reed's family team on the plains. When Mr. Reed proposed crossing the
+plains, his wife and children refused to go, unless Milt. could be
+induced to drive. He was a kind, careful man, and after Mr. Reed had
+been driven away from the company, Elliott always provided for them as
+best he was able. Now that he was going to die, he wanted to see
+"Ma" and the children once more. "Ma" was the term he always used
+in addressing Mrs. Reed. None realized better than he the sorrowful
+position in which she was placed by having no husband upon whom to lean
+in this time of great need. Poor Elliott! he knew that he was starving!
+starving! "Ma, I am not going to starve to death, I am going to eat of
+the bodies of the dead." This is what he told Mrs. Reed, yet when
+he attempted to do so, his heart revolted at the thought. Mrs. Reed
+accompanied him a portion of the way back to the Murphy cabin, and
+before leaving him, knelt on the snow and prayed as only a mother can,
+that the Good Father would help them in this hour of distress. It was a
+starving Christian mother praying that relief might come to her starving
+children, and especially to this, her starving boy. From the granite
+rocks, the solemn forests, and the snow-mantled mountains of Donner
+Lake, a more fervent prayer never ascended heavenward. Could Elliott
+have heard, in his dying moments, that this prayer was soon to be
+answered, so far as Mrs. Reed and her little ones were concerned, he
+would have welcomed death joyfully.
+
+As time wore wearily on, another and more severe trial awaited Mrs.
+Reed. Her daughter Virginia was dying. The innutritious rawhide was not
+sufficient to sustain life in the poor, famished body of the delicate
+child. Indeed, toward the last, her system became so debilitated that
+she found it impossible to eat the loathsome, glue-like preparation
+which formed their only food. Silently she had endured her sufferings,
+until she was at the very portals of death. This beautiful girl was a
+great favorite of Mrs. Breen's. Oftentimes during the days of horror
+and despair, this good Irish mother had managed, unobserved, to slip an
+extra piece of meat or morsel of food to Virginia. Mrs. Breen was the
+first to discover that the mark of death was visible upon the girl's
+brow. In order to break the news to Mrs. Reed, without giving those in
+the cabin a shock which might prove fatal, Mrs. Breen asked the mother
+up out of the cabin on the crisp, white snow.
+
+It was the evening of the nineteenth of February, 1847. The sun was
+setting, and his rays, in long, lance-like lines, sifted through the
+darkening forests. Far to the eastward, the summits of the Washoe
+mountains lay bathed in golden sunlight, while the deep gorges at their
+feet were purpling into night. The gentle breeze which crept over the
+bosom of the ice-bound lake, softly wafted from the tree-tops a muffled
+dirge for the dying girl. Ere another day dawned over the expanse of
+snow, her spirit would pass to a haven of peace where the demons of
+famine could never enter.
+
+In the desolate cabin, all was silence. Living under the snow, passing
+an underground life, as it were, seldom visiting each other, or leaving
+the cabins, these poor prisoners learned to listen rather than look for
+relief. During the first days they watched hour after hour the upper end
+of the lake where the "fifteen" had disappeared. With aching eyes and
+weary hearts, they always turned back to their subterranean abodes
+disappointed. Hope finally deserted the strongest hearts. The brave
+mothers had constantly encouraged the despondent by speaking of the
+promised relief, yet this was prompted more by the necessities of the
+situation than from any belief that help would arrive. It was human
+nature, however, to glance toward the towering summits whenever they
+ascended to the surface of the snow, and to listen at all times for an
+unfamiliar sound or footstep. So delicate became their sense of hearing,
+that every noise of the wind, every visitor's tread, every sound that
+ordinarily occurred above their heads, was known and instantly detected.
+
+On this evening, as the two women were sobbing despairingly upon the
+snow, the silence of the twilight was broken by a shout from near Donner
+Lake! In an instant every person forgot weakness and infirmity, and
+clambered up the stairway! It was a strange voice, and in the distance
+the discovered strange forms approaching. The Reed and the Breen
+children thought, at first, that it was a band of Indians, but Patrick
+Breen, the good old father, soon declared that the strangers were white
+men. Captain Tucker and his men had found the wide expanse of snow
+covering forest and lake, and had shouted to attract attention, if any
+of the emigrants yet survived. Oh! what joy! There were tears in other
+eyes than those of the little children. The strong men of the relief
+party sat down on the snow and wept with the rest. It is related of one
+or two mothers, and can readily be believed, that their first act was to
+fall upon their knees, and with faces turned to God, to pour out their
+gratitude to Him for having brought assistance to their dying children.
+Virginia Reed did not die.
+
+Captain Reasin P. Tucker, who had been acquainted with the Graves family
+on the plains before the Donner Party took the Hastings Cut-off, was
+anxious to meet them. They lived in the lower cabin, half a mile further
+down Donner Creek. When he came close enough to observe the smoke
+issuing from the hole in the snow which marked their abode, he shouted,
+as he had done at the upper cabins. The effect was as electrical as
+in the former instance. All came up to the surface, and the same
+unrestrained gladness was manifested by the famished prisoners. Famished
+they were. Mrs. Graves is especially praised by the survivors for her
+unstinted charity. Instead of selfishly hoarding her stores and feeding
+only her own children, she was generous to a fault, and no person ever
+asked at her door for food who did not receive as good as she and her
+little ones had to eat.
+
+Dear Mrs. Graves! How earnestly she asked about her husband and
+daughters! Did all reach the valley? Captain Tucker felt his heart
+rise in his throat. How could he tell this weak, starved woman of the
+terrible fate which had be fallen her husband and her son-in-law! He
+could not! He answered with assumed cheerfulness in the affirmative.
+So, too, they deceived Mrs. Murphy regarding her dear boy Lemuel. It
+was best. Had the dreadful truth been told, not one of all this company
+would ever have had courage to attempt the dangerous journey.
+
+Little sleep was there in the Donner cabins that night. The relief party
+were to start back in a couple of days, and such as were strong enough
+were to accompany them. Mrs. Graves had four little children, and told
+her son William C. Graves that he must remain with her to cut wood to
+keep the little ones from freezing. But William was anxious to go and
+help send back provisions to his mother. So earnestly did he work during
+the next two days, that he had two cords of wood piled up near the
+cabin. This was to last until he could return. His task was less
+difficult because this cabin was built in a dense grove of tamarack.
+
+Food had been given in small quantities to the sufferers. Many of the
+snow-bound prisoners were so near death's door that a hearty meal would
+have proven fatal. The remnant of provisions brought by the relief party
+was carefully guarded lest some of the famished wretches should obtain
+more than was allotted them. This was rendered easier from the fact
+that the members of the relief party were unable to endure the scenes
+of misery and destitution in the cabins, and so camped outside upon the
+snow. So hungry were the poor people that some of them ate the strings
+of the snowshoes which part of the relief company had brought along.
+
+On the twentieth of February, John Rhodes, R. S. Mootry, and R. P.
+Tucker visited the Donner tents on Alder Creek, seven miles from the
+cabins. Only one ox-hide remained to these destitute beings. Here, as
+well as at the cabins, the all-important question was, who should go
+with the relief party and who remain. In each family there were little
+children who could not go unless carried. Few of the Donner Party had
+more than enough strength to travel unencumbered across the deep snows.
+Should a storm occur on, the mountains, it was doubtful if even the
+members of the relief party could escape death. It was hopefully urged
+that other relief parties would soon arrive from California, and that
+these would bring over those who remained. In determining who should go
+and who stay, examples of heroism and devotion were furnished which
+were never surpassed in the history of man. Could their vision
+have penetrated the veil which interposed between them and the sad
+occurrences about to ensue, they would have known that almost every
+family, whose members separated, was bidding good-by to some member
+forever.
+
+
+
+Chapter XII.
+
+
+
+     A Wife's Devotion
+     Tamsen Donner's Early Life
+     The Early Settlers of Sangamon County
+     An Incident in School
+     Teaching and Knitting
+     School Discipline
+     Captain George Donner's Appearance
+     Parting Scenes at Alder Creek
+     Starting over the Mountains
+     A Baby's Death
+     A Mason's Vow
+     Crossing the Snow Barrier
+     More Precious than Gold or Diamonds
+     Elitha Donner's Kindness.
+
+
+
+Mrs. Tamsen Donner was well and comparatively strong, and could easily
+have crossed the mountains in safety with this party. Her husband,
+however, was suffering from a serious swelling on one of his hands. Some
+time before reaching the mountains he had accidentally hurt this hand
+while handling a wagon. After encamping at Alder Creek he was anxious to
+assist in the arrangements and preparations for winter, and while thus
+working the old wound reopened. Taking cold in the hand, it became
+greatly swollen and inflamed, and he was rendered entirely helpless.
+Mrs. Donner was urged to go with the relief party, but resolutely
+determined to heed the promptings of wifely devotion and remain by her
+husband.
+
+No one will ever read the history of the Donner Party without greatly
+loving and reverencing the character of this faithful wife. The saddest,
+most tear-stained page of the tragedy, relates to her life and death
+in the mountains. A better acquaintance with the Donner family, and
+especially with Mrs. Tamsen Donner, can not fail to be desirable in view
+of succeeding chapters. Thanks to Mr. Allen Francis, the present United
+States Consul at Victoria, British Columbia, very complete, authentic,
+and interesting information upon this subject has been furnished. Mr.
+Francis was publisher of the Springfield (Illinois) Journal in 1846, and
+a warm personal friend of the family.
+
+The Donners were among the first settlers of Sangamon County, Ill. They
+were North Carolinians, immigrants to Kentucky in 1818, subsequently to
+the State of Indiana, and from thence to what was known as the Sangamon
+Country, in the year 1828.
+
+George Donner, at the time of leaving Springfield, Ill., was a large,
+fine-looking man, fully six feet in height, with merry black eyes,
+and the blackest of hair, lined with an occasional silver thread.
+He possessed a cheerful disposition, an easy temperament, industrious
+habits, sound judgment, and much general information. By his associates
+and neighbors he was called "Uncle George." To him they went for
+instructions relating to the management of their farms, and usually
+they returned feeling they had been properly advised. Twice had death
+bequeathed him a group of motherless children, and Tamsen was his third
+wife.
+
+Her parents, William and Tamsen Eustis, were respected and well to do
+residents of Newburyport, Mass., where she was born in November, 1801.
+Her love of books made her a student at an early age; almost as soon
+as the baby-dimples left her cheeks, she sought the school-room, which
+afforded her great enjoyment. Her mother's death occurred before she
+attained her seventh year, and for a time her childish hopes and desires
+were overshadowed with sadness by this, her first real sorrow. But the
+sympathy of friends soothed her grief, and her thirst for knowledge led
+her back to the schoolroom, where she pursued her studies with greater
+eagerness than before.
+
+Her father married again, and little Tamsen's life was rendered happier
+by this event; for in her step-mother she found a friend who tenderly
+directed her thoughts and encouraged her work. At fifteen years of age
+she finished the course of study, and her proficiency in mathematics,
+geometry, philosophy, etc., called forth the highest praise of her
+teachers and learned friends. She, like many daughters of New England,
+felt that talents are intrusted to be used, and that each life is
+created for some definite purpose. She therefore resolved to devote
+herself to the instruction of the young, and after teaching at
+Newburyport for a short time, she accepted a call to fill a vacancy in
+the academy at Elizabeth City, N. C., where she continued an earnest and
+appreciated teacher for a number of years. She became a fluent French
+scholar while at that institution, and her leisure hours were devoted
+to the fine arts. Her paintings and drawings were much admired for their
+correctness in outline, subdued coloring, and delicacy in shading.
+
+In Elizabeth City she met Mr. Dozier, a young man of education and
+good family, and they were married. He was not a man of means, but her
+forethought enabled them to live comfortably. For a few brief years she
+enjoyed all the happiness which wedded bliss and maternal love could
+confer, then death came, and in a few short weeks her husband and two
+babes were snatched from her arms. In her desolation and bereavement she
+thought of her old home, and longed for the sympathy of her childhood's
+friends. She returned to Newburyport, where she spent three years in
+retirement and rest. In 1836, she received a letter from her brother in
+Illinois, urging her to come to his afflicted household, and teach his
+motherless children. She remained with them one winter, but her field
+of action had been too wide to permit her to settle quietly on a farm.
+Besides, she had heard much of the manner in which country schools were
+conducted, and became desirous of testing her ability in controlling and
+teaching such a school. She obtained one in Auburn, and soon became the
+friend of her pupils. All agreed that Mrs. Dozier was a faithful teacher
+until the following little incident occurred. The worthy Board of School
+Trustees heard that Mrs. Dozier was in the habit of knitting during
+school hours. "Surely, she could not knit and instruct her pupils
+properly; therefore, she must either give up her knitting or her
+school." When Mrs. Dozier heard their resolution, she smiled, and said:
+"Before those gentlemen deny my ability to impart knowledge and work
+with my fingers at the same time, I would like them to visit my school,
+and judge me by the result of their observation."
+
+A knock at the school-room door, a week later, startled the children,
+and a committee of trustees entered. Mrs. Dozier received them in the
+most ladylike manner, and after they were seated, she called each
+class at its appointed time. The recitations were heard, and lessons
+explained, yet no one seemed disturbed by the faint, but regular, click
+of knitting needles. For hours those gentlemen sat in silence, deeply
+interested in all that transpired. When the time for closing school
+arrived, the teacher invited the trustees to address her pupils,
+after which she dismissed school, thanked her visitor for their kind
+attention, and went home without learning their opinion.
+
+The next morning she was informed that the Board of Trustees had met
+the previous evening, and after hearing the report of the visiting
+committee, had unanimously agreed that Mrs. Dozier might continue her
+school and her knitting also. This little triumph was much enjoyed by
+her friends.
+
+The following year she was urged to take the school on Sugar Creek,
+where the children were older and further advanced than those at
+Auburn. Her connection with this school marked a new era for many of its
+attendants. Mr. J. Miller used to relate an incident which occurred a
+few days after she took charge of those unruly boys who had been in the
+habit of managing the teacher and school to suit themselves. "I will
+never forget," said Mr. Miller, "how Mrs. Dozier took her place at the
+table that morning, tapped for order, and in a kind, but firm, tone
+said: 'Young gentlemen and young ladies, as a teacher only, I can not
+criticise the propriety of your writing notes to each other when out of
+school; but as your teacher, with full authority in school, I desire
+and request you neither to write nor send notes to any one during school
+hours. I was surprised at your conduct yesterday, and should my wish be
+disregarded in the future, will be obliged to chastise the offender.'
+She called the first class, and school began in earnest. I looked at her
+quiet face and diminutive form, and thought how easy it would be for me
+to pick up two or three such little bodies as she, and set them outside
+of the door! I wrote a note and threw it to the pupil in front of me,
+just to try Mrs. Dozier. When the recitation was finished, she
+stepped to the side of her table, and looked at me with such a grieved
+expression on her face, then said: 'Mr. Miller, I regret that my eldest
+scholar should be the first to violate my rule. Please step forward.' I
+quailed beneath her eye. I marched up to where she stood. The stillness
+of that room was oppressive. I held out my hand at the demand of that
+little woman, and took the punishment I deserved, and returned to my
+seat deeply humiliated, but fully determined to behave myself in the
+future, and make the other boys do likewise. Well, she had no more
+trouble while she was our teacher. Her pluck had won our admiration, and
+her quiet dignity held our respect, and we soon ceased wondering at
+the ease with which she overturned our plans and made us eager to adopt
+hers; for no teacher ever taught on Sugar Creek who won the affections
+or ruled pupils more easily or happily than she. We were expected to
+come right up to the mark; but if we got into trouble, she was always
+ready to help us out, and could do it in the quietest way imaginable."
+
+She taught several young men the art of surveying, and had a wonderful
+faculty of interesting her pupils in the study of botany. She sought
+by creek and over plain for specimens with which to illustrate their
+lessons. It was while engaged in this place that Mrs. Dozier met
+George Donner, who at that time resided about two and a half miles from
+Springfield field. Their acquaintance resulted in marriage. Her pupils
+always called her their "little teacher," for she was but five feet in
+height, and her usual weight ninety-six pounds. She had grayish-blue
+eyes, brown hair, and a face full of character and intelligence. She was
+gifted with fine conversational powers, and was an excellent reader. Her
+voice would hold in perfect silence, for hours, the circle of neighbors
+and friends who would assemble during the long winter evenings to hear
+her read. Even those who did not fail to criticise her ignorance of farm
+and dairy work, were often charmed by her voice and absence of display;
+for while her dress was always of rich material, it was remarkable for
+its Quaker simplicity.
+
+Mr. Francis says: "Mrs. George Donner was a perfect type of an eastern
+lady, kind, sociable, and exemplary, ever ready to assist neighbors,
+and even the stranger in distress. Whenever she could spare time, she
+wielded a ready pen on various topics. She frequently contributed gems
+in prose and poetry to the columns of the journal, that awakened an
+interest among its readers to know their author. Herself and husband
+were faithful members of the German Prairie Christian Church, situated
+a little north of their residence. Here they lived happily, and highly
+respected by all who knew them, until the spring of 1846, when they
+started for California."
+
+Having said this much of the Donners, and especially of the noble woman
+who refused to leave her suffering husband, let us glance at the parting
+scenes at Alder Creek. It had been determined that the two eldest
+daughters of George Donner should accompany Captain Tucker's party.
+George Donner, Jr., and William Hook, two of Jacob Donner's Sons, Mrs.
+Wolfinger, and Noah James were also to join the company. This made six
+from the Donner tents. Mrs. Elizabeth Donner was quite able to have
+crossed the mountains, but preferred to remain with her two little
+children, Lewis and Samuel, until another and larger relief party should
+arrive. These two boys were not large enough to walk, Mrs. Donner was
+not strong enough to carry them, and the members of Captain Tucker's
+party had already agreed to take as many little ones as they could
+carry.
+
+Leanna C. Donner, now Mrs. John App, of Jamestown, Tuolumne County,
+Cal., gives a vivid description of the trip from George Donner's tent
+to the cabins at Donner Lake Miss Rebecca E. App, acting as her mother's
+amanuensis, writes:
+
+"Mother says: Never shall I forget the day when my sister Elitha and
+myself left our tent. Elitha was strong and in good health, while I was
+so poor and emaciated that I could scarcely walk. All we took with us
+were the clothes on our backs and one thin blanket, fastened with
+a string around our necks, answering the purpose of a shawl in the
+day-time, and which was all we had to cover us at night. We started
+early in the morning, and many a good cry I had before we reached the
+cabins, a distance of about eight miles. Many a time I sat down in the
+snow to die, and would have perished there if my sister had not urged me
+on, saying, 'The cabins are just over the hill.' Passing over the hill,
+and not seeing the cabins, I would give up, again sit down and have
+another cry, but my sister continued to help and encourage me until I
+saw the smoke rising from the cabins; then I took courage, and moved
+along as fast as I could. When we reached the Graves cabin it was all
+I could do to step down the snow-steps into the cabin. Such pain and
+misery as I endured that day is beyond description."
+
+In Patrick Breen's diary are found the following entries, which allude
+to Captain Tucker's relief party:
+
+"Feb. 19. Froze hard last night. Seven men arrived from California
+yesterday with provisions, but left the greater part on the way. To-day
+it is clear and warm for this region; some of the men have gone to
+Donner's camp; they will start back on Monday."
+
+"Feb. 22. The Californians started this morning, twenty-three in number,
+some in a very weak state. Mrs. Keseberg started with them, and left
+Keseberg here, unable to go. Buried Pike's child this morning in the
+snow; died two days ago."
+
+Poor little Catherine Pike lingered until this time! It will be
+remembered that this little nursing babe had nothing to eat except
+a little coarse flour mixed in snow water. Its mother crossed the
+mountains with the "Forlorn Hope," and from the sixteenth of December
+to the twentieth of February it lived upon the miserable gruel made
+from unbolted flour. How it makes the heart ache to think of this little
+sufferer, wasting away, moaning with hunger, and sobbing for something
+to eat. The teaspoonful of snow water would contain only a few particles
+of the flour, yet how eagerly the dying child would reach for the
+pitiful food. The tiny hands grew thinner, the sad, pleading eyes sank
+deeper in their fleshless sockets, the face became hollow, and the
+wee voice became fainter, yet, day after day, little Catherine Pike
+continued to breathe, up to the very arrival of the relief party.
+
+Patrick Breen says twenty-three started across the mountains. Their
+names were: Mrs. Margaret W. Reed and her children--Virginia E. Reed,
+Patty Reed, Thomas Reed, and James F. Reed, Jr.; Elitha C. Donner,
+Leanna C. Donner, Wm. Hook, and George Donner, Jr.; Wm. G. Murphy, Mary
+M. Murphy, and Naomi L. Pike; Wm. C. Graves, Eleanor Graves, and Lovina
+Graves; Mrs. Phillipine Keseberg, and Ada Keseberg; Edward J. and Simon
+P. Breen, Eliza Williams, John Denton, Noah James, and Mrs. Wolfinger.
+
+In starting from the camps at Donner Lake, Mrs. Keseberg's child and
+Naomi L. Pike were carried by the relief party. In a beautiful letter
+received from Naomi L. Pike (now Mrs. Schenck, of the Dalles, Oregon),
+she says: "I owe my life to the kind heart of John Rhodes, whose
+sympathies were aroused for my mother. He felt that she was deserving
+of some relic of all she had left behind when she started with the first
+party in search of relief, and he carried me to her in a blanket." We
+have before spoken of this noble man's bravery in bearing the news of
+the condition of the "Forlorn Hope" and of the Donner Party to Sutter's
+Fort. Here we find him again exhibiting the nobility of his nature by
+saving this little girl from starvation by carrying her on his back over
+forty miles of wintry snow.
+
+Before the party had proceeded two miles, a most sad occurrence took
+place. It became evident that Patty and Thomas Reed were unable to
+stand the fatigue of the journey. Already they exhibited signs of great
+weakness and weariness, and it was not safe to allow them to proceed.
+Mr. Aquila Glover informed Mrs. Reed that it was necessary that these
+two children go back. Who can portray the emotions of this fond mother?
+What power of language can indicate the struggle which took place in the
+minds of this stricken family? Mr. Glover promised to return as soon as
+he arrived at Bear Valley, and himself bring Patty and Thomas over the
+mountains. This promise, however, was but a slight consolation for the
+agonized mother or weeping children, until finally a hopeful thought
+occurred to Mrs. Reed. She turned suddenly to Mr. Glover, and asked,
+"Are you a Mason?" He replied, "I am." "Do you promise me," she said,
+"upon the word of a Mason, that when you arrive at Bear Valley, you will
+come back and get my children?" Mr. Glover made the promise, and
+the children were by him taken back to the cabins. The mother had
+remembered, in this gloomiest moment of life, that the father of her
+little ones was a Mason, and that he deeply reverenced the order. If her
+children must be left behind in the terrible snows, she would trust the
+promise of this Mason to return and save them. It was a beautiful trust
+in a secret order by a Mason's wife in deep distress.
+
+Rebecca E. App, writing for her mother, gives a vivid description of
+this journey across the summits, from which is taken the following brief
+extract:
+
+"It was a bright Sunday morning when we left the cabins. Some were in
+good health, while others were so poor and emaciated that they could
+scarcely walk. I was one of the weakest in the party, and not one in the
+train thought I would get to the top of the first hill. We were a sad
+spectacle to look upon as we left the cabins. We marched along in single
+file, the leader wearing snow-shoes, and the others following after, all
+stepping in the leader's tracks. I think my sister and myself were about
+the rear of the train, as the strongest were put in front. My sister
+Elitha and I were alone with strangers, as it were, having neither
+father, mother, nor brothers, to give us a helping hand or a word of
+courage to cheer us onward. We were placed on short allowance of food
+from the start, and each day this allowance was cut shorter and shorter,
+until we received each for our evening and morning meal two small pieces
+of jerked beef, about the size of the index finger of the hand. Finally,
+the last ration was issued in the evening. This was intended for that
+evening and the next morning, but I was so famished I could not resist
+the temptation to eat all I had--the two meals at one time. Next
+morning, of course, I had nothing for breakfast. Now occurred an
+incident which I shall never forget. While I sat looking at the others
+eating their morsels of meat, which were more precious than gold or
+diamonds, my sister saw my distress, and divided her piece with me. How
+long we went without food after that, I do not know. I think we were
+near the first station."
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII.
+
+
+
+     Death of Ada Keseberg
+     Denton Discovering Gold
+     A Poem Composed While Dying
+     The Caches of Provisions Robbed by Fishers
+     The Sequel to the Reed-Snyder Tragedy
+     Death from Over-eating
+     The Agony of Frozen Feet
+     An Interrupted Prayer
+     Stanton, after Death, Guides the Relief Party
+     The Second Relief Party Arrives
+     A Solitary Indian
+     Patty Reed and her Father
+     Starving Children Lying in Bed
+     Mrs. Graves' Money Still Buried at Donner Lake.
+
+
+
+Peasin P. Tucker's relief party had twenty-one emigrants with them after
+Patty and Thomas Reed returned to the desolate cabins. On the evening
+of the first day, one of the twenty-one died. It was the baby child of
+Lewis Keseberg. The mother had fairly worshiped her girl. They buried
+the little one in the snow. It was all they could do for the pallid
+form of the starved little girl. Mrs. Keseberg was heart-broken over
+her baby's death. At the very outset she had offered everything she
+possessed--twenty-five dollars and a gold watch-to any one who would
+carry her child over the mountains. After the starved band resumed their
+weary march next morning, it is doubtful if many thought of the niche
+hollowed out of the white snow, or of the pulseless heart laid therein.
+Death had become fearfully common, and his victims were little heeded
+by the perishing company. The young German mother, however, was
+inconsolable. Her only boy had starved to death at the cabins, and now
+she was childless.
+
+The next day the company reached Summit Valley. An incident of this
+day's travel illustrates the exhausted condition of the members of
+the Donner Party. John Denton, an Englishman, was missed when camp was
+pitched, and John Rhodes returned and found him fast asleep upon the
+snow. He had become so weary that he yielded to a slumber that would
+soon have proven fatal. With much labor and exertion he was aroused and
+brought to camp. Denton appreciated the kindness, but at the same time
+declared that it would be impossible for him to travel another day.
+Sure enough, after journeying a little way on the following morning, his
+strength utterly gave way. His companions built a fire for him, gave him
+such food as they were able, and at his earnest request continued their
+sorrowful march. If another relief came soon, he would, perhaps, be
+rescued. Denton was well educated and of good family, was a gunsmith by
+trade, and was skilled in metals. It is related, that while in the
+Reed cabin, he discovered in the earth, ashes, and burnt stones in the
+fireplace, some small pieces of yellowish metal, which he declared to
+be gold. These he made into a small lump, which he carefully preserved
+until he left the lake, and it was doubtless lost on the mountains at
+his death. This was in the spring of 1847, before the discovery of gold
+in California. The strange little metallic lump was exhibited to several
+who are yet living, and who think there is reason for believing it was
+really gold. A few years before the construction of the Central Pacific,
+Knoxville, about ten miles south of Donner Lake, and Elizabethtown, some
+six miles from Truckee, were famous mining camps. Gold never has been
+found on the very shore of Donner Lake, but should the discovery be
+made, and especially should gold be found in the rocks or earth near the
+Reed cabin, there would be reason to believe that this poor unfortunate
+man was in reality the first discoverer of the precious metal in
+California. Left alone in the snow-mantled forests of the Sierra, what
+were this man's emotions? In the California Star of 1847, a bound volume
+of which is in the State Library in Sacramento, appears the following
+poem. The second relief party found it written on the leaf of a
+memorandum book by the side of Denton's lifeless body. The pencil with
+which it was written lay also by the side of the unfortunate man. Ere
+the lethargy of death stole away his senses, John Denton's thoughts had
+been of his boyhood's beautiful home in merry England. These thoughts
+were woven into verse. Are they not strangely pathetic and beautiful?
+Judge Thornton, in 1849, published them with the following prefatory
+words: "When the circumstances are considered in connection with the
+calamities in which the unhappy Denton was involved, the whole compass
+of American and English poetry may be challenged to furnish a more
+exquisitely beautiful, a more touching and pathetic piece. Simple and
+intimate to the last degree, yet coming from the heart, it goes to the
+heart. Its lines are the last plaintive notes which wintry winds have
+wakened from an Lolian harp, the strings of which rude hands have
+sundered. Bring before your mind the picture of an amiable young man who
+has wandered far from the paternal roof, is stricken by famine, and left
+by his almost equally unhappy companions to perish among the terrible
+snows of the great Sierra Nevada. He knows that his last, most solemn
+hour is near. Reason still maintains her empire, and memory, faithful
+to the last, performs her functions. On every side extends a boundless
+waste of trackless snow. He reclines against a bank of it, to rise no
+more, and busy memory brings before him a thousand images of past beauty
+and pleasure, and of scenes he will never revisit. A mother's image
+presents itself to his mind, tender recollections crowd upon his heart,
+and the scenes of his boyhood and youth pass in review before him with
+an unwonted vividness. The hymns of praise and thanksgiving that in
+harmony swelled from the domestic circle around the family altar are
+remembered, and soothe the sorrows of the dying man, and finally, just
+before he expires, he writes:"
+
+     "Oh! after many roving years,
+     How sweet it is to come
+     Back to the dwelling-place of youth,
+     Our first and dearest home;
+     To turn away our wearied eyes
+     From proud ambition's towers,
+     And wander in those summer fields,
+     The scenes of boyhood's hours."
+
+     "But I am changed since last I gazed
+     Upon that tranquil scene,
+     And sat beneath the old witch elm
+     That shades the village green;
+     And watched my boat upon the brook
+     It was a regal galley
+     And sighed not for a joy on earth,
+     Beyond the happy valley."
+
+     "I wish I could once more recall
+     That bright and blissful joy,
+     And summon to my weary heart--
+     The feelings of a boy.
+     But now on scenes of past delight
+     I look, and feel no pleasure,
+     As misers on the bed of death
+     Gaze coldly on their treasure."
+
+When Captain Tucker's relief party were going to Donner Lake, they left
+a portion of their provisions in Summit Valley, tied up in a tree. They
+had found these provisions difficult to carry, and besides, it was
+best to have something provided for their return, in case the famished
+emigrants ate all they carried over the summit. It was indeed true that
+all was eaten which they carried over. All the scanty allowances were,
+one after another, consumed. When the relief party, and those they were
+rescuing, reached the place where the provisions had been cached, they
+were in great need of the reserve store which they expected to find.
+To their horror and dismay, they found that wild animals had gnawed the
+ropes by which the cache had been suspended, and had destroyed every
+vestige of these provisions! Death stared them in the face, and the
+strongest men trembled at the prospect.
+
+Here comes the sequel to the Reed-Snyder tragedy. Had it not been for
+Reed's banishment, there is every reason to believe that these people
+would have died for want of food. It will be remembered, however, that
+the relief party organized by Reed was only a few days behind Captain
+Tucker's. On the twenty-seventh of February, just as the horror and
+despair of their dreadful situation began to be realized, Tucker, and
+those with him, were relieved by the second relief party.
+
+In order to better understand these events, let us return and follow
+the motions of Reed and the members of the second relief party. In the
+article quoted in a former chapter from the Rural Press, Reed traced
+their progress as far as Johnson's ranch. Patty Reed (Mrs. Frank Lewis)
+has in her possession the original diary kept by her father during this
+journey. This diary shows that on the very morning Capt. Tucker, and the
+company with him, left Donner Lake to return to the valleys, Reed and
+the second relief party started from Johnson's ranch to go to Donner
+Lake. All that subsequently occurred, is briefly and pointedly narrated
+in the diary.
+
+"February 22, 1847. All last night I kept fire under the beef which I
+had drying on the scaffolds, and Johnson's Indians were grinding flour
+in a small hand-mill. By sunrise this morning I had about two hundred
+pounds of beef dried and placed in bags. We packed our horses and
+started with our supplies. Including the meat Greenwood had dried, we
+had seven hundred pounds of flour, and five beeves. Mr. Greenwood had
+three men, including himself. Traveled this day about ten miles."
+
+"Feb. 23. Left camp early this morning, and pushed ahead, but camped
+early on account of grass. To-morrow we will reach the snow."
+
+"Feb. 24. Encamped at Mule Springs this evening. Made arrangements
+to take to the snow in the morning, having left in camp our saddles,
+bridles, etc."
+
+"Feb. 25. Started with eleven horses and mules lightly packed, each
+having about eighty pounds. Traveled two miles, and left one mule and
+his pack. Made to-day, with hard labor for the horses, in the snow,
+about six miles. Our start was late."
+
+"Feb. 26. Left our encampment, Cady thinking the snow would bear the
+horses. Proceeded two hundred yards with difficulty, when we were
+compelled to unpack the horses and take the provisions on our backs.
+Usually the men had kept in the best of spirits, but here, for a few
+moments, there was silence. When the packs were ready to be strung upon
+their backs, however, the hilarity and good feeling again commenced.
+Made the head of Bear Valley, a distance of fifteen miles. We met in
+the valley, about three miles below the camp, Messrs. Glover and Rhodes,
+belonging to the party that went to the lake. They informed me they had
+started with twenty-one persons, two of whom had died, John Denton, of
+Springfield, Ill., and a child of Mr. and Mrs. Keseberg. Mr. Glover sent
+two men back to the party with fresh provisions. They are in a starving
+condition, and all have nearly given out. I have lightened our packs
+with a sufficient quantity of provisions to do the people when they
+shall arrive at this place.
+
+"Feb. 27. I sent back two men to our camp of night before last, to bring
+forward provisions. They will return to-morrow. I also left one man to
+prepare for the people who were expected today. Left camp on a fine,
+hard snow, and proceeded about four miles, when we met the poor,
+unfortunate, starved people. As I met them scattered along the
+snowtrail, I distributed some bread that I had baked last night. I gave
+in small quantities to each. Here I met my wife and two of my little
+children. Two of my children are still in the mountains. I can not
+describe the deathlike look all these people had. 'Bread!' 'Bread!'
+'Bread!' 'Bread!' was the begging cry of every child and grown person. I
+gave all I dared to them, and set out for the scene of desolation at
+the lake. I am now camped within twenty-five miles of the place, which
+I hope to reach by traveling to-night and tomorrow. We had to camp early
+this evening, on account of the softness of the snow, the men sinking in
+to their waists, The party who passed us to-day were overjoyed when we
+told them there was plenty of provision at camp. I made a cache, to-day,
+after we had traveled about twelve miles, and encamped three miles
+further eastward, on the Yuba. Snow about fifteen feet deep."
+
+The meeting between Reed and his family can better be imagined than
+described. For months they had been separated. While the father was
+battling with fate in endeavoring to reach California and return with
+assistance, the mother had been using every exertion to obtain food for
+her starving children. Now they met in the mountains, in the deep snows,
+amid pathless forests, at a time when the mother and children, and all
+with them, were out of provisions and ready to perish.
+
+Meantime, the first relief; with their little company, now reduced to
+nineteen, passed forward toward the settlements. At Bear Valley, another
+cache of provisions had been made, and this was found unmolested.
+Camping at this place, the utmost precaution was taken to prevent the
+poor starved people from overeating. After a sufficient quantity of food
+had been distributed, the remainder of the provisions was hung up in a
+tree. Of course, the small portion distributed to each did not satisfy
+the cravings of hunger. Some time during the night, Wm. Hook quietly
+crept to the tree, climbed up to the food, and ate until his hunger was
+appeased. Poor boy, it was a fatal act. Toward morning it was discovered
+that he was dying. All that the company could do to relieve his
+sufferings was done, but it was of no avail. Finding that the poor boy
+was past relief; most of the emigrants moved on toward the settlements.
+Wm. G. Murphy's feet had been badly frozen, and he was suffering such
+excruciating agony that he could not travel and keep up with the others.
+At his request, his sister Mary had cut his shoes open, in order to get
+them off; and his feet thereupon swelled up as if they had been scalded.
+Because he could not walk, the company left him with William Hook. A
+camp-keeper also remained. This boy's death is thus described by Mr.
+Murphy, who writes:
+
+"William Hook went out on the snow and rested on his knees and elbows.
+The camp-keeper called to him to come in. He then told me to make him
+come into camp. I went and put my hand on him, speaking his name, and
+he fell over, being already dead. He did not die in great agony, as is
+usually alleged. No groan, nor signs of dying, were manifested to us.
+The camp-keeper and myself took the biscuits and jerked beef from his
+pockets, and buried him just barely under the ground, near a tree which
+had been fired, and from around which the snow had melted." Those who
+were in the company thought Wm. G. Murphy could not possibly walk, but
+when all had gone, and Hook was dead, and no alternative remained but to
+walk or die, he did walk. It took him two days to go barefooted over the
+snow to Mule Springs, a journey which the others had made in one day.
+The agony which he endured during that trip can better be imagined than
+described. Nothing but an indomitable will could have sustained him
+during those two days.
+
+All the members of this relief party suffered greatly, and several came
+near perishing. Little James F. Reed, Jr., was too small to step in the
+tracks made by the older members of the party. In order to travel with
+the rest he had to partly use his knees in walking. When one foot was
+in a track he would place the other knee on the untrodden snow, and was
+thus enabled to put his foot in the next track. John Denton was left
+with a good fire, and when last seen was reclining smoking, on a bed of
+freshly gathered pine boughs. He looked so comfortable that the little
+timid boy James begged hard to be allowed to remain with him. Mrs. Reed
+had hard work to coax him to come. Among other things, she promised that
+when he reached California he should have a horse "all for himself," and
+that he should never have to walk any more. This promise was literally
+fulfilled. James F. Reed, Jr., since reaching California, has always
+had a horse of his own. No matter what vicissitudes of fortune have
+overtaken him, he has always kept a saddle horse.
+
+Sad scenes were occurring at the cabin at Donner Lake and the tents
+at Alder Creek. Starvation was fast claiming its victims. The poor
+sufferers tried to be brave and trust God, but sometimes hope well-nigh
+disappeared. The evening prayers were always read in Patrick Breen's
+cabin, and all the inmates knelt and joined in the responses. Once when
+they were thus praying, they heard the cries of wild geese flying over
+the cabin. With one accord all raised their heads and listened for a
+moment to the soul-inspiring sound. "Thank God, the spring is coming,"
+was all Patrick Breen said, and again bowing their heads, the prayer was
+resumed.
+
+Charles L. Cady, writing from Calistoga, says that Commodore Stockton
+employed Greenwood and Turner to guide the second relief party over the
+mountains to Donner Lake. Cady, Stone, and Clark, being young, vigorous
+men, left their companions, or were sent forward by Reed, and reached
+the cabins some hours in advance of the party. At one time, near the
+present station of Summit Valley, Cady and Stone became bewildered,
+thought they were lost, and wanted to return. Mr. Clark, however,
+prevailed upon them to press forward, agreeing that if they did not
+catch some glimpse of Donner Lake when they reached a certain mountain
+top in the distance, he would give up and return with them. Had they
+reached the mountain top they could not have seen the lake, and so
+would have turned back, but while they were ascending, they came to the
+lifeless body of C. T. Stanton sitting upright against a tree. There was
+no longer room for doubting that they were going in the right direction
+to reach Donner Lake. Poor Stanton! even in death he pointed out to
+the relief party the way to the starving emigrants, to save whom he had
+sacrificed his life.
+
+Reed's diary continues:
+
+"Feb. 28. Left camp about twelve o'clock at night, but was compelled to
+camp about two o'clock, the snow still being soft. Left again about four
+o'clock, all hands, and made this day fourteen miles. Encamped early;
+snow very soft. The snow here is thirty feet deep. Three of my men,
+Cady, Clark, and Stone, kept on during the night to within two miles
+of the cabins, where they halted, and remained without fire during the
+night, on account of having seen ten Indians. The boys did not have any
+arms, and supposed these Indians had taken the cabins and destroyed the
+people. In the morning they started, and reached the cabins. All were
+alive in the houses. They gave provisions to Keseberg, Breen, Graves,
+and Mrs. Murphy, and the two then left for Donner's, a distance of seven
+miles, which they made by the middle of the day."
+
+"March 1. I came up with the remainder of my party, and told the people
+that all who were able should start day after to-morrow. Made soup for
+the infirm, washed and clothed afresh Eddy's and Foster's children, and
+rendered every assistance in my power. I left Mr. Stone with Keseberg's
+people to cook, and to watch the eating of Mrs. Murphy, Keseberg, and
+three children."
+
+In Patrick Breen's diary is found the following:
+
+"Feb. 23. Froze hard last night. To-day pleasant and thawy; has the
+appearance of spring, all but the deep snow. Wind south-south-east. Shot
+a dog to-day and dressed his flesh."
+
+"Feb. 25. To-day Mrs. Murphy says the wolves are about to dig up the
+dead bodies around her shanty, and the nights are too cold to watch
+them, but we hear them howl."
+
+"Feb. 26. Hungry times in camp; plenty of hides, but the folks will
+not eat them; we eat them with tolerably good appetite, thanks to the
+Almighty God. Mrs. Murphy said here yesterday that she thought she would
+commence on Milton and eat him. I do not think she has done so yet; it
+is distressing. The Donners told the California folks four days ago that
+they would commence on the dead people if they did not succeed that day
+or the next in finding their cattle, then ten or twelve feet under the
+snow, and they did not know the spot or near it; they have done it ere
+this."
+
+"Feb. 28. One solitary Indian passed by yesterday; came from the lake;
+had a heavy pack on his back; gave me five, or six roots resembling
+onions in shape; tasted some like a sweet potato; full of tough little
+fibers."
+
+"March 1. Ten men arrived this morning from Bear Valley, with
+provisions. We are to start in two or three days, and cache our goods
+here. They say the snow will remain until June."
+
+This closes Patrick Breen's diary. Its record has always been considered
+reliable. None of the statements made in this diary have ever been
+controverted.
+
+The Indian spoken of refused to be interviewed. To quote the language of
+Mr. John Breen, "he did not seem to be at all curious as to how or
+why there was a white man alone (as it must have seemed to him) in the
+wilderness of snow." The Indian was trudging along with a heavy pack on
+his back. As soon as he saw Mr. Breen, he halted and warned him with
+a gesture not to approach. Taking from the pack a few of the fibrous
+roots, he laid them on the snow, still cautioning with his hand not to
+approach until he was well out of reach. As soon as the Indian was gone,
+Mr. Breen went out and got the roots, which were very palatable. It is
+probable that this was one of the band of Indians seen by Clark, Cady,
+and Stone.
+
+When Patty and Thomas Reed had been returned to the cabins by Aquila
+Glover, they had been received by the Breen family, where they remained
+all the time until their father came. The Breen cabin was the first
+one at which Mr. Reed arrived. His meeting with his daughter is thus
+described by Mr. Eddy, in Thornton's work: "At this camp Mr. Reed saw
+his daughter Patty sitting on the top of the snow with which the cabin
+was covered. Patty saw her father at some distance, and immediately
+started to run and meet him, but such was her weakness that she fell.
+Her father took her up, and the affectionate girl, bathed in tears,
+embraced and kissed him, exclaiming: 'Oh, papa! I never expected to see
+you again when the cruel people drove you out of camp. But I knew that
+God was good, and would do what was best. Is dear mamma living? Is Mr.
+Glover living? Did you know that he was a Mason? Oh, my dear papa, I
+am so happy to see you. Masons must be good men. Is Mr. Glover the same
+sort of Mason we had in Springfield? He promised mamma upon the word of
+a Mason that he would bring me and Tommy out of the mountains.' Mr. Reed
+told Patty that Masons were everywhere the same, and that he had met her
+mother and Mr. Glover, and had relieved him from his pledge, and that
+he himself had come to her and little Tommy to redeem that pledge and to
+take out all that were able to travel."
+
+The greatest precaution was taken to keep the suffering emigrants from
+overeating. Cady, Stone, and Clark had distributed a small portion of
+food to each of the famished beings. Patty Reed was intrusted with the
+task of giving to each person a single biscuit. Taking the biscuits
+in her apron she went in turn to each member of the company. Who shall
+describe the rejoicings that were held over those biscuits? Several of
+the survivors, in speaking of the subject, say that to their hungry eyes
+these small pieces of bread assumed gigantic proportions. Never did the
+largest loaves of bread look half so large. Patty Reed says that some of
+the little girls cut their portions into thin slices, so as to eat them
+slowly and enjoy them more completely.
+
+The names of the members of this second relief party were James F.
+Reed, Charles Cady, Charles Stone, Nicholas Clark, Joseph Jondro, Mathew
+Dofar, John Turner, Hiram Miller, Wm. McCutchen, and Brit. Greenwood.
+A portion of the party went to the Donner tents, and the remainder
+assisted the emigrants in preparing to start over the mountains. The
+distress and suffering at each camp was extreme. Even after the children
+had received as much food as was prudent, it is said they would stretch
+out their little arms and with cries and tears beg for something to
+eat. Mrs. Murphy informed Mr. Reed that some of the children had been
+confined to their beds for fourteen days. It was clearly to be seen that
+very few of the sufferers could cross the Sierra without being almost
+carried. They were too weak and helpless to walk. The threatening
+appearance of the weather and the short supply of provisions urged the
+party to hasten their departure, and it was quickly decided who should
+go, and who remain. Those who started from Donner Lake on the third
+of March with Mr. Reed and his party were Patrick Breen, Mrs. Margaret
+Breen, John Breen, Patrick Breen, Jr., James F. Breen, Peter Breen, and
+Isabella M. Breen, Patty Reed and Thomas Reed, Isaac Donner and Mary
+M. Donner, Solomon Hook, Mrs. Elizabeth Graves, Nancy Graves, Jonathan
+Graves, Franklin Graves, and Elizabeth Graves, Jr. Many of the younger
+members of this party had to be carried. All were very much weakened and
+emaciated, and it was evident that the journey over the mountains would
+be slow and painful. In case a storm should occur on the summits, it was
+fearfully apparent that the trip would be exceedingly perilous.
+
+Reed's party encamped the first night near the upper end of Donner Lake.
+They had scarcely traveled three miles. Upon starting from the Graves
+cabin, Mrs. Graves had taken with her a considerable sum of money. This
+money, Mr. McCutchen says, had been ingeniously concealed in auger holes
+bored in cleats nailed to the bed of the wagon. These cleats, as W. C.
+Graves informs us, were ostensibly placed in the wagon-bed to support a
+table carried in the back part of the wagon. On the under side of these
+cleats, however, were the auger-holes, carefully filled with coin. The
+sum is variously stated at from three to five hundred dollars. At the
+camping-ground, near the upper end of Donner Lake, one of the relief
+party jokingly proposed to another to play a game of euchre to see who
+should have Mrs. Graves' money. The next morning, Mrs. Graves remained
+behind when the party started, and concealed her money. All that is
+known is, that she buried it behind a large rock on the north side of
+Donner Lake. So far as is known, this money has never been recovered,
+but still lies hidden where it was placed by Mrs. Graves.
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV.
+
+
+
+     Leaving Three Men in the Mountains
+     The Emigrants Quite Helpless
+     Bear Tracks in the Snow
+     The Clumps of Tamarack
+     Wounding a Bear
+     Bloodstains upon the Snow
+     A Weary Chase
+     A Momentous Day
+     Stone and Cady Leave the Sufferers
+     A Mother Offering Five Hundred Dollars
+     Mrs. Donner Parting from her Children
+     "God will Take Care of You"
+     Buried in the Snow, without Food or Fire
+     Pines Uprooted by the Storm
+     A Grave Cut in the Snow
+     The Cub's Cave
+     Firing at Random
+     A Desperate Undertaking
+     Preparing for a Hand-to-Hand Battle
+     Precipitated into the Cave
+     Seizing the Bear
+     Mrs. Elizabeth Donner's Death
+     Clark and Baptiste Attempt to Escape
+     A Death more Cruel than Starvation.
+
+
+
+Before Reed's party started to return, a consultation was held, and it
+was decided that Clark, Cady, and Stone should remain at the mountain
+camps. It was intended that these men should attend to procuring
+wood, and perform such other acts as would assist the almost helpless
+sufferers. It was thought that a third relief party could be sent out in
+a few days to get all the emigrants who remained.
+
+Nicholas Clark, who now resides in Honey Lake Valley, Lassen County,
+California, says that as he and Cady were going to the Donner tents,
+they saw the fresh tracks of a bear and cub crossing the road. In those
+days, there were several little clumps of tamarack along Alder Creek,
+just below the Donner tents, and as the tracks led towards these,
+Mr. Clark procured a gun and started for an evening's hunt among the
+tamaracks. He found the bear and her cub within sight of the tents, and
+succeeded in severely wounding the old bear. She was a black bear, of
+medium size. For a long distance, over the snow and through the forests,
+Clark followed the wounded animal and her cub. The approach of darkness
+at last warned him to desist, and returning to the tents, he passed the
+night. Early next morning, Clark again set out in pursuit of the bear,
+following her readily by the blood-stains upon the snow. It was another
+windy, cloudy, threatening day, and there was every indication that a
+severe storm was approaching. Eagerly intent upon securing his game, Mr.
+Clark gave little heed to weather, or time, or distance. The endurance
+of the wounded animal was too great, however, and late in the afternoon
+he realized that it was necessary for him to give up the weary chase,
+and retrace his steps. He arrived at the tents hungry, tired, and
+footsore, long after dark.
+
+That day, however, had been a momentous one at the Donner tents. Stone
+had come over early in the morning, and he and Cady concluded that it
+was sheer madness for them to remain in the mountains. That a terrible
+storm was fast coming on, could not be doubted. The provisions were
+almost exhausted, and if they remained, it would only be to perish with
+the poor emigrants. They therefore concluded to attempt to follow and
+overtake Reed and his companions.
+
+Mrs. Tamsen Donner was able to have crossed the mountains with her
+children with either Tucker's or Reed's party. On account of her
+husband's illness, however, she had firmly refused all entreaties, and
+had resolutely determined to remain by his bedside. She was extremely
+anxious, however, that her children should reach California; and Hiram
+Miller relates that she offered five hundred dollars to any one in the
+second relief party, who would take them in safety across the mountains.
+When Cady and Stone decided to go, Mrs. Donner induced them to attempt
+the rescue of these children, Frances, Georgia, and Eliza. They took
+the children as far the cabins at the lake, and left them. Probably they
+became aware of the impossibility of escaping the storm, and knew that
+it would be sure death, for both themselves and the children, should
+they take them any farther. In view of the terrible calamity which
+befell Reed's party on account of this storm, and the fact that Cady and
+Stone had a terrible struggle for life, every one must justify these men
+in leaving the children at the cabins. The parting between the devoted
+mother and her little ones is thus briefly described by Georgia Donner,
+now Mrs. Babcock: "The men came. I listened to their talking as they
+made their agreement. Then they took us, three little girls, up the
+stone steps, and stood us on the bank. Mother came, put on our hoods and
+cloaks, saying, as if she was talking more to herself than to us: 'I may
+never see you again, but God will take care of you.' After traveling a
+few miles, they left us on the snow, went ahead a short distance, talked
+one to another, then came back, took us as far as Keseberg's cabin, and
+left us."
+
+Mr. Cady recalls the incident of leaving the children on the snow, but
+says the party saw a coyote, and were attempting to get a shot at the
+animal.
+
+When Nicholas Clark awoke on the morning of the third day, the tent
+was literally buried in freshly fallen snow. He was in what is known
+as Jacob Donner's tent. Its only occupants besides himself were Mrs.
+Elizabeth Donner, her son Lewis, and the Spanish boy, John Baptiste.
+George Donner and wife were in their own tent, and with them was Mrs.
+Elizabeth Donner's youngest child, Samuel. Mr. Clark says he can not
+remember how long the storm lasted, but it seems as if it must have been
+at least a week. The snow was so deep that it was impossible to procure
+wood, and during all those terrible days and nights there was no fire in
+either of the tents. The food gave out the first day, and the dreadful
+cold was rendered more intense by the pangs of hunger. Sometimes the
+wind would blow like a hurricane, and they could plainly hear the great
+pines crashing on the mountain side above them, as the wind uprooted
+them and hurled them to the ground. Sometimes the weather would seem to
+moderate, and the snow would melt and trickle in under the sides of the
+tent, wetting their clothes and bedding, and increasing the misery of
+their situation.
+
+When the storm cleared away, Clark found himself starving like the rest.
+He had really become one of the Donner Party, and was as certain to
+perish as were the unfortunates about him. It would necessarily be
+several days before relief could possibly arrive, and utter despair
+seemed to surround them. Just as the storm was closing, Lewis Donner
+died, and the poor mother was well-nigh frantic with grief. As soon as
+she could make her way to the other tent, she carried her dead babe over
+and laid it in Mrs. George Donner's lap. With Clark's assistance, they
+finally laid the child away in a grave cut out of the solid snow.
+
+In going to a tamarack grove to get some wood, Mr. Clark was surprised
+to find the fresh track of the bear cub, which had recrossed Alder Creek
+and ascended the mountain behind the tents. It was doubtless the same
+one whose mother he had wounded. The mother had probably died, and after
+the storm the cub had returned. Mr. Clark at once followed it, tracking
+it far up the mountain side to a cliff of rocks, and losing the trail at
+the mouth of a small, dark cave. He says that all hope deserted him when
+he found that the cub had gone into the cave. He sat down upon the snow
+in utter despair. It was useless to return to the tents without food; he
+might as well perish upon the mountain side. After reflecting for some
+time upon the gloomy situation, he concluded to fire his gun into the
+cave, and see if the report might not frighten out the cub. He placed
+the muzzle of the gun as far down into the cave as he could, and fired.
+When the hollow reverberation died away among the cliffs, no sound
+disturbed the brooding silence. The experiment had failed. He seriously
+meditated whether he could not watch the cave day and night until the
+cub should be driven out by starvation. But suddenly a new idea occurred
+to him. Judging from the track, and from the size of the cub he had
+seen, Mr. Clark concluded that it was possible he might be able to enter
+the cave and kill the cub in a hand-to-hand fight. It was a desperate
+undertaking, but it was preferable to death from starvation. He
+approached the narrow opening, and tried again to peer into the cave and
+ascertain its depth. As he was thus engaged the snow suddenly gave way,
+and he was precipitated bodily into the cave. He partly fell, partly
+slid to the very bottom of the hole in the rocks. In endeavoring to
+regain an erect posture, his hand struck against some furry animal.
+Instinctively recoiling, he waited for a moment to see what it would
+do. Coming from the dazzling sunlight into the darkness, he could see
+nothing whatever. Presently he put out his foot and again touched the
+animal. Finding that it did not move, he seized hold of it and found
+that it was the cub-dead! His random shot had pierced its brain, and it
+had died without a struggle. The cave or opening in the rocks was not
+very deep, and after a long time he succeeded in dragging his prize to
+the surface.
+
+There was food in the Donner tents from this time forward. It came too
+late, however, to save Mrs. Elizabeth Donner or her son Samuel. This
+mother was quite able to have crossed the mountains with either of the
+two relief parties; but, as Mrs. E. P. Houghton writes: "Her little boys
+were too young to walk through the deep snows, she was not able to carry
+them, and the relief parties were too small to meet such emergencies.
+She stayed with them, hoping some way would be provided for their
+rescue. Grief, hunger, and disappointed hopes crushed her spirit, and so
+debilitated her that death came before the required help reached her or
+her children. For some days before her death she was so weak that Mrs.
+George Donner and the others had to feed her as if she had been a child.
+At last, one evening, as the sun went down, she closed her eyes and
+awoke no more. Her life had been sacrificed for her children. Could
+words be framed to express a more fitting tribute to her memory! Does
+not the simple story of this mother's love wreathe a chaplet of glory
+about her brow far holier than could be fashioned by human hands!"
+
+Samuel Donner lingered but a few days longer. Despite the tenderest care
+and attention, he grew weaker day by day, until he slept by the side of
+his mother and brother in their snowy grave.
+
+All this time Mrs. Tamsen Donner was tortured with fear and dread, lest
+her children had perished in the dreadful storm on the summits. At last
+Clark yielded to her importunities, and decided to visit the cabins at
+Donner Lake, and see if there was any news from beyond the Sierra. Clark
+found the children at Keseberg's cabin, and witnessed such scenes of
+horror and suffering that he determined at once to attempt to reach
+California. Returning to Alder Creek, he told Mrs. Donner of the
+situation of her children, and says he informed her that he believed
+their lives were in danger of a death more violent than starvation.
+He informed her of his resolution to leave the mountains, and taking a
+portion of the little meat that was left, he at once started upon his
+journey. John Baptiste accompanied him.
+
+The cub would have weighed about seventy pounds when killed; and now
+that its flesh was nearly gone, there was really very little hope for
+any one unless relief came speedily. In attempting to make their way
+across the mountains, Clark and Baptiste did the wisest thing possible,
+yet they well knew that they would perish by the way unless they met
+relief.
+
+Mrs. Tamsen Donner did not dare to leave her husband alone during the
+night, but told Clark and Baptiste that she should endeavor to make the
+journey to the cabins on the following day. It was a long, weary walk
+over the pitiless snow, but she had before her yearning eyes not only
+the picture of her starving children, but the fear that they were in
+danger of a more cruel death than starvation.
+
+
+
+Chapter XV.
+
+
+
+     A Mountain Storm
+     Provisions Exhausted
+     Battling the Storm-Fiends
+     Black Despair
+     Icy Coldness
+     A Picture of Desolation
+     The Sleep of Death
+     A Piteous Farewell
+     Falling into the Firewell
+     Isaac Donner's Death
+     Living upon Snow-water
+     Excruciating Pain
+     A Vision of Angels
+     "Patty is Dying"
+     The Thumb of a Mitten
+     A Child's Treasures
+     The "Dolly" of the Donner Party.
+
+
+
+On the evening of the second day after leaving Donner Lake, Reed's party
+and the little band of famished emigrants found themselves in a cold,
+bleak, uncomfortable hollow, somewhere near the lower end of Summit
+Valley. Here the storm broke in all its fury upon the doomed company. In
+addition to the cold, sleet-like snow, a fierce, penetrating wind seemed
+to freeze the very marrow in their bones. The relief party had urged
+the tired, hungry, enfeebled emigrants forward at the greatest possible
+speed all day, in order to get as near the settlements as they could
+before the storm should burst upon them. Besides, their provisions were
+exhausted, and they were anxious to reach certain caches of supplies
+which they had made while going to the cabins. Fearing that the storm
+would prevent the party from reaching these caches, Mr. Reed sent Joseph
+Jondro, Matthew Dofar, and Hiram Turner forward to the first cache,
+with instructions to get the provisions and return to the suffering
+emigrants. That very night the storm came, and the three men had not
+been heard from.
+
+The camp was in a most inhospitable spot. Exposed to the fury of
+the wind and storm, shelterless, supperless, overwhelmed with
+discouragements, the entire party sank down exhausted upon the snow.
+The entire party? No! There was one man who never ceased to work. When a
+fire had been kindled, and nearly every one had given up, this one man,
+unaided, continued to strive to erect some sort of shelter to protect
+the defenseless women and children. Planting large pine boughs in the
+snow, he banked up the snow on either side of them so as to form a wall.
+Hour after hour, in the darkness and raging storm, he toiled on alone,
+building the sheltering breastwork which was to ward off death from the
+party who by this time had crept shiveringly under its protection. But
+for this shelter, all would have perished before morning. At midnight
+the man was still at work. The darting snow particles seemed to cut his
+eye-balls, and the glare of the fire and the great physical exhaustion
+under which he was laboring, gradually rendered him blind. Like his
+companions, he had borne a child in his arms all day over the soft,
+yielding snow. Like them, he was drenched to the skin, and his clothing
+was frozen stiff and hard with ice. Yet he kept up the fire, built
+a great sheltering wall about the sufferers, and went here and there
+amongst the wailing and dying. With unabated violence the storm
+continued its relentless fury. The survivors say it was the coldest
+night they ever experienced. There is a limit to human endurance. The
+man was getting stone-blind. Had he attempted to speak, his tongue would
+have cloven to the roof of his mouth. His senses were chilled, blunted,
+dead. Sleep had stilled the plaintive cries of those about him. All was
+silent save the storm. Without knowing it, this heroic man was yielding
+to a sleep more powerful than that which had overcome his companions.
+While trying to save those who were weaker than himself, he had been
+literally freezing. Sightless, benumbed, moving half unconsciously about
+his work, he staggered, staggered, staggered, and finally sank in the
+snow. All slept! As he put no more fuel upon the fire, the flames died
+down. The logs upon which the fire had rested gave way, and most of the
+coals fell upon the snow. They were in almost total darkness.
+
+Presently some one awoke. It was Mrs. Breen, whose motherly watchfulness
+prevented more than a few consecutive moments' sleep. The camp was
+quickly aroused. All were nearly frozen. Hiram Miller's hands were so
+cold and frosted that the skin on the fingers cracked open when he tried
+to split some kindlings. At last the fire was somehow renewed. Meantime
+they had discovered their leader--he who had been working throughout the
+night-lying cold, speechless, and apparently dead upon the snow. Hiram
+Miller and Wm. McCutchen carried the man to the fire, chafed his hands
+and limbs, rubbed his body vigorously, and worked with him as hard
+as they could for two hours before he showed signs of returning
+consciousness. Redoubling their exertions, they kept at work until the
+cold, gray morning dawned, ere the man was fully restored. Would you
+know the name of this man, this hero? It was James Frazier Reed.
+
+From this time forward, all the toil, all the responsibility devolved
+upon Wm. McCutchen and Hiram Miller. Jondro, Dofar, and Turner were
+caught in the drifts ahead. The fishers or other wild animals had almost
+completely devoured the first cache of provisions, and while these men
+were trying to reach the second cache, the storm imprisoned them. They
+could neither go forward nor return. Cady and Stone were between Donner
+Lake and Starved Camp, and were in a like helpless condition. McCutchen
+and Miller were the only ones able to do anything toward saving the poor
+creatures who were huddled together at the miserable camp. All the
+other men were completely disheartened by the fearful calamity which had
+overtaken them. But for the untiring exertions of these two men, death
+to all would have been certain. McCutchen had on four shirts, and yet he
+became so chilled while trying to kindle the fire, that in getting warm
+he burned the back out of his shirts. He only discovered the mishap by
+the scorching and burning of his flesh.
+
+What a picture of desolation was presented to the inmates of Starved
+Camp during the next three days! It stormed incessantly. One who has
+not witnessed a storm on the Sierra can not imagine the situation. A
+quotation from Bret Harte's "Gabriel Conroy" will afford the best idea
+of the situation:
+
+"Snow. Everywhere. As far as the eye could reach fifty miles, looking
+southward from the highest white peak. Filling ravines and gulches,
+and dropping from the walls of canyons in white shroud-like drifts,
+fashioning the dividing ridge into the likeness of a monstrous grave,
+hiding the bases of giant pines, and completely covering young trees
+and larches, rimming with porcelain the bowl-like edges of still, cold
+lakes, and undulating in motionless white billows to the edge of the
+distant horizon. Snow lying everywhere on the California Sierra, and
+still falling. It had been snowing in finely granulated powder, in
+damp, spongy flakes, in thin, feathery plumes; snowing from a leaden sky
+steadily, snowing fiercely, shaken out of purple-black clouds in white
+flocculent masses, or dropping in long level lines like white lances
+from the tumbled and broken heavens. But always silently! The woods were
+so choked with it, it had so cushioned and muffled the ringing rocks
+and echoing hills, that all sound was deadened. The strongest gust, the
+fiercest blast, awoke no sigh or complaint from the snow-packed,
+rigid files of forest. There was no cracking of bough nor crackle of
+underbrush; the overladen branches of pine and fir yielded and gave away
+without a sound. The silence was vast, measureless, complete!"
+
+In alluding to these terrible days, in his diary, Mr. Reed says, under
+date of March 6:
+
+"With the snow there is a perfect hurricane. In the night there is a
+great crying among the children, and even with the parents there is
+praying, crying, and lamentation on account of the cold and the dread
+of death from hunger and the howling storm. The men up nearly all night
+making fires. Some of the men began praying. Several of them became
+blind. I could not see the light of the fire blazing before me, nor tell
+when it was burning. The light of heaven is, as it were, shut out from
+us. The snow blows so thick and fast that we can not see twenty feet
+looking against the wind. I dread the coming night. Three of my men
+only, able to get wood. The rest have given out for the present. It
+is still snowing, and very cold. So cold that the few men employed
+in cutting the dry trees down, have to come and, warm about every ten
+minutes. 'Hungry!' 'Hungry!' is the cry with the children, and nothing
+to give them. 'Freezing!' is the cry of the mothers who have nothing for
+their little, starving, freezing children. Night closing fast, and with
+it the hurricane increases.
+
+"Mar. 7. Thank God day has once more appeared, although darkened by the
+storm. Snowing as fast as ever, and the hurricane has never ceased for
+ten minutes at a time during one of the most dismal nights I have
+ever witnessed. I hope I shall never witness another such in a similar
+situation. Of all the praying and crying I ever heard, nothing ever
+equaled it. Several times I expected to see the people perish of the
+extreme cold. At one time our fire was nearly gone, and had it not been
+for McCutchen's exertions it would have entirely disappeared. If the
+fire had been lost, two thirds of the camp would have been out of their
+misery before morning; but, as God would have it, we soon had it blazing
+comfortably, and the sufferings of the people became less for a time.
+Hope began to animate the bosoms of many, young and old, when the
+cheering blaze rose through the dry pine logs we had piled together.
+One would say, 'Thank God for the fire!' Another, 'How good it is!' The
+poor, little, half-starved, half-frozen children would say, 'I'm glad,
+I'm glad we have got some fire! Oh, how good it feels! It is good our
+fire didn't go out!' At times the storm would burst forth with such fury
+that I felt alarmed for the safety of the people on account of the tall
+timber that surrounded us."
+
+Death entered the camp on the first night. He came to claim one who was
+a true, faithful mother. One who merits greater praise than language can
+convey. Though comparatively little has been told concerning her life
+by the survivors, doubt not that Mrs. Elizabeth Graves was one of
+the noblest of the mothers of the Donner Party. Her charity is kindly
+remembered by all who have spoken her name. To her companions in
+misfortune she always gave such food as she possessed; for her children
+she now gave her life. The last morsels of food, the last grain of
+flour, she had placed in the mouths of her babes, though she was dying
+of starvation.
+
+Mrs. Farnham, who talked personally with Mrs. Breen, gives the following
+description of that terrible night:
+
+"Mrs. Breen told me that she had her husband and five children together,
+lying with their feet to the fire, and their heads under shelter of the
+snow breast-work. She sat by them, with only moccasins on her feet, and
+a blanket drawn over her shoulders and head, within which, and a shawl
+she constantly wore, she nursed her poor baby on her knees. Her milk had
+been gone several days, and the child was so emaciated and lifeless that
+she scarcely expected at any time on opening the covering to find it
+alive. Mrs. Graves lay with her babe and three or four older children
+at the other side of the fire. The storm was very violent all night, and
+she watched through it, dozing occasionally for a few minutes, and then
+rousing herself to brush the snow and flying sparks from the covering of
+the sleepers. Toward morning she heard one of the young girls opposite
+call to her mother to cover her. The call was repeated several
+times impatiently, when she spoke to the child, reminding her of the
+exhaustion and fatigue her mother suffered in nursing and carrying the
+baby, and bidding her cover herself, and let her mother rest. Presently
+she heard the mother speak, in a quiet, unnatural tone, and she called
+to one of the men near her to go and speak to her. He arose after a few
+minutes and found the poor sufferer almost past speaking. He took her
+infant, and after shaking the snow from her blanket, covered her as
+well as might be. Shortly after, Mrs. Breen observed her to turn herself
+slightly, and throw one arm feebly up, as if to go to sleep. She waited
+a little while, and seeing her remain quite still, she walked around to
+her. She was already cold in death. Her poor starving child wailed and
+moaned piteously in the arms of its young sister, but the mother's heart
+could no more warm or nourish it."
+
+The members of the second relief party realized that they were
+themselves in imminent danger of death. They were powerless to carry
+the starving children over the deep, soft, treacherous snow, and it was
+doubtful if they would be able to reach the settlements unencumbered.
+Isaac Donner, one of the sons of Jacob and Elizabeth Donner, perished
+during one of the stormy nights. He was lying on the bed of pine boughs
+between his sister Mary and Patty Reed, and died so quietly that neither
+of the sleeping girls awoke.
+
+The relief party determined to set out over the snow, hasten to the
+settlements, and send back relief. Solomon Hook, Jacob Donner's oldest
+boy, insisted that he was able to walk, and therefore joined the party.
+Hiram Miller, an old friend of the Reed family, took little Thomas Reed
+in his arms, and set out with the others. Patty Reed, full of hope and
+courage, refused to be carried by her father, and started on foot.
+
+With what emotions did the poor sufferers in Starved Camp watch the
+party as it disappeared among the pines! There was no food in camp, and
+death had already selected two of their number. What a pitiable group
+it was! Could a situation more desolate or deplorable be imagined? Mr.
+Breen, as has been heretofore mentioned, was feeble, sickly, and almost
+as helpless as the children. Upon Mrs. Breen devolved the care, not
+only of her husband, but of all who remained in the fatal camp, for all
+others were children. John Breen, their eldest son, was the strongest
+and most vigorous in the family, yet the following incident shows how
+near he was to death's door. It must have occurred the morning the
+relief party left. The heat of the fire had melted a deep, round hole
+in the snow. At the bottom of the pit was the fire. The men were able to
+descend the sides of this cavity, and frequently did so to attend to the
+fire. At one time, while William McCutchen was down by the fire, John
+Breen was sitting on the end of one of the logs on which the fire had
+originally been kindled. Several logs had been laid side by side, and
+the fire had been built in the middle of the floor thus constructed.
+While the central logs had burned out and let the fire descend, the
+outer logs remained with their ends on the firm snow. On one of these
+logs John Breen was sitting. Suddenly overcome by fatigue and hunger,
+he fainted and dropped headlong into the fire-pit. Fortunately, Mr.
+McCutchen caught the falling boy, and thus saved him from a horrible
+death. It was some time before the boy was fully restored to
+consciousness. Mrs. Breen had a small quantity of sugar, and a little
+was placed between his clenched teeth. This seemed to revive him, and he
+not only survived, but is living to-day, the head of a large family, in
+San Benito County.
+
+Mrs. Breen's younger children, Patrick, James, Peter, and the nursing
+babe, Isabella, were completely helpless and dependent. Not less
+helpless were the orphan children of Mr. and Mrs. Graves. Nancy was only
+about nine years old, and upon her devolved the task of caring for
+the babe, Elizabeth. Nancy Graves is now the wife of the earnest and
+eloquent divine, Rev. R. W. Williamson, of Los Gatos, Santa Clara
+County. To her lasting honor be it said, that although she was dying of
+hunger in Starved Camp, yet she faithfully tended, cared for, and saved
+her baby sister. Aside from occasional bits of sugar, this baby and Mrs.
+Breen's had nothing for an entire week, save snow-water. Besides Nancy
+and Elizabeth, there were of the Graves children, Jonathan, aged seven,
+and Franklin, aged five years. Franklin soon perished. Starvation and
+exposure had so reduced his tiny frame, that he could not endure these
+days of continual fasting.
+
+Mary M. Donner, whom all mention as one of the most lovely girls in
+the Donner Party, met with a cruel accident the night before the relief
+party left Starved Camp. Her feet had become frozen and insensible
+to pain. Happening to lie too near the fire, one of her feet became
+dreadfully burned. She suffered excruciating agony, yet evinced
+remarkable fortitude. She ultimately lost four toes from her left foot,
+on account of this sad occurrence.
+
+Seven of the Breens, Mary Donner, and the three children of Mr. and Mrs.
+Graves, made the eleven now waiting for relief at Starved Camp. Mrs.
+Graves, her child Franklin, and the boy, Isaac Donner, who lay stark in
+death upon the snow, completed the fourteen who were left by the relief
+party.
+
+Meantime, how fared it with those who were pressing forward toward the
+settlements? At each step they sank two or three feet into the snow. Of
+course those who were ahead broke the path, and the others, as far
+as possible, stepped in their tracks. This, Patty Reed could not do,
+because she was too small. So determined was she, however, that despite
+the extra exertion she was compelled to undergo, she would not admit
+being either cold or fatigued. Patty Reed has been mentioned as only
+eight years old. Many of the survivors speak of her, however, in much
+the same terms as John Breen, who says: "I was under the impression that
+she was older. She had a wonderful mind for one of her age. She had,
+I have often thought, as much sense as a grown person." Over Patty's
+large, dark eyes, on this morning, gradually crept a film. Previous
+starvation had greatly attenuated her system, and she was far too weak
+to endure the hardship she had undertaken. Gradually the snow-mantled
+forests, the forbidding mountains, the deep, dark canyon of Bear River,
+and even the forms of her companions, faded from view. In their stead
+came a picture of such glory and brightness as seldom comes to human
+eyes. It was a vision of angels and of brilliant stars. She commenced
+calling her father, and those with him, and began talking about the
+radiant forms that hovered over her. Her wan, pale face was illumined
+with smiles, and with an ecstasy of joy she talked of the angels and
+stars, and of the happiness she experienced. "Why, Reed," exclaimed
+McCutchen, "Patty is dying!" And it was too true.
+
+For a few moments the party forgot their own sufferings and trials, and
+ministered to the wants of the spiritual child, whose entrance into
+the dark valley had been heralded by troops of white-winged angels.
+At Starved Camp, Reed had taken the hard, frozen sacks in which the
+provisions had been carried, and by holding them to the fire had thawed
+out the seams, and scraped therefrom about a teaspoonful of crumbs.
+These he had placed in the thumb of his woolen mitten to be used in case
+of emergency. Little did he suppose that the emergency would come so
+soon. Warming and moistening these crumbs between his own lips, the
+father placed them in his child's mouth. Meantime they had wrapped a
+blanket around her chilled form, and were busily chafing her hands and
+feet. Her first return to consciousness was signaled by the regrets she
+expressed at having been awakened from her beautiful dream. To this day
+she cherishes the memory of that vision as the dearest, most enchanting
+of all her life. After this, some of the kindhearted Frenchmen in the
+party took turns with Reed in carrying Patty upon their backs.
+
+Past-midshipman S. E. Woodworth is a name that in most published
+accounts figures conspicuously among the relief parties organized
+to rescue the Donner Party. At the time Reed and his companions were
+suffering untold horrors on the mountains, and those left at Starved
+Camp were perishing of starvation, Woodworth, with an abundance of
+supplies, was lying idle in camp at Bear Valley. This was the part that
+Selim E. Woodworth took in the relief of the sufferers.
+
+The three men who had been sent forward to the caches, left the remnant
+of the provisions which had not been destroyed, where it could easily
+be seen by Reed and his companions. Hurrying forward, they reached
+Woodworth's camp, and two men, John Stark and Howard Oakley, returned
+and met Reed's party. It was quite time. With frozen feet and exhausted
+bodies, the members of the second relief were in a sad plight. They
+left the settlements strong, hearty men. They returned in a half-dead
+condition. Several lost some of their toes on account of having them
+frozen, and one or two were crippled for life. They had been three days
+on the way from Starved Camp to Woodworth's. Cady and Stone overtook
+Reed and his companions on the second day after leaving Starved Camp. On
+the night of the third day, they arrived at Woodworth's.
+
+When Patty Reed reached Woodworth's and had been provided with suitable
+food, an incident occurred which fully illustrates the tenderness and
+womanliness of her nature. Knowing that her mother and dear ones
+were safe, knowing that relief would speedily return to those on the
+mountains, realizing that for her there was to be no more hunger, or
+snow, and that she would no longer be separated from her father, her
+feelings may well be imagined. In her quiet joy she was not wholly
+alone. Hidden away in her bosom, during all the suffering and agony of
+the journey over the mountains, were a number of childish treasures.
+First, there was a lock of silvery gray hair which her own hand had cut
+from the head of her Grandmother Keyes way back on the Big Blue River.
+Patty had always been a favorite with her grandma, and when the latter
+died, Patty secured this lock of hair. She tied it up in a little piece
+of old-fashioned lawn, dotted with wee blue flowers, and always carried
+it in her bosom. But this was not all. She had a dainty little glass
+salt-cellar, scarcely larger than the inside of a humming-bird's nest,
+and, what was more precious than this, a tiny, wooden doll. This doll
+had been her constant companion. It had black eyes and hair, and was
+indeed very pretty. At Woodworth's camp, Patty told "Dolly" all her joy
+and gladness, and who can not pardon the little girl for thinking her
+dolly looked happy as she listened?
+
+Patty Reed is now Mrs. Frank Lewis, of San Jose, Cal. She has a pleasant
+home and a beautiful family of children. Yet oftentimes the mother, the
+grown-up daughters, and the younger members of the family, gather with
+tear-dimmed eyes about a little sacred box. In this box is the lock of
+hair in the piece of lawn, the tiny salt-cellar, the much loved "Dolly,"
+and an old woolen mitten, in the thumb of which are yet the traces of
+fine crumbs.
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI.
+
+
+
+     A Mother at Starved Camp
+     Repeating the Litany
+     Hoping in Despair
+     Wasting Away
+     The Precious Lump of Sugar
+     "James is Dying"
+     Restoring a Life
+     Relentless Hunger
+     The Silent Night-Vigils
+     The Sight of Earth
+     Descending the Snow-Pit
+     The Flesh of the Dead
+     Refusing to Eat
+     The Morning Star
+     The Mercy of God
+     The Mutilated Forms
+     The Dizziness of Delirium
+     Faith Rewarded
+     "There is Mrs. Breen!"
+
+
+
+Very noble was the part which Mrs. Margaret Breen performed in this
+Donner tragedy, and very beautifully has that part been recorded by a
+woman's hand. It is written so tenderly, so delicately, and with so much
+reverence for the maternal love which alone sustained Mrs. Breen, that
+it can hardly be improved. This account was published by its author,
+Mrs. Farnham, in 1849, and is made the basis of the following sketch.
+With alterations here and there, made for the sake of brevity, the
+article is as it was written:
+
+There was no food in Starved Camp. There was nothing to eat save a few
+seeds, tied in bits of cloth, that had been brought along by some one,
+and the precious lump of sugar. There were also a few teaspoonfuls
+of tea. They sat and lay by the fire most of the day, with what heavy
+hearts, who shall know! They were upon about thirty feet of snow. The
+dead lay before them, a ghastlier sight in the sunshine that succeeded
+the storm, than when the dark clouds overhung them. They had no words
+of cheer to speak to each other, no courage or hope to share, but those
+which pointed to a life where hunger and cold could never come, and
+their benumbed faculties were scarcely able to seize upon a consolation
+so remote from the thoughts and wants that absorbed their whole being.
+
+A situation like this will not awaken in common natures religious trust.
+Under such protracted suffering, the animal outgrows the spiritual
+in frightful disproportion. Yet the mother's sublime faith, which had
+brought her thus far through her agonies, with a heart still warm toward
+those who shared them, did not fail her now. She spoke gently to one
+and another; asked her husband to repeat the litany, and the children
+to join her in the responses; and endeavored to fix their minds upon
+the time when the relief would probably come. Nature, as unerringly as
+philosophy could have done, taught her that the only hope of sustaining
+those about her, was to set before them a termination to their
+sufferings.
+
+What days and nights were those that went by while they waited! Life
+waning visibly in those about her; not a morsel of food to offer them;
+her own infant--and the little one that had been cherished and saved
+through all by the mother now dead-wasting hourly into the more perfect
+image of death; her husband worn to a skeleton; it needed the fullest
+measure of exalted faith, of womanly tenderness and self-sacrifice, to
+sustain her through such a season. She watched by night as well as by
+day. She gathered wood to keep them warm. She boiled the handful of tea
+and dispensed it to them, and when she found one sunken and speechless,
+she broke with her teeth a morsel of the precious sugar, and put it in
+his lips. She fed her babe freely on snow-water, and scanty as was the
+wardrobe she had, she managed to get fresh clothing next to its skin two
+or three times a week. Where, one asks in wonder and reverence, did
+she get the strength and courage for all this? She sat all night by her
+family, her elbows on her knees, brooding over the meek little victim
+that lay there, watching those who slept, and occasionally dozing with
+a fearful consciousness of their terrible condition always upon her. The
+sense of peril never slumbered. Many times during the night she went to
+the sleepers to ascertain if they all still breathed. She put her hand
+under their blankets, and held it before the mouth. In this way she
+assured herself that they were yet alive. But once her blood curdled to
+find, on approaching her hand to the lips of one of her own children,
+there was no warm breath upon it. She tried to open his mouth, and found
+the jaws set. She roused her husband, "Oh! Patrick, man! arise and help
+me! James is dying!" "Let him die!" said the miserable father, "he will
+be better off than any of us." She was terribly shocked by this reply.
+In her own expressive language, her heart stood still when she heard it.
+She was bewildered, and knew not where to set her weary hands to work,
+but she recovered in a few moments and began to chafe the breast
+and hands of the perishing boy. She broke a bit of sugar, and with
+considerable effort forced it between his teeth with a few drops of
+snow-water. She saw him swallow, then a slight convulsive motion stirred
+his features, he stretched his limbs feebly, and in a moment more opened
+his eyes and looked upon her. How fervent were her thanks to the Great
+Father, whom she forgot not day or night.
+
+Thus she went on. The tea leaves were eaten, the seeds chewed, the
+sugar all dispensed. The days were bright, and compared with the nights,
+comfortable. Occasionally, when the sun shone, their voices were heard,
+though generally they sat or lay in a kind of stupor from which she
+often found it alarmingly difficult to arouse them. When the gray
+evening twilight drew its deepening curtain over the cold glittering
+heavens and the icy waste, and when the famishing bodies had been
+covered from the frost that pinched them with but little less keenness
+than the unrelenting hunger, the solitude seemed to rend her very brain.
+Her own powers faltered. But she said her prayers over many times in the
+darkness as well as the light, and always with renewed trust in Him who
+had not yet forsaken her, and thus she sat out her weary watch. After
+the turning of the night she always sat watching for the morning star,
+which seemed every time she saw it rise clear in the cold eastern sky,
+to renew the promise, "As thy day is, so shall thy strength be."
+
+Their fire had melted the snow to a considerable depth, and they were
+lying on the bank above. Thus they had less of its heat than they
+needed, and found some difficulty in getting the fuel she gathered
+placed so it would burn. One morning after she had hailed her messenger
+of promise, and the light had increased so as to render objects visible
+in the distance, she looked as usual over the white expanse that lay to
+the south-west, to see if any dark moving specks were visible upon its
+surface. Only the tree-tops, which she had scanned so often as to be
+quite familiar with their appearance, were to be seen. With a heavy
+heart she brought herself back from that distant hope to consider what
+was immediately about her. The fire had sunk so far away that they had
+felt but little of its warmth the last two nights, and casting her
+eyes down into the snow-pit, whence it sent forth only a dull glow, she
+thought she saw the welcome face of beloved mother Earth. It was such
+a renewing sight after their long, freezing separation from it She
+immediately aroused her eldest son, John, and with a great deal of
+difficulty, and repeating words of cheer and encouragement, brought him
+to understand that she wished him to descend by one of the tree-tops
+which had fallen in so as to make a sort of ladder, and see if they
+could reach the naked earth, and if it were possible for them all to go
+down. She trembled with fear at the vacant silence in which he at first
+gazed at her, but at length, after she had told him a great many times,
+he said "Yes, mother," and went.
+
+He reached the bottom safely, and presently spoke to her. There was
+naked, dry earth under his feet; it was warm, and he wished her to come
+down. She laid her baby beside some of the sleepers, and descended.
+Immediately she determined upon taking them all down. How good, she
+thought, as she descended the boughs, was the God whom she trusted. By
+perseverance, by entreaty, by encouragement, and with her own aid, she
+got them into this snug shelter.
+
+Relief came not, and as starvation crept closer and closer to himself
+and those about him, Patrick Breen determined that it was his duty to
+employ the means of sustaining life which God seemed to have placed
+before them. The lives of all might be saved by resorting to such
+food as others, in like circumstances, had subsisted upon. Mrs. Breen,
+however, declared that she would die, and see her children die, before
+her life or theirs should be preserved by such means. If ever the father
+gave to the dying children, it was without her consent or knowledge. She
+never tasted, nor knew of her children partaking. Mrs. Farnham says that
+when Patrick Breen ascended to obtain the dreadful repast, his wife,
+frozen with horror, hid her face in her hands, and could not look up.
+She was conscious of his return, and of something going on about the
+fire, but she could not bring herself to uncover her eyes till all had
+subsided again into silence. Her husband remarked that perhaps they
+were wrong in rejecting a means of sustaining life of which others had
+availed themselves, but she put away the suggestion so fearfully that
+it was never renewed, nor acted upon by any of her family. She and her
+children were now, indeed, reaching the utmost verge of life. A little
+more battle with the grim enemies that had pursued them so relentlessly,
+twenty-four, or at most forty-eight hours of such warfare, and all would
+be ended. The infants still breathed, but were so wasted they could only
+be moved by raising them bodily with the hands. It seemed as if even
+their light weight would have dragged the limbs from their bodies.
+Occasionally, through the day, she ascended the tree to look out. It
+was an incident now, and seemed to kindle more life than when it only
+required a turn of the head or a glance of the eye to tell that there
+was no living thing near them. She could no longer walk on the snow, but
+she had still strength enough to crawl from tree to tree to gather a few
+boughs, which she threw along before her to the pit, and piled them in
+to renew the fire. The eighth day was passed. On the ninth morning she
+ascended to watch for her star of mercy. Clear and bright it stood over
+against her beseeching gaze, set in the light liquid blue that overflows
+the pathway of the opening day. She prayed earnestly as she gazed, for
+she knew that there were but few hours of life in those dearest to
+her. If human aid came not that day, some eyes, that would soon look
+imploringly into hers, would be closed in death before that star would
+rise again. Would she herself, with all her endurance and resisting
+love, live to see it? Were they at length to perish? Great God! should
+it be permitted that they, who had been preserved through so much,
+should die at last so miserably?
+
+Her eyes were dim, and her sight wavering. She could not distinguish
+trees from men on the snow, but had they been near, she could have heard
+them, for her ear had grown so sensitive that the slightest unaccustomed
+noise arrested her attention. She went below with a heavier heart than
+ever before. She had not a word of hope to answer the languid, inquiring
+countenances that were turned to her face, and she was conscious that
+it told the story of her despair. Yet she strove with some half-insane
+words to suggest that somebody would surely come to them that day.
+Another would be too late, and the pity of men's hearts and the mercy
+of God would surely bring them. The pallor of death seemed already to be
+stealing over the sunken countenances that surrounded her, and, weak as
+she was, she could remain below but a few minutes together. She felt
+she could have died had she let go her resolution at any time within the
+last forty-eight hours. They repeated the Litany. The responses came so
+feebly that they were scarcely audible, and the protracted utterances
+seemed wearisome. At last it was over, and they rested in silence.
+
+The sun mounted high and higher in the heavens, and when the day was
+three or four hours old she placed her trembling feet again upon the
+ladder to look out once more. The corpses of the dead lay always before
+her as she reached the top-the mother and her son, and the little
+boy, whose remains she could not even glance at since they had been
+mutilated. The blanket that covered them could not shut out the horror
+of the sight.
+
+The rays of the sun fell on her with a friendly warmth, but she could
+not look into the light that flooded the white expanse. Her eyes lacked
+strength and steadiness, and she rested herself against a tree and
+endeavored to gather her wandering faculties in vain. The enfeebled
+will could no longer hold rule over them. She had broken perceptions,
+fragments of visions, contradictory and mixed-former mingled with latter
+times. Recollections of plenty and rural peace came up from her
+clear, tranquil childhood, which seemed to have been another state of
+existence; flashes of her latter life-its comfort and abundance-gleams
+of maternal pride in her children who had been growing up about her to
+ease and independence.
+
+She lived through all the phases which her simple life had ever worn,
+in the few moments of repose after the dizzy effort of ascending; as
+the thin blood left her whirling brain and returned to its shrunken
+channels, she grew more clearly conscious of the terrible present, and
+remembered the weary quest upon which she came. It was not the memory
+of thought, it was that of love, the old tugging at the heart that had
+never relaxed long enough to say, "Now I am done; I can bear no more!"
+The miserable ones down there--for them her wavering life came back; at
+thought of them she turned her face listlessly the way it had so often
+gazed. But this time something caused it to flush as if the blood, thin
+and cold as it was, would burst its vessels! What was it? Nothing
+that she saw, for her eyes were quite dimmed by the sudden access of
+excitement! It was the sound of voices! By a superhuman effort she kept
+herself from falling! Was it reality or delusion? She must at least
+live to know the truth. It came again and again. She grew calmer as
+she became more assured, and the first distinct words she heard uttered
+were, "There is Mrs. Breen alive yet, anyhow!" Three men were advancing
+toward her. She knew that now there would be no more starving. Death
+was repelled for this time from the precious little flock he had so long
+threatened, and she might offer up thanksgiving unchecked by the dreads
+and fears that had so long frozen her.
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII.
+
+
+
+     The Rescue
+     California Aroused
+     A Yerba Buena Newspaper
+     Tidings of Woe
+     A Cry of Distress
+     Noble Generosity
+     Subscriptions for the Donner Party
+     The First and Second Reliefs
+     Organization of the Third
+     The Dilemma
+     Voting to Abandon a Family
+     The Fatal Ayes
+     John Stark's Bravery
+     Carrying the Starved Children
+     A Plea for the Relief Party.
+
+
+
+Foster and Eddy, it will be remembered, were of the fifteen who composed
+the "Forlorn Hope." Foster was a man of strong, generous impulses, and
+great determination. His boy was at Donner Lake, and his wife's mother
+and brother. He hardly took time to rest and recruit his wasted strength
+before he began organizing a party to go to their rescue. His efforts
+were ably seconded by W. H. Eddy, whose wife and daughter had perished,
+but whose boy was still alive at the cabins.
+
+California was thoroughly aroused over tidings which had come from the
+mountains. It was difficult to get volunteers to undertake the journey
+over the Sierra, but horses, mules, provisions, and good wages were
+allowed all who would venture the perilous trip. The trouble with Mexico
+had caused many of the able-bodied citizens of California to enlist in
+the service. Hence it was that it was so difficult to organize relief
+parties.
+
+The following extracts are made from the California Star, a newspaper
+published at "Yerba Buena," as San Francisco was then called. They
+do justice to the sentiment of the people of California, and indicate
+something of the willingness of the pioneers to aid the Donner Party.
+From the Star of January 16, 1847, is taken the following article, which
+appeared as an editorial:
+
+"Emigrants on the Mountains."
+
+"It is probably not generally known to the people that there is now in
+the California mountains, in a most distressing situation, a party of
+emigrants from the United States, who were prevented from crossing the
+mountains by an early, heavy fall of snow. The party consists of about
+sixty persons--men, women, and children. They were almost entirely out
+of provisions when they reached the foot of the mountains, and but for
+the timely succor afforded them by Capt. J. A. Sutter, one of the most
+humane and liberal men in California, they must have all perished in a
+few days. Capt. Sutter, as soon as he ascertained their situation, sent
+five mules loaded with provisions to them. A second party was dispatched
+with provisions for them, but they found the mountains impassable in
+consequence of the snow. We hope that our citizens will do something for
+the relief of these unfortunate people."
+
+From the same source, under date of February 6, 1847, is taken the
+following:
+
+"Public Meeting."
+
+"It will be recollected that in a previous number of our paper, we
+called the attention of our citizens to the situation of a company of
+unfortunate emigrants now in the California mountains. For the purpose
+of making their situation more fully known to the people, and of
+adopting measures for their relief, a public meeting was called by the
+Honorable Washington A. Bartlett, alcalde of the town, on Wednesday
+evening last. The citizens generally attended, and in a very short time
+the sum of $800 was subscribed to purchase provisions, clothing, horses,
+and mules to bring the emigrants in. Committees were appointed to call
+on those who could not attend the meeting, and there is no doubt but
+that $500 or $600 more will be raised. This speaks well for Yerba
+Buena."
+
+One other extract is quoted from the Star of February 13, 1847:
+
+"Company Left."
+
+"A company of twenty men left here on Sunday last for the California
+mountains, with provisions, clothing, etc., for the suffering emigrants
+now there. The citizens of this place subscribed about $1,500 for their
+relief, which was expended for such articles as the emigrants would be
+most likely to need. Mr. Greenwood, an old mountaineer, went with the
+company as pilot. If it is possible to cross the mountains, they will
+get to the emigrants in time to save them."
+
+These three articles may aid the reader in better understanding what has
+heretofore been said about the organization of the relief parties.
+It will be remembered that James F. Reed and William McCutchen first
+procured animals and provisions from Capt. Sutter, attempted to cross
+the mountains, found the snow impassable, cached their provisions, and
+returned to the valleys. Reed, as described in his letter to the Rural
+Press, went to San Jose, Cal., and thence to Yerba Buena. McCutchen went
+to Napa and Sonoma, and awakened such an interest that a subscription of
+over $500 was subscribed for the emigrants, besides a number of
+horses and mules. Lieut. W. L. Maury and M. G. Vallejo headed this
+subscription, and $500 was promised to Greenwood if he succeeded in
+raising a company, and in piloting them over the mountains. In order
+to get men, Greenwood and McCutchen went to Yerba Buena, arriving there
+almost at the same time with Reed. The above notices chronicle the
+events which succeeded the announcement of their mission. The funds and
+supplies contributed were placed in charge of Lieut. Woodworth. This
+party set out immediately, and their journey has been described. They
+form the second relief party, because immediately upon the arrival of
+the seven who survived of the "Forlorn Hope," Capt. Tucker's party had
+been organized at Johnson's and Sutter's, and had reached Dormer Lake
+first.
+
+When Foster and Eddy attempted to form a relief party, they found the
+same difficulty in securing volunteers which others had encountered. It
+was such a terrible undertaking, that no man cared to risk his life in
+the expedition.
+
+Captain J. B. Hull, of the United States navy, and Commander of the
+Northern District of California, furnished Foster and Eddy with horses
+and provisions. Setting out from Johnson's ranch, they arrived at
+Woodworth's camp in the afternoon. During that very night two of Reed's
+men came to the camp, and brought news that Reed and a portion of his
+party were a short distance back in the mountains. When Reed and his
+companions were brought into camp, and it was ascertained that fourteen
+people had been left in the snow, without food, the third relief party
+was at once organized. The great danger and suffering endured by those
+who had composed the first and second relief parties, prevented men from
+volunteering. On this account greater honor is due those who determined
+to peril their lives to save the emigrants. Hiram Miller, although weak
+and exhausted with the fatigues and starvation he had just undergone in
+the second relief party, joined Messrs. Foster and Eddy. These three,
+with Wm. Thompson, John Stark, Howard Oakley, and Charles Stone, set
+out from Woodworth's camp the next morning after Reed's arrival. It was
+agreed that Stark, Oakley, and Stone were to remain with the sufferers
+at Starved Camp, supply them with food, and conduct them to Woodworth's
+camp. Foster, Eddy, Thompson, and Miller were to press forward to the
+relief of those at Donner Lake. The three men, therefore, whose voices
+reached Mrs. Breen, were Stark, Oakley, and Stone.
+
+When these members of the third relief party reached the deep, well-like
+cavity in which were the seven Breens, the three Graves children, and
+Mary Donner, a serious question arose. None of the eleven, except
+Mrs. Breen and John Breen, were able to walk. A storm appeared to be
+gathering upon the mountains, and the supply of provisions was very
+limited. The lonely situation, the weird, desolate surroundings,
+the appalling scenes at the camp, and above all, the danger of being
+overtaken by a snow-storm, filled the minds of Oakley and Stone with
+terror. When it was found that nine out of the eleven people must be
+carried over the snow, it is hardly to be wondered at that a proposition
+was made to leave a portion of the sufferers. It was proposed to take
+the three Graves children and Mary Donner. These four children would be
+quite a sufficient burden for the three men, considering the snow over
+which they must travel. The Breens, or at least such of them as could
+not walk, were to be abandoned. This was equivalent to leaving the
+father, mother, and five children, because the mother would not abandon
+any member of her family, and John, who alone could travel, was in a
+semi-lifeless condition. The members of the third relief party are said
+to have taken a vote upon the question. This scene is described in the
+manuscript of Hon. James F. Breen: "Those who were in favor of returning
+to the settlements, and leaving the Breens for a future relief party
+(which, under the circumstances, was equivalent to the death penalty),
+were to answer 'aye.' The question was put to each man by name, and as
+the names were called, the dreadful 'aye' responded. John Stark's name
+was the last one called, because he had, during the discussion of the
+question, strongly opposed the proposition for abandonment, and it was
+naturally supposed that when he found himself in so hopeless a minority
+he would surrender. When his name was called, he made no answer until
+some one said to him: 'Stark, won't you vote?' Stark, during all this
+proceeding of calling the roll, had stood apart from his companions with
+bowed head and folded arms. When he was thus directly appealed to, he
+answered quickly and decidedly: "No, gentlemen, I will not abandon these
+people. I am here on a mission of mercy, and I will not half do the
+work. You can all go if you want to, but I shall stay by these people
+while they and I live."
+
+It was nobly said. If the Breens had been left at Starved Camp, even
+until the return of Foster, Eddy, Miller, and Thompson from the lake,
+none would have ever reached the settlements. In continuation of the
+above narration, the following is taken from the manuscript of John
+Breen: "Stark was finally left alone. To his great bodily strength, and
+unexcelled courage, myself and others owe our lives. There was probably
+no other man in California at that time, who had the intelligence,
+determination, and what was absolutely necessary in that emergency, the
+immense physical powers of John Stark. He was as strong as two ordinary
+men. On his broad shoulders, he carried the provisions, most of the
+blankets, and most of the time some of the weaker children. In regard to
+this, he would laughingly say that he could carry them all, if there was
+room on his back, because they were so light from starvation."
+
+By every means in his power, Stark would cheer and encourage the poor
+sufferers. Frequently he would carry one or two ahead a little way, put
+them down, and return for the others. James F. Breen says: "I distinctly
+remember that myself and Jonathan Graves were both carried by Stark, on
+his back, the greater part of the journey." Others speak similarly.
+
+Regarding this brave man, Dr. J. C. Leonard has contributed much
+valuable information, from which is selected the following:
+
+"John Stark was born in 1817, in Wayne County, Indiana. His father,
+William Stark, came from Virginia, and was one of the first settlers of
+Kentucky, arriving there about the same time as Daniel Boone. He married
+a cousin of Daniel Boone, and they had a family of eight children. T.
+J. Stark, the oldest son, now lives at French Corral, Nevada County,
+California. John Stark, the younger brother, started from Monmouth
+County, Illinois, in the spring of 1846, but taking the Fort Hall road,
+reached California in safety. He was a powerfully built man, weighing
+two hundred and twenty pounds. He was sheriff of Napa County for six
+years, and in 1852 represented that county in the State Legislature.
+He died near Calistoga, in 1875, of heart disease. His death was
+instantaneous, and occurred while pitching hay from a wagon. He was the
+father of eleven children, six of whom, with his wife, are now living."
+
+Each one of the persons who were taken from Starved Camp by this man and
+his two companions, reached Sutter's Fort in safety. James F. Breen had
+his feet badly frozen, and afterwards burned while at the camp. No one
+had any hope that they could be saved, and when the party reached the
+fort, a doctor was sought to amputate them. None could be found, and
+kind nature effected a cure which a physician would have pronounced
+impossible.
+
+In concluding this chapter, it is quite appropriate to quote the
+following, written by J. F. Breen: "No one can attach blame to those
+who voted to leave part of the emigrants. It was a desperate case. Their
+idea was to save as many as possible, and they honestly believed that by
+attempting to save all, all would be lost. But this consideration--and
+the further one that Stark was an entire stranger to every one in the
+camps, not bound to them by any tie of blood or kindred, nor having
+any hope of reward, except the grand consciousness of doing a noble
+act--makes his conduct shine more lustrously in the eyes of every person
+who admires nature's true and only nobility."
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII.
+
+
+
+     Arrival of the Third Relief
+     The Living and the Dead
+     Captain George Donner Dying
+     Mrs. Murphy's Words
+     Foster and Eddy at the Lake
+     Tamsen Donner and her Children
+     A Fearful Struggle
+     The Husband's Wishes
+     Walking Fourteen Miles
+     Wifely Devotion
+     Choosing Death
+     The Night Journey
+     An Unparalleled Ordeal
+     An Honored Name
+     Three Little Waifs
+     "And Our Parents are Dead."
+
+
+
+Eddy, Foster, Thompson, and Miller passed Nicholas Clark and John
+Baptiste near the head of Donner Lake. These starving fugitives had
+journeyed thus far in their desperate effort to cross the mountains.
+Of all those encamped at Alder Creek the sole survivors now were George
+Donner, the captain of the Donner Party, and his faithful wife, Tamsen
+Donner. Under the snowdrifts which covered the valley, lay Jacob Donner,
+Elizabeth Donner, Lewis Donner, Samuel Donner, Samuel Shoemaker, Joseph
+Rhinehart, and James Smith. One more was soon to be added to the number.
+It was the man whose name had been given to the company; the only one
+who died of a lingering, painful disease. The injury of George Donner's
+hand had grown into a feverish, virulent ulceration, which must have
+partaken of the nature of erysipelas. At all events, mortification
+had set in, and when the third relief party arrived it had reached his
+shoulder. In a few hours at most he must die.
+
+Foster's party found that much suffering had occurred at Donner Lake
+during the tearful days which elapsed between Reed's departure and their
+own arrival. Mrs. Lavina Murphy had charge of her son, Simon Murphy,
+her grandchild, George Foster, of the child James Eddy, and of the three
+little Donner girls, Frances, Georgia, and Eliza. All dwelt in the
+same cabin, and with them was Lewis Keseberg. Foster and Eddy found
+all there, save their own children. They were both dead. Keseberg has
+generally been accused of the murder of little George Foster. Except
+Mrs. Murphy, the oldest of those who were with Keseberg was only nine
+years of age. All that the children know is that Keseberg took the child
+to bed with him one night, and that it was dead next morning. One of
+the little ones who survived--one whose memory has proven exceedingly
+truthful upon all points wherein her evidence could be possibly
+substantiated--and who is now Mrs. Georgia A. Babcock--gives the mildest
+version of this sad affair which has ever appeared in print. She denies
+the story, so often reiterated, that Keseberg took the child to bed
+with him and ate it up before morning; but writes the following: "In the
+morning the child was dead. Mrs. Murphy took it, sat down near the bed
+where my sister and myself were lying, laid the little one on her lap,
+and made remarks to other persons, accusing Keseberg of killing it.
+After a while he came, took it from her, and hung it up in sight, inside
+the cabin, on the wall."
+
+Foster, Eddy, Thompson, and Miller remained but a little while at the
+mountain camp. During this time Mr. Foster had no opportunity to talk
+with Mrs. Murphy save in Keseberg's presence. Afterwards, when the
+children told him of the suspicions expressed in their presence by
+Mrs. Murphy, Foster deeply regretted that he had not sought a private
+interview with her, for the purpose of learning the reasons for her
+belief.
+
+In the morning the relief party was to start back to the settlements.
+Eddy was to carry Georgia Donner; Thompson, Frances Donner; Miller,
+Eliza Donner; and Foster was to carry Simon Murphy. John Baptiste
+and Nicholas Clark remained at the head of Donner Lake, and were to
+accompany the party. This left Mr. and Mrs. Donner at Alder Creek, and
+Keseberg and Mrs. Murphy at the cabins. Mrs. Murphy had cared for her
+children and her grandchildren, and ministered to the wants of those
+around her, until she was sick, exhausted, and utterly helpless. She
+could not walk. She could scarcely rise from her bed. With all the
+tenderness of a son, Mr. Foster gave her such provisions as he could
+leave, procured her wood, and did whatever he was able to do to render
+her comfortable. He also promised to return speedily, and with such
+assistance that he could carry her over the summits to her children.
+
+The very afternoon that the third relief party reached the cabins, Simon
+Murphy discovered a woman wandering about in the snow as if lost. It
+proved to be Mrs. Tamsen Donner. She had wearily traveled over the deep
+snows from Alder Creek, as narrated in a previous chapter, to see her
+children, and, if necessary, to protect their lives. Oh! the joy and the
+pain of the meeting of those little ones and their mother. As they wound
+their arms about her neck, kissed her lips, laughed in her eyes, and
+twined their fingers in her hair, what a struggle must have been taking
+place in her soul. As the pleading, upturned faces of her babies begged
+her not to leave them, her very heart-strings must have been rent with
+agony. Well may the voice quiver or the hand tremble that attempts to
+portray the anguish of this mother during that farewell interview. From
+the very first moment, her resolution to return to her husband remained
+unshaken. The members of the relief party entreated her to go with her,
+children and save her own life. They urged that there could only be a
+few hours of life left in George Donner. This was so true that she once
+ventured the request that they remain until she could return to Alder
+Creek, and see if he were yet alive. The gathering storm-clouds, which
+had hovered over the summit for days, compelled them to refuse this
+request. An hour's delay might be fatal to all.
+
+George Donner knew that he was dying, and had frequently urged his wife
+to leave him, cross the mountains, and take care of her children. As
+she held her darlings in her arms, it required no prophetic vision to
+disclose pictures of sadness, of lonely childhood, of longing girlhood,
+of pillows wet with tears, if these three little waifs were left to
+wander friendless in California. She never expressed a belief that she
+would see that land of promise beyond the Sierra. Often had her calm,
+earnest voice told them of the future which awaited them, and so far as
+possible had she prepared them to meet that future without the counsel
+or sympathy of father or mother.
+
+The night-shadows, creeping through the shivering pines, warned her of
+the long, dreary way over which her tired feet must pass ere she
+reached her dying husband's side. She is said to have appeared strangely
+composed. The struggle was silent. The poor, bleeding heart brought not
+a single moan to the lips. It was a choice between life, hope, and her
+clinging babes, or a lonely vigil by a dying husband, and an unknown,
+shroudless death in the wintry mountains. Her husband was sixty-three;
+he was well stricken in years, and his life was fast ebbing away. If she
+returned through the frosty night-winds, over the crisp, freezing
+snow, she would travel fourteen miles that day. The strong, healthy men
+composing the relief parties frequently could travel but five or six
+miles in a day. If she made the journey, and found her husband was dead,
+she could have no hope of returning on the morrow. She had suffered too
+long from hunger and privation to hope to be able to return and overtake
+the relief party. It was certain life or certain death. On the side
+of the former was maternal love; on the side of the latter, wifely
+devotion. The whole wide range of history can not produce a parallel
+example of adherence to duty, and to the dictates of conjugal fidelity.
+With quick, convulsive pressure of her little ones to her heart; with a
+hasty, soul-throbbing kiss upon the lips of each; with a prayer that was
+stifled with a sob of agony, Tamsen Donner hurried away to her husband.
+Through the gathering darkness, past the shadowy sentinels of the
+forest, they watched with tearful eyes her retreating form. As if she
+dared not trust another sight of the little faces--as if to escape the
+pitiful wail of her darlings--she ran straight forward until out of
+sight and hearing. She never once looked back.
+
+There are mental struggles which so absorb the being and soul that
+physical terrors or tortures are unnoticed. Tamsen Donner's mind was
+passing through such an ordeal. The fires of Moloch, the dreadful
+suttee, were sacrifices which long religious education sanctioned,
+and in which the devotees perished amidst the plaudits of admiring
+multitudes. This woman had chosen a death of solitude, of hunger, of
+bitter cold, of pain-racked exhaustion, and was actuated by only the
+pure principles of wifely love. Already the death-damp was gathering on
+George Donner's brow. At the utmost, she could hope to do no more than
+smooth the pillow of the dying, tenderly clasp the fast-chilling hand,
+press farewell kisses upon the whitening lips, and finally close the
+dear, tired eyes. For this, only this, she was yielding life, the
+world, and her darling babes. Fitted by culture and refinement to be
+an ornament to society, qualified by education to rear her daughters to
+lives of honor and usefulness, how it must have wrung her heart to allow
+her little ones to go unprotected into a wilderness of strangers. But
+she could not leave her husband to die alone. Rather solitude, better
+death, than desert the father of her children. O, Land of the Sunset!
+let the memory of this wife's devotion be ever enshrined in the hearts
+of your faithful daughters! In tablets thus pure, engrave the name of
+Tamsen Donner.
+
+
+When the June sunshine gladdened the Sacramento Valley, three little
+barefooted girls walked here and there among the houses and tents
+of Sutter's Fort. They were scantily clothed, and one carried a thin
+blanket. At night they said their prayers, lay down in whatever tent
+they happened to be, and, folding the blanket about them, fell asleep in
+each other's arms. When they were hungry, they asked food of whomsoever
+they met. If any one inquired who they were, they answered as their
+mother had taught them: "We are the children of Mr. and Mrs. George
+Donner." But they added something they had learned since. It was, "And
+our parents are dead."
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX.
+
+
+
+     False Ideas about the Donner Party
+     Accused of Six Murders
+     Interviews with Lewis Keseberg
+     His Statement
+     An Educated German
+     A Predestined Fate
+     Keseberg's Lameness
+     Slanderous Reports
+     Covered with Snow
+     "Loathsome, Insipid, and Disgusting"
+     Longings toward Suicide
+     Tamsen Donner's Death
+     Going to Get the Treasure
+     Suspended over a Hidden Stream
+     "Where is Donner's Money?"
+     Extorting a Confession.
+
+
+
+Keseberg is one of the leading characters in the Donner Party.
+Usually, his part in the tragedy has been considered the entire story.
+Comparatively few people have understood that any except this one man
+ate human flesh, or was a witness of any scene of horror. He has been
+loathed, execrated, abhorred as a cannibal, a murderer, and a heartless
+fiend. In the various published sketches which have from time to time
+been given to the world, Lewis Keseberg has been charged with no less
+than six murders. His cannibalism has been denounced as arising from
+choice, as growing out of a depraved and perverted appetite, instead
+of being the result of necessity. On the fourth of April, 1879,
+this strange man granted an interview to the author, and in this and
+succeeding interviews he reluctantly made a statement which was reduced
+to writing. "What is the use," he would urge, "of my making a statement?
+People incline to believe the most horrible reports concerning a man,
+and they will not credit what I say in my own defense. My conscience
+is clear. I am an old man, and am calmly awaiting my death. God is my
+judge, and it long ago ceased to trouble me that people shunned and
+slandered me."
+
+Keseberg is six feet in height, is well proportioned, and weighs from
+one hundred and seventy-five to one hundred and eighty pounds. He is
+active, vigorous, and of an erect, manly carriage, despite his years and
+his many afflictions. He has clear blue eyes, regular features, light
+hair and beard, a distinct, rapid mode of enunciation, a loud voice, and
+a somewhat excited manner of speech. In conversing he looks one squarely
+and steadily in the eye, and appears like an honest, intelligent German.
+He speaks and writes German, French, Spanish, and English, and his
+selection of words proves him a scholar. His face generally wears a
+determined, almost fierce expression, but one is impressed with the
+thought that this appearance is caused by his habitually standing on the
+defensive as against his fellow-men. Since he has never before had an
+opportunity of speaking in his own defense, it is perhaps fitting that
+his statement should be given in his own language:
+
+"My name is Lewis Keseberg. I was born in the city of Berleburg,
+Province of Westphalia, in the Kingdom of Prussia, on the twenty-second
+of May, 1814. I am therefore almost sixty-three years of age. I was
+married June 22, 1842, came to the United States May 22, 1844, and
+emigrated to California in 1846 with the Donner Party. I never have
+made a statement concerning my connection with that Party to any one
+connected with the press. It is with the utmost horror that I revert
+to the scenes of suffering and unutterable misery endured during that
+journey. I have always endeavored to put away from me all thoughts or
+recollections of those terrible events. Time is the best physician, and
+would, I trusted, heal the wounds produced by those days of torture; yet
+my mind to-day recoils with undiminished horror as I endeavor to speak
+of this dreadful subject. Heretofore I have never attempted to refute
+the villainous slanders which have been circulated and published about
+me. I feel it my duty to make this statement, however, because I am
+convinced of your willingness to do justice to all who were concerned
+in that dreadful affair, and heretofore I have been treated with gross
+injustice.
+
+"If I believe in God Almighty having anything to do with the affairs of
+men, I believe that the misfortune which overtook the Donner Party, and
+the terrible part I was compelled to take in the great tragedy, were
+predestined. On the Hastings Cut-off we were twenty-eight days in going
+twenty-one miles. Difficulty and disaster hovered about us from the time
+we entered upon this cut-off."
+
+"One day, while we were traveling on Goose Creek, we saw so many wild
+geese that I took my shotgun and went hunting. Ordinarily I am not
+superstitious, but on this morning I felt an overwhelming sense of
+impending calamity. I mentioned my premonitions to Mrs. Murphy before
+starting on the hunt. Becoming excited with the sport, and eagerly
+watching the game, I stepped down a steep bank. Some willows had been
+burned off, and the short, sharp stubs were sticking up just where I
+stepped. I had on buckskin moccasins, and one of these stubs ran into
+the ball of my foot, between the bones and the toes. From this time,
+until we arrived at Donner Lake, I was unable to walk, or even to put
+my foot to the ground. The foot became greatly swollen and inflamed, and
+was exceedingly painful. One day, at Donner Lake, one of my companions,
+at my earnest request, lanced my foot on the top. It discharged freely,
+and some days afterwards, in washing it, I found a hard substance
+protruding from the wound, and obtaining a pair of forceps, succeeded in
+extracting a piece of the willow stub, one and a half inches in length.
+It had literally worked up through my foot. I mention this particularly,
+because I have been frequently accused of remaining at the Donner cabins
+from selfish or sinister motives, when in fact I was utterly unable to
+join the relief parties."
+
+It is proper to mention, in corroboration of Keseberg's statement
+regarding his lameness, that several of the survivors remembered,
+and had related the circumstance prior to the interview. It is a
+well-authenticated fact that he was very lame, and could not walk,
+yet, as a specimen of the abuse which has been heaped upon the man,
+a quotation is introduced from Thornton's "Oregon and California." In
+speaking of the departure of Foster and Eddy, Thornton says: "There
+were in camp Mrs. Murphy, Mr. and Mrs. Gorge Donner, and Keseberg--the
+latter, it was believed, having far more strength to travel than others
+who had arrived in the settlements. But he would not travel, for the
+reason, as was suspected, that he wished to remain behind for the
+purpose of obtaining the property and money of the dead." Keseberg's
+statement continues:
+
+"When we reached the lake, we lost our road, and owing to the depth of
+the snow on the mountains; were compelled to abandon our wagons, and
+pack our goods upon oxen. The cattle, unused to such burdens, caused
+great delay by 'bucking' and wallowing in the snow. There was also much
+confusion as to what articles should be taken and what abandoned. One
+wanted a box of tobacco carried along; another, a bale of calico, and
+some thing and some another. But for this delay we would have passed the
+summit and pressed forward to California. Owing to my lameness, I was
+placed on horseback, and my foot was tied up to the saddle in a sort of
+sling. Near evening we were close to the top of the dividing ridge. It
+was cold and chilly, and everybody was tired with the severe exertions
+of the day. Some of the emigrants sat down to rest, and declared they
+could go no further. I begged them for God's sake to get over the ridge
+before halting. Some one, however, set fire to a pitchy pine tree, and
+the flames soon ascended to its topmost branches. The women and children
+gathered about this fire to warm themselves. Meantime the oxen were
+rubbing off their packs against the trees. The weather looked very
+threatening, and I exhorted them to go on until the summit was reached.
+I foresaw the danger plainly and unmistakably. Only the strongest men,
+however, could go ahead and break the road, and it would have taken a
+determined man to induce the party to leave the fire. Had I been well,
+and been able to push ahead over the ridge, some, if not all, would have
+followed. As it was, all lay down on the snow, and from exhaustion were
+soon asleep. In the night, I felt something impeding my breath. A heavy
+weight seemed to be resting upon me. Springing up to a sitting posture,
+I found myself covered with freshly-fallen snow. The camp, the cattle,
+my companions, had all disappeared. All I could see was snow everywhere.
+I shouted at the top of my voice. Suddenly, here and there, all about
+me, heads popped up through the snow. The scene was not unlike what one
+might imagine at the resurrection, when people rise up out of the earth.
+The terror amounted to a panic. The mules were lost, the cattle strayed
+away, and our further progress rendered impossible. The rest you
+probably know. We returned to the lake, and prepared, as best we could,
+for the winter. I was unable to build a cabin, because of my lameness,
+and so erected a sort of brush shed against one side of Breen's cabin.
+
+"When Reed's relief party left the cabins, Mr. Reed left me a half
+teacupful of flour, and about half a pound of jerked beef. It was all
+he could give. Mrs. Murphy, who was left with me, because too weak and
+emaciated to walk, had no larger portion. Reed had no animosity toward
+me. He found me too weak to move. He washed me, combed my hair, and
+treated me kindly. Indeed, he had no cause to do otherwise. Some of my
+portion of the flour brought by Stanton from Sutter's Fort I gave
+to Reed's children, and thus saved their lives. When he left me, he
+promised to return in two weeks and carry me over the mountains. When
+this party left, I was not able to stand, much less to walk."
+
+"A heavy storm came on in a few days after the last relief party left.
+Mrs. George Donner had remained with her sick husband in their camp, six
+or seven miles away. Mrs. Murphy lived about a week after we were left
+alone. When my provisions gave out, I remained four days before I could
+taste human flesh. There was no other resort--it was that or death.
+My wife and child had gone on with the first relief party. I knew not
+whether they were living or dead. They were penniless and friendless
+in a strange land. For their sakes I must live, if not for my own. Mrs.
+Murphy was too weak to revive. The flesh of starved beings contains
+little nutriment. It is like feeding straw to horses. I can not describe
+the unutterable repugnance with which I tasted the first mouthful of
+flesh. There is an instinct in our nature that revolts at the thought of
+touching, much less eating, a corpse. It makes my blood curdle to think
+of it! It has been told that I boasted of my shame--said that I
+enjoyed this horrid food, and that I remarked that human flesh was more
+palatable than California beef. This is a falsehood. It is a horrible,
+revolting falsehood. This food was never otherwise than loathsome,
+insipid, and disgusting. For nearly two months I was alone in that
+dismal cabin. No one knows what occurred but myself--no living being
+ever before was told of the occurrences. Life was a burden. The horrors
+of one day succeeded those of the preceding. Five of my companions had
+died in my cabin, and their stark and ghastly bodies lay there day and
+night, seemingly gazing at me with their glazed and staring eyes. I was
+too weak to move them had I tried. The relief parties had not removed
+them. These parties had been too hurried, too horror-stricken at the
+sight, too fearful lest an hour's delay might cause them to share
+the same fate. I endured a thousand deaths. To have one's suffering
+prolonged inch by inch, to be deserted, forsaken, hopeless; to see
+that loathsome food ever before my eyes, was almost too much for human
+endurance. I am conversant with four different languages. I speak and
+write them with equal fluency; yet in all four I do not find words
+enough to express the horror I experienced during those two months, or
+what I still feel when memory reverts to the scene. Suicide would have
+been a relief, a happiness, a godsend! Many a time I had the muzzle of
+my pistol in my mouth and my finger on the trigger, but the faces of my
+helpless, dependent wife and child would rise up before me, and my hand
+would fall powerless. I was not the cause of my misfortunes, and God
+Almighty had provided only this one horrible way for me to subsist."
+
+Did you boil the flesh?
+
+"Yes! But to go into details--to relate the minutiae--is too agonizing!
+I can not do it! Imagination can supply these. The necessary mutilation
+of the bodies of those who had been my friends, rendered the ghastliness
+of my situation more frightful. When I could crawl about and my lame
+foot was partially recovered, I was chopping some wood one day and the
+ax glanced and cut off my heel. The piece of flesh grew back in time,
+but not in its former position, and my foot is maimed to this day.
+
+"A man, before he judges me, should be placed in a similar situation;
+but if he were, it is a thousand to one he would perish. A constitution
+of steel alone could endure the deprivation and misery. At this time I
+was living in the log-cabin with the fireplace. One night I was awakened
+by a scratching sound over my head. I started up in terror, and listened
+intently for the noise to be repeated. It came again. It was the wolves
+trying to get into the cabin to eat me and the dead bodies."
+
+"At midnight, one cold, bitter night, Mrs. George Donner came to my
+door. It was about two weeks after Reed had gone, and my loneliness
+was beginning to be unendurable. I was most happy to her the sound of a
+human voice. Her coming was like that of an angel from heaven. But she
+had not come to bear me company. Her husband had died in her arms. She
+had remained by his side until death came, and then had laid him out and
+hurried away. He died at nightfall, and she had traveled over the snow
+alone to my cabin. She was going, alone, across the mountains. She was
+going to start without food or guide. She kept saying, 'My children! I
+must see my children!' She feared he would not survive, and told me she
+had some money in her tent. It was too heavy for her to carry. She
+said, 'Mr. Keseberg, I confide this to your care.' She made me promise
+sacredly that I would get the money and take it to her children in
+case she perished and I survived. She declared she would start over the
+mountains in the morning. She said, 'I am bound to go to my children.'
+She seemed very cold, and her clothes were like ice. I think she had got
+in the creek in coming. She said she was very hungry, but refused the
+only food I could offer. She had never eaten the loathsome flesh. She
+finally lay down, and I spread a feather-bed and some blankets over her.
+In the morning she was dead. I think the hunger, the mental suffering,
+and the icy chill of the preceding night, caused her death. I have often
+been accused of taking her life. Before my God, I swear this is untrue!
+Do you think a man would be such a miscreant, such a damnable fiend,
+such a caricature on humanity, as to kill this lone woman? There were
+plenty of corpses lying around. He would only add one more corpse to the
+many!"
+
+"Oh! the days and weeks of horror which I passed in that camp! I had no
+hope of help or of being rescued, until I saw the green grass coming up
+by the spring on the hillside, and the wild geese coming to nibble it.
+The birds were coming back to their breeding grounds, and I felt that I
+could kill them for food. I had plenty of guns and ammunition in camp.
+I also had plenty of tobacco and a good meerschaum pipe, and almost the
+only solace I enjoyed was smoking. In my weak condition it took me two
+or three hours every day to get sufficient wood to keep my fire going."
+
+"Some time after Mrs. Donner's death, I thought I had gained sufficient
+strength to redeem the pledge I had made her before her death. I
+started to go to the camps at Alder Creek to get the money. I had a very
+difficult journey. The wagons of the Donners were loaded with tobacco,
+powder, caps, shoes, school-books, and dry-goods. This stock was very
+valuable, and had it reached California, would have been a fortune to
+the Donners. I searched carefully among the bales and bundles of goods,
+and found five-hundred and thirty-one dollars. Part of this sum was
+silver, part gold. The silver I buried at the foot of a pine tree, a
+little way from the camp. One of the lower branches of another tree
+reached down close to the ground, and appeared to point to the spot.
+I put the gold in my pocket, and started to return to my cabin. I had
+spent one night at the Donner tents. On my return I became lost. When it
+was nearly dark, in crossing a little flat, the snow suddenly gave way
+under my feet, and I sank down almost to my armpits. By means of the
+crust on top of the snow, I kept myself suspended by throwing out my
+arms. A stream of water flowed underneath the place over which I had
+been walking, and the snow had melted on the underside until it was not
+strong enough to support my weight. I could not touch bottom with my
+feet, and so could form no idea of the depth of the stream. By long and
+careful exertion I managed to draw myself backward and up on the snow.
+I then went around on the hillside, and continued my journey. At last,
+just at dark, completely exhausted and almost dead, I came in sight
+of the Graves cabin. I shall never forget my joy at sight of that
+log-cabin. I felt that I was no longer lost, and would at least have
+shelter. Some time after dark I reached my own cabin. My clothes were
+wet by getting in the creek, and the night was so cold that my garments
+were frozen into sheets of ice. I was so weary, and chilled, and numbed,
+that I did not build up a fire, or attempt to get anything to eat, but
+rolled myself up in the bed-clothes and tried to get warm. Nearly all
+night I lay there shivering with cold; and when I finally slept, I slept
+very soundly. I did not wake up until quite late the next morning. To
+my utter astonishment my camp was in the most inexplicable confusion. My
+trunks were broken open, and their contents were scattered everywhere.
+Everything about the cabin was torn up and thrown about the floor.
+My wife's jewelry, my cloak, my pistol and ammunition were missing. I
+supposed Indians had robbed my camp during my absence. Suddenly I was
+startled by the sound of human voices. I hurried up to the surface of
+the snow, and saw white men coming toward the cabin. I was overwhelmed
+with joy and gratitude at the prospect of my deliverance. I had suffered
+so much, and for so long a time, that I could scarcely believe my
+senses. Imagine my astonishment upon their arrival to be greeted, not
+with a 'good morning' or a kind word, but with the gruff, insolent
+demand, 'Where is Donner's money?'"
+
+"I told them they ought to give me something to eat, and that I would
+talk with them afterwards, but no, they insisted that I should tell them
+about Donner's money. I asked them who they were, and where they came
+from, but they replied by threatening to kill me if I did not give up
+the money. They threatened to hang or shoot me, and at last I told them
+I had promised Mrs. Donner that I would carry her money to her children,
+and I proposed to do so, unless shown some authority by which they had
+a better claim. This so exasperated them, that they acted as though they
+were going to kill me. I offered to let them bind me as a prisoner, and
+take me before the alcalde at Sutter's Fort, and I promised that I would
+then tell all I knew about the money. They would listen to nothing,
+however, and finally I told them where they would find the silver
+buried, and gave them the gold. After I had done this, they showed me a
+document from Alcalde Sinclair, by which they were to receive a certain
+proportion of all moneys and property which they rescued."
+
+The men spoken of by Keseberg, were the fourth relief party. Their names
+were, Captain Fallon, William M. Foster, John Rhodes, J. Foster, R. P.
+Tucker, E. Coffeemire, and--Keyser. William M. Foster had recrossed
+the mountains the second time, hoping to rescue his wife's mother, Mrs.
+Murphy. Alas! he found only her mutilated remains.
+
+
+
+Chapter XX.
+
+
+
+     Dates of the Rescues
+     Arrival of the Fourth Relief
+     A Scene Beggaring Description
+     The Wealth of the Donners
+     An Appeal to the Highest Court
+     A Dreadful Shock
+     Saved from a Grizzly Bear
+     A Trial for Slander
+     Keseberg Vindicated
+     Two Kettles of Human Blood
+     The Enmity of the Relief Party
+     "Born under an Evil Star"
+     "Stone Him! Stone Him!"
+     Fire and Flood
+     Keseberg's Reputation for Honesty
+     A Prisoner in his own House
+     The Most Miserable of Men
+
+
+
+December 16, 1846, the fifteen composing the "Forlorn Hope," left Donner
+Lake. January 17, 1847, as they reached Johnson's ranch; and February
+5th Capt. Tucker's party started to the assistance of the emigrants.
+This first relief arrived February 19th at the cabins; the second
+relief, or Reed's party, arrived March 1st; the third, or Foster's,
+about the middle of March; and the fourth, or Fallon's, on the
+seventeenth of April. Upon the arrival of Capt. Fallon's company, the
+sight presented at the cabins beggars all description. Capt. R. P.
+Tucker, now of Goleta, Santa Barbara County, Cal., endeavors, in his
+correspondence, to give a slight idea of the scene. Human bodies,
+terribly mutilated, legs, arms, skulls, and portions of remains, were
+scattered in every direction and strewn about the camp. Mr. Foster found
+Mrs. Murphy's body with one of her limbs sawed off, the saw still lying
+by her remains. It was such scenes as these which gave this party their
+first abhorrence for Keseberg. The man was nowhere to be seen, but a
+fresh track was discovered in the snow leading away from the cabins
+toward the Dormer tents. The party pressed forward to Alder Creek.
+Captain Tucker writes: "The dead bodies lay moldering around, being all
+that was left to tell the tale of sorrow. On my first trip we had cut
+down a large pine tree, and laid the goods of the Donners on this tree
+to dry in the sun. These goods lay there yet, with the exception of
+those which Reed's party had taken away."
+
+George Donner was wealthy. His wealth consisted not merely of goods, as
+many claim, but of a large amount of coin. Hiram Miller, of the relief
+parties, is authority for the statement that Mr. Donner owned a quarter
+section of land within the present city limits of Chicago. This land
+was sold for ten thousand dollars, shortly before Mr. Donner started for
+California. Mr. Allen Francis, who has been mentioned as the very best
+authority concerning this, family, camped with them on the evening
+of their first night's journey out of Springfield, Illinois, saw Mr.
+Donner's money, and thinks there was ten thousand dollars. Mrs. F. E.
+Bond, of Elk Grove, Sacramento County, California, does not remember
+the exact amount, but knows that Mr. Donner started with a great deal of
+gold, because she helped make the belts in which it was to be carried in
+crossing the plains. The relief parties always understood there was at
+Donner's camp a large sum of money, estimated at from six to fourteen
+thousand dollars. It is not disputed that Halloran left about fifteen
+hundred dollars to this family. Yet Capt. Fallon's party could find no
+money. It was clear to their minds that some one had robbed the Donner
+tents.
+
+Remaining over night, thoroughly searching in every place where the
+supposed money could be concealed, this party returned to Donner Lake.
+On their way they found the same mysterious track, also returning to the
+cabins. They probably discovered Keseberg in about the manner described.
+It is plain to be seen that they regarded him as the murderer of Mrs.
+Donner. In forcing him to tell what he had done with the money, they,
+too, claim to have choked him, to have put a rope around his neck,
+and to have threatened to hang him. On the other hand, if Keseberg's
+statement be accepted as truth, it is easy to understand why he refused
+to surrender the money to men who treated him from the outset as a
+murderer and a robber.
+
+Let the God to whom Lewis Keseberg appeals be his judge. It is not the
+part of this book to condemn or acquit him. Most of the fourth relief
+party have already gone before the bar at which Keseberg asks to
+be tried. Capt. Tucker is about the only available witness, and his
+testimony is far more lenient than the rumors and falsehoods usually
+published.
+
+If Keseberg be guilty of any or of all crimes, it will presently be seen
+that the most revengeful being on earth could not ask that another drop
+be added to his cup of bitterness. His statement continues:
+
+"These men treated me with the greatest unkindness. Mr. Tucker was the
+only one who took my part or befriended me. When they started over
+the mountains, each man carried two bales of goods. They had silks,
+calicoes, and delames from the Donners, and other articles of great
+value. Each man would carry one bundle a little way, lay it down, and
+come back and get the other bundle. In this way they passed over the
+snow three times. I could not keep up with them because I was so weak,
+but managed to come up to their camp every night. One day I was dragging
+myself slowly along behind the party, when I came to a place which had
+evidently been used as a camping-ground by some of the previous parties.
+Feeling very tired, I thought it would be a good place to make some
+coffee. Kindling a fire, I filled my coffee-pot with fresh snow and sat
+waiting for it to melt and get hot. Happening to cast my eyes carelessly
+around, I discovered a little piece of calico protruding from the snow.
+Half thoughtlessly, half out of idle curiosity, I caught hold of the
+cloth, and finding it did not come readily, I gave it a strong pull. I
+had in my hands the body of my dead child Ada! She had been buried in
+the snow, which, melting down, had disclosed a portion of her clothing.
+I thought I should go frantic! It was the first intimation I had of her
+death, and it came with such a shock!"
+
+"Just as we were getting out of the snow, I happened to be sitting in
+camp alone one afternoon. The men were hunting, or attending to their
+goods. I was congratulating myself upon my escape from the mountains,
+when I was startled by a snuffling, growling noise, and looking up, I
+saw a large grizzly bear only a few feet away. I knew I was too weak to
+attempt to escape, and so remained where I sat, expecting every moment
+he would devour me. Suddenly there was the report of a gun, and the bear
+fell dead. Mr. Foster had discovered the animal, and slipping up close
+to camp, had killed it."
+
+When the party arrived at Sutter's Fort, they took no pains to conceal
+their feelings toward Keseberg. Some of the men openly accused him of
+Mrs. Donner's murder. Keseberg, at the suggestion of Captain Sutter,
+brought action against Captain Fallon, Ned Coffeemire, and the others,
+for slander. The case was tried before Alcalde Sinclair, and the jury
+gave Keseberg a verdict of one dollar damages. The old alcalde
+records are not in existence, but some of the survivors remember the
+circumstance, and Mrs. Samuel Kyburz, now of Clarksville, El Dorado
+County, was a witness at the trial. If Keseberg was able to vindicate
+himself in an action for slander against the evidence of all the
+party, it is clear that such evidence was not adduced as has frequently
+appeared in books. For instance, in Captain Fallon's report of this
+trip, he alleges that "in the cabin with Keseberg were found two kettles
+of human blood, in all supposed to be over one gallon." Had this been
+proven, no jury would have found for Keseberg. Fresh blood could not
+have been obtained from starved bodies, and had the blood been found,
+Keseberg would have been adjudged a murderer.
+
+Speaking upon this point, Keseberg denies the assertion that any blood
+was discovered, calls attention to the length of time Mrs. Donner had
+been dead, to the readiness with which blood coagulates, and adds that
+not a witness testified to such a circumstance at the trial. Why
+should Keseberg murder Mrs. Donner? If he wanted her money, it was
+only necessary to allow her to go out into the mountains alone, without
+provisions, without any one to point out the way, and perish in the
+trackless snows. She could not carry any considerable portion of her
+money with her, and he, had only to go back to Alder Creek and secure
+the treasure. He bears witness that she never tasted human flesh; that
+she would not partake of the food he offered; how reasonable, then, the
+story of her death. The fourth relief party expected to find a vast sum
+of money. One half was to be given them for their trouble. They regarded
+the man Keseberg as the murderer of George Foster, because of the
+reports given by the little children brought out by the third relief.
+The father of this child was with both the third and fourth reliefs.
+Arriving at the cabins, they were amazed and horrified at the dreadful
+sights. Hastening to the tents, they found no money. Their idea that
+Keseberg was a thief was confirmed by his disgorging the money when
+threatened with death. There was much reason for their hatred of the man
+who crossed the mountains with them, and this was intensified by their
+being brought before Alcalde Sinclair and proven slanderers. Out of
+this hatred has grown reports which time has magnified into the hideous
+falsehoods which greet the ear from all directions. Keseberg may be
+responsible for the death of Hardcoop, but urges in his defense that all
+were walking, even to the women and the children. He says Hardcoop was
+not missed until evening, and that it was supposed the old man
+would catch up with the train during the night. The terrible dangers
+surrounding the company, the extreme lateness of the season, the
+weakness of the oxen, and the constant fear of lurking, hostile
+Indians, prevented him or any one else from going back. Keseberg may be
+responsible for the death of Wolfinger, of George Foster, of James Eddy,
+of Mrs. Murphy, and of Mrs. Tamsen Donner, but the most careful searcher
+for evidence can not find the slightest trace of proofs. In his own
+mournful language, he comes near the truth when he says:
+
+"I have been born under an evil star! Fate, misfortune, bad luck,
+compelled me to remain at Donner Lake. If God would decree that I should
+again pass through such an ordeal, I could not do otherwise than I did.
+My conscience is free from reproach. Yet that camp has been the one
+burden of my life. Wherever I have gone, people have cried, 'Stone him!
+stone him!' Even the little children in the streets have mocked me and
+thrown stones at me as I passed. Only a man conscious of his innocence,
+and clear in the sight of God, would not have succumbed to the terrible
+things which have been said of me--would not have committed suicide!
+Mortification, disgrace, disaster, and unheard-of misfortune have
+followed and overwhelmed me. I often think that the Almighty has singled
+me out, among all the men on the face of the earth, in order to see how
+much hardship, suffering, and misery a human being can bear!"
+
+"Soon after my arrival at the Fort, I took charge of the schooner
+Sacramento, and conveyed wheat from Sacramento to San Francisco, in
+payment of Capt. Sutter's purchase of the Russian possessions. I worked
+seven months for Sutter; but, although he was kind to me, I did not get
+my money. I then went to Sonoma, and worked about the same length of
+time for Gen. Vallejo. I had a good position and good prospects, but
+left for the gold mines. Soon afterward I was taken sick, and for
+eight months was an invalid. I then went to Sutter's Fort and started a
+boarding-house. I made money rapidly. After a time I built a house south
+of the Fort, which cost ten thousand dollars. In 1851 I purchased the
+Lady Adams hotel, in Sacramento. It was a valuable property, and I
+finally sold it at auction for a large sum of money. This money was
+to be paid the next day. The deeds had already passed. That night the
+terrible fire of 1852 occurred, and not only swept away the hotel, but
+ruined the purchaser, so that I could not collect one cent. I went
+back to Sutter's Fort and started the Phoenix Brewery. I succeeded, and
+acquired considerable property. I finally sold out for fifty thousand
+dollars. I had concluded to take this money, go back to Germany, and
+live quietly the rest of my days. The purchaser went to San Francisco to
+draw the money. The sale was effected eight days before the great flood
+of 1861-2. The flood came, and I lost everything."
+
+Thus, throughout his entire career, have business reverses followed
+Lewis Keseberg. Several times he has been wealthy and honorably
+situated. At one time he was a partner of Sam. Brannan, in a mammoth
+distillery at Calistoga; and Mr. Brannan is one among many who speak in
+highest terms of his honesty, integrity, and business capacity. On the
+thirtieth of January, 1877, Phillipine Keseberg, his faithful wife,
+died. This was the severest loss of all, as will presently be seen.
+
+Eleven children were born to them, and four are now living. One of
+these, Lillie, now lives in Sacramento with her husband. Another,
+Paulina, a widow, resides in San Rafael. Bertha and Augusta live with
+the father at Brighton, Sacramento County. Both these children are
+hopelessly idiotic. Bertha is twenty-six years of age, and has never
+uttered an intelligible word. Augusta is fifteen years old, weighs
+two hundred and five pounds, and possesses only slight traces of
+intelligence. Teething spasms, occurring when they were about two years
+old, is the cause of their idiocy. Both are subject to frequent and
+violent spasms or epileptic fits. They need constant care and attention.
+Should Bertha's hand fall into the fire, she has not sufficient
+intelligence to withdraw it from the flames. Both are helpless as
+children. The State provides for insane, but not for idiots. Keseberg
+says a bill setting aside a ward in the State Asylum for his two
+children, passed the Legislature, but received a pocket veto by the
+Governor. Sacramento County gives them eighteen dollars a month. Their
+helplessness and violence render it impossible to keep any nurse in
+charge of them longer than a few days. Keseberg is very poor. He has
+employment for perhaps three months during the year. While his wife
+lived, she took care of these children; but now he has personally to
+watch over them and provide for their necessities. While at work, he
+is compelled to keep them locked in a room in the same building. They
+scream so loudly while going into the spasms that he can not dwell near
+other people. He therefore lives isolated, in a plain little house back
+of his brewery. Here he lives, the saddest, loneliest, most pitiable
+creature on the face of the earth. He traces all his misfortunes to that
+cabin on Donner Lake, and it is little wonder that he says: "I beg of
+you, insert in your book a fervent prayer to Almighty God that He will
+forever prevent the recurrence of a similar scene of horror."
+
+
+
+Chapter XXI.
+
+
+
+     Sketch of Gen. John A. Sutter
+     The Donner Party's Benefactor
+     The Least and Most that Earth can Bestow
+     The Survivors' Request
+     His Birth and Parentage
+     Efforts to Reach California
+     New Helvetia
+     A Puny Army
+     Uninviting Isolation
+     Ross and Bodega
+     Unbounded Generosity
+     Sutter's Wealth
+     Effect of the Gold Fever
+     Wholesale Robbery
+     The Sobrante Decision
+     A "Genuine and Meritorious" Grant
+     Utter Ruin
+     Hock Farm
+     Gen. Sutter's Death
+     Mrs. E. P. Houghton's Tribute.
+
+
+
+Zealous in sending supplies and relief to the suffering Donner Party,
+earnest in providing shelter, clothing, and food to all who were
+rescued, Captain John A. Sutter merits more than a passing mention in
+this history. From the arrival of Stanton at Sutter's Fort with the
+tidings that a destitute emigrant train was en route for California
+until the return of the fourth relief party with Lewis Keseberg, Captain
+Sutter's time, wealth, and influence were enlisted in behalf of the
+party. Actuated only by motives of benevolence and humanity, he gave
+Stanton and the various relief parties full and free access to whatever
+he possessed, whether of money, provisions, clothing, mules, cattle,
+or guides. With all due deference to the generosity of Yerba Buena's
+citizens, and to the heroic endeavors of the noble men who risked their
+lives in rescuing the starving emigrants, it is but just and right that
+this warm-hearted philanthropist should be accorded the honor of being
+first among the benefactors of the Donner Party. His kindness did not
+cease with the arrival of the half-starved survivors at Sutter's Fort,
+but continued until all had found places of employment, and means of
+subsistence. Pitiful and unworthy is the reward which history can
+bestow upon such a noble character, yet since he never received any
+remuneration for his efforts and sacrifices, the reward of a noble name
+is the least and the most that earth can now bestow. In view of his
+good deeds, the survivors of the Donner Party have almost unanimously
+requested that a brief biographical sketch of the man be inserted in
+these pages.
+
+At midnight on the twenty-eighth of February (or first of March), 1803,
+John A. Sutter was born in the city of Baden. He was of Swiss parentage,
+and his father and mother, were of the Canton Berne. Educated in Baden,
+we find him at the age of thirty a captain in the French army. Filled
+with enthusiasm, energy, and love of adventure, his eyes turned toward
+America as his "land of promise," and in July, 1834, he arrived in New
+York. Again breaking away from the restraints of civilized life, he soon
+made his way to the then almost unknown regions west of the Mississippi.
+For some years he lived near St. Charles, in Missouri. At one time he
+entertained the idea of establishing a Swiss colony at this point,
+and was only prevented by the sinking of his vessel of supplies in the
+Mississippi River. During this time he accompanied an exploring party
+into the sultry, sand-covered wastes of New Mexico. Here he met hunters
+and trappers from California, and listened to tales of its beauty,
+fertility, and grandeur which awoke irresistible longings in his breast.
+In March, 1838, with Captain Tripp, of the American Fur Company, he
+traveled westward as far as the Rocky Mountains, and thence journeying
+with a small party of trappers, finally reached Fort Vancouver. Finding
+no land route to California, he embarked in a vessel belonging to
+the Hudson Bay Company, which was ready for a voyage to the Sandwich
+Islands. From Honolulu he thought there would be little difficulty
+in finding passage in a trading vessel for the Coast of California.
+Disappointed in this, he remained at the Islands some months, and
+finally shipped as supercargo of a ship bound for Sitka. In returning,
+the vessel entered the Bay of San Francisco, but was not allowed to
+land, and Monterey was reached before Sutter was permitted to set foot
+upon California soil. From Governor Alvarado he obtained the right
+of settling in the Sacramento Valley. After exploring the Sacramento,
+Feather, and American Rivers, finally, on the sixteenth of August, 1839,
+he landed near the present site of Sacramento City, and determined to
+permanently locate. Soon afterward he began the construction of the
+famous Sutter's Fort. He took possession of the surrounding country,
+naming it New Helvetia. One of the first difficulties to be overcome was
+the hostility of the Indian tribes who inhabited the Sacramento and San
+Joaquin valleys. Kindness and humane treatment were generally sufficient
+to cause these Indians to become his allies, yet in more than one
+instance he was obliged to resort to arms. Considering the size of his
+army, there is a sort of grim heroism in the fact that he successfully
+waged at times a defensive and at times an aggressive warfare. His
+entire army was composed of six white men, who had been collected from
+different parts of the world, and eight Kanakas.
+
+Dunbar, in describing Sutter's situation, says: "This portion of upper
+California, though fair to look upon, was peculiarly solitary and
+uninviting in its isolation and remoteness from civilization. There was
+not even one of those cattle ranches, which dotted the coast at long
+intervals, nearer to Sutter's locality than Suisun and Martinez, below
+the mouth of the Sacramento. The Indians of the Sacramento were known
+as 'Diggers.' The efforts of the Jesuit Fathers, so extensive on this
+continent, and so beneficial to the wild Indians wherever missions were
+established among them, never reached the wretched aborigines of the
+Sacramento country. The valley of the Sacramento had not yet become the
+pathway of emigrants from the East, and no civilized human being lived
+in this primitive and solitary region, or roamed over it, if we except a
+few trappers of the Hudson Bay Company."
+
+Out of this solitude and isolation, Sutter, as if with a magician's
+wand, brought forth wealth and evolved for himself a veritable little
+kingdom. Near the close of the year 1839, eight white men joined his
+colony, and in 1840 his numbers were increased by five others. About
+this time the Mokelumne Indians became troublesome, and were conquered.
+Other tribes were forced into submission, and Sutter was practically
+monarch of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The old pioneers speak with
+pride of the wonderful power he exerted over these Indians, teaching
+them the arts of civilization, forming them into military companies,
+drilling them in the use of firearms, teaching them to till the soil,
+and making them familiar with the rudiments of husbandry. The vast herds
+of cattle which in process of time he acquired, were tended and herded
+principally by these Indians, and the cannon which ultimately came into
+his possession were mounted upon the Fort, and in many instances were
+manned by these aborigines. Hides were sent to Yerba Buena, a trade
+in furs and supplies was established with the Hudson Bay Company,
+and considerable attention was given to mechanical and agricultural
+pursuits.
+
+In 1841, Sutter obtained grants from Governor Alvarado of the eleven
+leagues of land comprised in his New Helvetia, and soon afterwards
+negotiated a purchase of the Russian possessions known as "Ross and
+Bodega." By this purchase, Sutter acquired vast real and personal
+property, the latter including two thousand cattle, one thousand
+horses, fifty mules, and two thousand five hundred sheep. In 1845 Sutter
+acquired from Gov. Manuel Micheltorena the grant of the famous Sobrante,
+which comprised the surplus lands over the first eleven leagues included
+within the survey accompanying the Alvarado grant.
+
+As early as 1844 a great tide of emigration began flowing from the
+Eastern States toward California, a tide which, after the discovery of
+gold, became a deluge. Sutter's Fort became the great terminal point of
+emigration, and was far-famed for the generosity and open-heartedness
+of its owner. Relief and assistance were rendered so frequently and so
+abundantly to distressed emigrants, and aid and succor were so often
+sent over the Sierra to feeble or disabled trains, that Sutter's charity
+and generosity became proverbial. In the sunny hillslopes and smiling
+valleys, amidst the graceful groves and pleasant vineyards of this
+Golden State, it would be difficult to find localities where pioneers
+have not taught their children to love and bless the memory of the great
+benefactor of the pioneer days, John A. Sutter. With his commanding
+presence, his smiling face, his wealth, his power, and his liberality,
+he came to be regarded in those days as a very king among men. What he
+did for the Donner Party is but an instance of his unvarying kindness
+toward the needy and distressed. During this time he rendered important
+services to the United States, and notably in 1841, to the exploring
+expedition of Admiral Wilkes. The Peacock, a vessel belonging to the
+expedition, was lost on the Columbia bar, and a part of the expedition
+forces, sent overland in consequence, reached Sutter's Fort in
+a condition of extreme distress, and were relieved with princely
+hospitality. Later on he gave equally needed and equally generous relief
+to Colonel Fremont and his exploring party. When the war with Mexico
+came on, his aid and sympathy enabled Fremont to form a battalion from
+among those in Sutter's employ, and General Sherman's testimony is,
+"that to him (Sutter) more than any single person are we indebted for
+the conquest of California with all its treasures."
+
+In 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma, quoting
+again from Dunbar: "We find that Captain Sutter was the undisputed
+possessor of almost boundless tracts of land, including the former
+Russian possessions of Ross and Bodega, and the site of the present city
+of Sacramento. He had performed all the conditions of his land grants,
+built his fort, and completed many costly improvements. At an expense of
+twenty-five thousand dollars he had cut a millrace three miles long,
+and nearly finished a new flouring mill. He had expended ten thousand
+dollars in the erection of a saw-mill near Coloma; one thousand acres of
+virgin soil were laid down to wheat, promising a yield of forty thousand
+bushels, and extensive preparations had been made for other crops. He
+owned eight thousand cattle, two thousand horses and mules, two thousand
+sheep, and one thousand swine. He was the military commander of the
+district, Indian agent of the territory, and Alcalde by appointment of
+Commodore Stockton. Respected and honored by all, he was the great man
+of the country."
+
+Subsequently he was a member of the Constitutional Convention at
+Monterey, and was appointed Major General of militia. Would that the
+sketch of his life might end here; but, alas! there is a sad, sad
+closing to the chapter. This can not be told more briefly and eloquently
+than in the language of the writer already mentioned:
+
+"As soon as the discovery of gold was known, he was immediately deserted
+by all his mechanics and laborers, white, Kanaka, and Indian. The mills
+were abandoned, and became a dead loss. Labor could not be hired to
+plant, to mature the crops, or reap and gather the grain that ripened."
+
+"At an early period subsequent to the discovery, an immense emigration
+from overland poured into the Sacramento Valley, making Sutter's
+domains their camping-ground, without the least regard for the rights of
+property. They occupied his cultivated fields, and squatted all over
+his available lands, saying these were the unappropriated domain of the
+United States, to which they had as good a right as any one. They stole
+and drove off his horses and mules, and exchanged or sold them in other
+parts of the country; they butchered his cattle, sheep, and hogs, and
+sold the meat. One party of five men, during the flood of 1849-50, when
+the cattle were surrounded by water, near the Sacramento river, killed
+and sold $60,000 worth of these--as it was estimated and left for the
+States. By the first of January, 1852, the so-called settlers, under
+pretense of pre-emption claims, had appropriated all Sutter's lands
+capable of settlement or appropriation, and had stolen all of his
+horses, mules, cattle, sheep, and hogs, except a small portion used and
+sold by himself."
+
+"There was no law to prevent this stupendous robbery; but when law
+was established, then came lawyers with it to advocate the squatters'
+pretensions, although there were none from any part of Christendom who
+had not heard of Sutter's grants, the peaceful and just possession of
+which he had enjoyed for ten years, and his improvements were visible to
+all."
+
+"Sutter's efforts to maintain his rights, and save even enough of his
+property to give him an economical, comfortable living, constitute a sad
+history, one that would of itself fill a volume of painful interest. In
+these efforts he became involved in continuous and expensive litigation,
+which was not terminated till the final decision of the Supreme Court
+in 1858-59, a period of ten years. When the United States Court of Land
+Commissioners was organized in California, Sutter's grants came up in
+due course for confirmation. These were the grant of eleven leagues,
+known as New Helvetia, and the grant of twenty-two leagues, known as the
+Sobrante. The land commissioners found these grants perfect. Not a flaw
+or defect could be discovered in either of them, and they were confirmed
+by the board, under the provisions of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo."
+
+"The squatter interest then appealed to the United States District
+Court for the Northern District of California. This court confirmed the
+decision of the land commissioners. Extraordinary as it may appear, the
+squatter interest then appealed both cases to the Supreme Court of the
+United States at Washington, and still more extraordinary to relate,
+that court, though it confirmed the eleven-league grant, decided that of
+the Sobrante--twenty-two leagues--in favor of the squatters. The court
+acknowledged that the grant was a "genuine and meritorious" one, and
+then decided in favor of the squatter interest on purely technical
+grounds."
+
+"Sutter's ruin was complete, and its method may be thus stated: He had
+been subjected to a very great outlay of money in the maintenance of his
+title, the occupancy and the improvement of the grant of New Helvetia.
+From a mass of interesting documents which I have been permitted to
+examine, I obtained the following statement relative to the expenses
+incurred on that grant:
+
+  Expenses in money, and services which formed the original
+     consideration of the grant                              $50,000
+  Surveys and taxes on the same                               50,000
+  Cost of litigation extending through ten years, including
+     fees to eminent counsel, witness fees, traveling
+     expenses, etc.                                          125,000
+  Amount paid out to make good the covenants of deeds upon
+     the grant, over and above what was received from sales  100,000
+                                                            ========
+                                                            $325,000
+
+"In addition, General Sutter had given titles to much of the Sobrante
+grant, under deeds of general warranty, which, after the decision of the
+supreme court of the United States in favor of the squatter interest,
+Sutter was obliged to make good, at an immense sacrifice, out of the New
+Helvetia grant; so that the confirmation of his title to this grant
+was comparatively of little advantage to him. Thus Sutter lost all his
+landed estate."
+
+"But amid the wreck and ruin that came upon him in cumulative degree,
+from year to year, Sutter managed to save, for a period, what is known
+as Hock farm, a very extensive and valuable estate on the Feather River.
+This estate he proposed to secure as a resting-place in his old age, and
+for the separate benefit of his wife and children, whom he had brought
+from Switzerland in 1852, having been separated from them eighteen
+years. Sutter's titles being generally discredited, his vast flocks and
+herds having dwindled to a few head, and his resources being all gone,
+he was no longer able to hire labor to work the farm; and as a final
+catastrophe, the farm mansion was totally destroyed by fire in 1865, and
+with it all General Sutter's valuable records of his pioneer life. As
+difficulties augmented, Hock farm became incumbered with mortgages, and
+ultimately it was swallowed up in the general ruin."
+
+For some years he received a small allowance from the State of
+California; but after a time this appropriation expired, and was never
+thereafter renewed. The later years of the pioneer's life were passed
+at Litiz, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and his time was devoted to
+endeavoring to obtain from Congress an appropriation of $50,000, as
+compensation for the expenditures he made for the relief of the early
+settlers of California. His death occurred at Washington, D. C., on
+the eighteenth day of June, 1880, and his remains were laid at rest in
+Litiz, Pennsylvania. The termination of this grand, heroic life, under
+circumstances of abject poverty and destitution, forms as strange and
+mournful a story as can be found in the annals of the present age.
+
+In concluding this chapter, it may not be inappropriate to quote from
+a private letter written by Mrs. S. O. Houghton, nee Eliza P. Donner,
+immediately after the General's death. It aptly illustrates the feeling
+entertained toward him by the members of the Donner Party. Writing from
+San Jose, she says:
+
+"I have been sad, oh! so sad, since tidings flashed across the continent
+telling the friends of General Sutter to mourn his loss. In tender and
+loving thought I have followed the remains to his home, have stood by
+his bier, touched his icy brow, and brushed back his snowy locks, and
+still it is hard for me to realize that he is dead; that he who in my
+childhood became my ideal of all that is generous, noble, and good; he
+who has ever awakened the warmest gratitude of my nature, is to be laid
+away in a distant land! But I must not yield to this mood longer.
+God has only harvested the ripe and golden grain. Nor has He left us
+comfortless, for recollection, memory's faithful messenger, will bring
+from her treasury records of deeds so noble, that the name of General
+Sutter will be stamped in the hearts of all people, so long as
+California has a history. Yes, his name will be written in letters of
+sunlight on Sierra's snowy mountain sides, will be traced on the clasps
+of gold which rivet the rocks of our State, and will be arched in
+transparent characters over the gate which guards our western tide. All
+who see this land of the sunset will read, and know, and love the name
+of John A. Sutter, who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and comforted
+the sorrowing children of California's pioneer days."
+
+
+
+Chapter XXII.
+
+
+
+     The Death List
+     The Forty-two Who Perished
+     Names of Those Saved
+     Forty-eight Survivors
+     Traversing Snow-Belt Five Times
+     Burying the Dead
+     An Appalling Spectacle
+     Tamsen Donner's Last Act of Devotion
+     A Remarkable Proposal
+     Twenty-six Present Survivors
+     McCutchen
+     Keseberg
+     The Graves Family
+     The Murphys
+     Naming Marysville
+     The Reeds
+     The Breens
+
+
+
+With the arrival of the emigrants at places of safety, this history
+properly closes. The members of the Donner Party were actively and
+intimately associated with all the early pioneer history of the State.
+The life of almost every one would furnish foundation for a most
+interesting biographical sketch. Ninety names were mentioned in the
+first chapter. Of these, forty-two perished. Mrs. Sarah Keyes, Halloran,
+John Snyder, Hardcoop, Wolfinger and William M. Pike did not live
+to reach the mountain camps. The first victim of starvation, Baylis
+Williams, died in the Reed cabin. About this time Jacob Donner, Samuel
+Shoemaker, Joseph Rhinehart and James Smith perished at Alder Creek. The
+five deaths last mentioned occurred within one week, about the middle
+of December. During the journey of the "Forlorn Hope," the fifteen were
+reduced to seven by the deaths of C. T. Stanton, F. W. Graves, Antoine,
+Patrick Dolan, Lemuel Murphy, Jay Fosdick, Lewis, and Salvador.
+Meantime, enrolled on the death-list at Donner Lake, were the names of
+Charles Burger, Lewis Keseberg, Jr., John Landrum Murphy, Margaret Eddy,
+Harriet McCutchen, Augustus Spitzer, Mrs. Eleanor Eddy, Milton Elliott,
+and Catherine Pike.
+
+During the journey of the first relief party Ada Keseberg, John Denton,
+and William Hook perished, and with the second relief party died Mrs.
+Elizabeth Graves, Isaac Donner, and F. W. Graves, Jr. About this time,
+at the tents, died Lewis Donner, Mrs. Elizabeth Donner, and Samuel
+Donner, George Foster and James Eddy. No deaths occurred in the party
+of the third relief; and no names are to be added to the fatal list save
+Mrs. Lavina Murphy, George Donner, and Mrs. Tamsen Donner.
+
+Out, of the Donner Party, forty-eight survived. Walter Herron reached
+California with James F. Reed, and did not return. Of the "Forlorn
+Hope," Mary A. Graves, Mrs. Sarah Fosdick, Mrs. Amanda M. McCutchen,
+Mrs. Harriet F. Pike, Mrs. S. A. C. Foster, William M. Foster, and W. H.
+Eddy lived. The two last mentioned returned and again braved the dangers
+which encompassed the emigrants. The first relief party rescued Mrs.
+Margaret W. Reed, Virginia E. Reed and James F. Reed, Jr., Elitha C.
+Donner, Leanna C. Donner, George Donner, Jr., Wm. G. Murphy, Mary M.
+Murphy, Naomi L. Pike, W. C. Graves, Eleanor Graves, Lovina Graves, Mrs.
+Phillipine Keseberg, Edward J. Breen, Simon P. Breen, Eliza Williams,
+Noah James, and Mrs. Wolfinger.
+
+The second relief succeeded in reaching the settlements with only
+Solomon Hook, Patty Reed, and Thomas K. Reed. With this party were its
+Captain, James F. Reed, and William McCutchen. Those who were brought to
+Starved Camp by the second relief, and saved by a portion of the third
+relief, were Patrick Breen, Mrs. Margaret Breen, John Breen, Patrick
+Breen, Jr., James F. Breen, Peter Breen, Isabella M. Breen, Nancy
+Graves, Jonathan Graves, Elizabeth Graves, and Mary M. Donner. The
+remainder of the third relief rescued Simon P. Murphy, Frances E.
+Donner, Georgia A. Donner, Eliza P. Donner, and John Baptiste. W. H.
+Eddy remained in the valleys after making this journey. Wm. M. Foster
+traversed the snow-belt no less than five times--once with the "Forlorn
+Hope," twice with the third relief, and twice with the fourth. The
+fourth relief rescued Lewis Keseberg.
+
+General Kearney visited the cabins at Donner Lake on the twenty-second
+of June, 1847. Edwin Bryant, the author of "What I Saw in California,"
+was with General Kearney, and says: "A halt was ordered for the purpose
+of collecting and interring the remains. Near the principal cabins I
+saw two bodies entire, with the exception that the abdomens had been cut
+open and the entrails extracted. Their flesh had been either wasted
+by famine or evaporated by exposure to the dry atmosphere, and they
+presented the appearance of mummies. Strewn around the cabins were
+dislocated and broken skulls (in some instances sawed asunder with care,
+for the purpose of extracting the brains), human skeletons, in short, in
+every variety of mutilation. A more revolting and appalling spectacle
+I never witnessed. The remains were, by an order of General Kearney,
+collected and buried under the superintendence of Major Swords. They
+were interred in a pit which had been dug in the center of one of the
+cabins for a cache. These melancholy duties to the dead being performed,
+the cabins, by order of Major Swords, were fired, and with everything
+surrounding them connected with this horrid and melancholy tragedy were
+consumed. The body of George Donner was found at his camp, about eight
+or ten miles distant, wrapped in a sheet. He was buried by a party of
+men detailed for that purpose."
+
+To carefully lay out her husband's body, and tenderly enfold it in a
+winding-sheet, was the last act of devotion to her husband which was
+performed by Tamsen Donner.
+
+With varying incidents and episodes, the immigrants all reached Sutter's
+Fort. One very attractive young lady received a proposal of marriage
+while doing her best to manage the rebellious mule on which she was
+riding. The would-be lover pleaded his case well, considering the
+adverse circumstances, but the young lady gave not her consent.
+
+Twenty-six, and possibly twenty-eight, out of the forty-eight survivors,
+are living to-day. Noah James is believed to be alive, and John
+Baptiste was living only a short time since, at Ukiah, Mendocino County,
+California. Besides these two, there are twenty-six whose residences
+are known. William McCutchen, who came from Jackson County, Missouri,
+is hale and strong, and is a highly-respected resident of San Jose,
+California. Mr. McCutchen is a native of Nashville, Tennessee, was about
+thirty years old at the time of the disaster, and has a clear, correct
+recollection of all that transpired. Lewis Keseberg's history has
+been pretty fully outlined in his statement. He resides in Brighton,
+Sacramento County, California.
+
+In May, 1847, Mary A. Graves married Edward Pile. He was murdered by
+a Spaniard in 1848, and this Spaniard was the first person hanged in
+California under the laws of the United States. In 1851 or 1852 Mrs.
+Pile married J. T. Clarke. Their children are: Robert F., born in 1852,
+who is married and living at White River, Tulare County Cal.; Mattie,
+born in 1854, and now the wife of P. Bequette, Jr., of Visalia: James
+Thomas, born in 1857; an infant, who died soon after birth; Belle, born
+in 1860, and died in 1871; Alexander R., born in 1865, and Daniel M.,
+born in 1872. Mrs. M. A. Clarke's address is White River, Tulare County,
+California.
+
+Eleanor Graves married William McDonnell about the first of September,
+1849. Their children are: Ann, born September, 1850; Charles, born in
+1852; Mary, born in 1855, married to Lester Green, January 2, 1878,
+and now living on the Sacramento River, about seventeen miles below the
+city; Lillie, born April 14, 1857, died in February, 1873; Franklin,
+born in 1860, died in March, 1873; Henry, born July, 1864; Eleanor, born
+July, 1868; Leslie, born October, 1872, died March, 1873; Louisa, born
+in 1878. Mrs. Eleanor McDonnell and family reside in Knights Valley,
+Sonoma County. Their address is Calistoga, California.
+
+Lovina Graves married John Cyrus June 5, 1856. Their children are: Henry
+E., born April 12, 1859; James W., born February 16, 1861; Mary A., born
+April 26, 1863; Sarah Grace, born December 11, 1866; and Rachel E., born
+January 27, 1873. Their address is Calistoga.
+
+Nancy Graves married Rev. R. W. Williamson in 1855. Their eldest,
+George, is an artist in Virginia City; Emily is teaching school in
+Knights Valley; Kate, Frederick, and Lydia Pearl are residing with their
+parents at Los Gatos, Santa Clara County, Cal.
+
+William C. Graves is a blacksmith, living at Calistoga. He visited
+Truckee this spring, examined the sites of the different cabins, and has
+rendered most valuable assistance in the preparation of this history.
+
+The Murphys have always been well and favorably known in the best
+society of California. Mrs. Harriet F. Pike was married at Sutter's
+Fort, in 1847, by Alcalde Sinclair, to M. C. Nye. Prior to the discovery
+of gold, they lived about three miles above Marysville, which, at this
+time, bore the name of Nye's Ranch. Mrs. Nye died in 1872, at Dalles,
+Oregon, and her remains were brought to Marysville and laid in the
+city cemetery. Naomi L. Pike was married, in 1865, to Dr. Mitchell, of
+Marysville, moved to Oregon, became a widow, and is now the wife of John
+L. Schenck. Her address is, The Dalles, Wasco County, Oregon.
+
+Mary M. Murphy was married, in 1848, to C. Covillaud, then of Nye's
+Ranch, Cal. In 1850 the city of Marysville was laid out, and was named
+in honor of Mrs. Mary Covillaud. After lives of distinguished honor,
+Mr. and Mrs. Covillaud died, but there are now living five of their
+children. Mary Ellen is married to a prominent stock dealer, of Dalles,
+Oregon; Charles J., a very bright and promising young man, is in the law
+office of his uncle, William G. Murphy; William P., Frank M., and Naomi
+S., are all living at Dalles, Oregon. William G. Murphy resided at
+Marysville until 1849, when he went east to receive an education. He
+graduated with high honors at the State University of Missouri. He was
+married in Tennessee, returned to the Pacific Coast in 1858, and in 1863
+was duly admitted a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of Nevada. He
+resided and practiced his profession at Virginia City until in the fall
+of 1866, when he returned to Marysville, Cal. He now holds the position
+of City Attorney, and has an excellent and remunerative practice. He has
+a beautiful and charming home, and his family consists of himself,
+his wife, and seven children. His eldest, Lulie T., was born in the
+Territory of Nevada, and his second child, Kate Nye, was born in
+Nevada subsequent to its admission as a State. William G., Jr., Charles
+Mitchell, Ernest, Harriet F., and Leander B. were born in Marysville.
+
+Simon P. Murphy went back to Tennessee, and married at his old home.
+He served in the Union army. He died in 1873, leaving a wife and five
+children.
+
+William M. Foster gave his name to Foster's Bar, on the Yuba River. He
+died in 1874, of cancer. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Foster, there
+are now living, Alice, born in 1848; Georgia, born in 1850; Will, born
+in 1852; Minnie, born in 1855; and Hattie, born in 1858. Mrs. S. A. C.
+Foster has been residing in San Francisco, but her present address is,
+care of her brother, Wm. G. Murphy, Marysville.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Reed settled with their family in San Jose, California.
+Mrs. Margaret Reed died on the twenty-fifth of November, 1861, and her
+husband, James F. Reed, on the twenty-fourth of July, 1874. They are
+buried side by side, their coffins touching. Mrs. Reed died with her
+entire family gathered about her bedside, and few death-bed scenes ever
+recorded were more peaceful. As she entered the dark waters, all about
+her seemed suddenly bright. She spoke of the light, and asked that the
+windows be darkened. The curtains were arranged by those about her, but
+a moment afterward she said, "Never mind; I see you can not shut out the
+bright light which I see." Looking up at the faces of her husband and
+children, she said very slowly, "I expect, when I die, I will die this
+way, just as if I was going to sleep. Wouldn't it be a blessing if I
+did?" The last words were uttered just as the soul took its flight.
+Thomas K. Reed and James F. Reed, Jr., reside in San Jose, Cal. The
+latter was married March 16, 1879, to Sarah Adams. Virginia E. Reed was
+married on the twenty-sixth of January, 1850, to J. M. Murphy. Their
+children's names are, Mary M., Lloyd M., Mattie H., John M., Virginia
+B., J. Ada, Dan James, Annie Mabel, and T. Stanley. Lloyd, Mattie, and
+Mabel are sleeping in Oak Hill Cemetery, at San Jose, Cal. Mary was
+married to P. McAran, June 28, 1869. Mr. McAran is one of the directors
+of the Hibernia Bank, and resides in San Francisco. John M. Murphy, Jr.,
+was married April 1, 1880, to Miss Hattie E. Watkins. Martha J. (Patty)
+Reed was married at Santa Cruz, Cal., December 25, 1856, to Mr. Frank
+Lewis. They had eight children: Kate, born October 6, 1857; Margaret B.,
+born June 6, 1860; Frank, born March 22, 1862; Mattie J., born April 6,
+1864; James Frazier, born August 31, 1866; a babe, born May 30, 1868,
+who died in infancy; Carrie E., born September 15, 1870; and Susan A.,
+born December 31, 1873. Mr. Lewis died June 18, 1876. Mrs. Lewis and her
+children reside at San Jose.
+
+Wm. H. Eddy married Mrs. F. Alfred, at Gilroy, California, in July,
+1848. They had three children: Eleanor P., James P., and Alonzo H.
+Eleanor married S. B. Anderson, in 1871, and resides in San Jose. James
+married in 1875, and with his wife and two children resides in San Jose.
+Alonzo is a physician in Monument, Colorado. In 1854, Mr. and Mrs. Eddy
+separated, and in 1856 he married Miss A. M. Pardee, of St. Louis. Mr.
+Eddy died December 24, 1859, at, Petaluma, California.
+
+Patrick Breen removed with his family from Sutter's Fort early in 1848,
+and permanently settled at the Mission of San Juan Bautista, in San
+Benito County, California. Mr. Breen, lived to see all his children grow
+to maturity and become happily established in life. On the twenty-first
+of December, 1868, he peacefully closed his eyes to this world,
+surrounded by every member of his family, all of whom he preceded to the
+tomb.
+
+All the surviving members of the Breen family are still residing at or
+near San Juan. John Breen married in 1852. His family, consisting of his
+wife and ten children, are all living. His children's names are:
+Lillie M., Edward P., John J., Thomas F., Adelaide A., Kate, Isabelle,
+Gertrude, Charlotte, and Ellen A. Breen. Edward J. Breen married, in
+1858. His wife died in 1862; leaving the following children: Eugene T.,
+Edward J., and John Roger. Patrick Breen, Jr., married in 1865; his wife
+is living, and their children are Mary, William, Peter, Eugene. Simon P.
+Breen married in 1867; his wife is living; their children are Geneva and
+Mary. James F. Breen, the present Superior Judge of San Benito County,
+married in 1870; his wife is living; their only surviving children are
+Margaret and Grace. Peter Breen died, unmarried, on July 3, 1870, by
+accidental death. Isabella M. Breen was married in 1869, to Thomas
+McMahon, and with her husband resides at Hollister, San Benito County.
+William M. Breen, whose portrait appears in the group of the Breen
+family, was born in San Juan in 1848, and was not of the Donner Party.
+He married in 1874, leaving a widow, and one child, Mary.
+
+Margaret Breen, the heroic woman, devoted wife, and faithful mother,
+had the satisfaction of living to see her infant family, for whose
+preservation she had struggled so hard and wrought so ceaselessly, grow
+to manhood and womanhood. In prosperity, as in adversity, she was ever
+good, kind, courageous, and "affable to the congregation of the Lord."
+She was always, self-reliant, and equal to the most trying emergencies;
+and yet, at all times, she had a deep and abiding faith in God, and
+firmly relied on the mercy and goodness of Him to whom she prayed so
+ardently and confidently in the heavy hours of her tribulation. The hope
+of her later years was that she might not be required to witness the
+death of any of her children; but it was willed differently, as two of
+them preceded her to the grave. April 13, 1874, ripe in years, loved
+by the poor, honored and respected by all for her virtues and her
+well-spent life, she quietly and peacefully passed from the midst of her
+sorrowing family to the other and better shore.
+
+The following lines from the pen of Miss Marcella A. Fitzgerald, the
+gifted poetess of Notre Dame Convent, San Jose, were published in the
+San Francisco Monitor, at the time of Mrs. Breen's death:
+
+
+                     In Memoriam.
+
+                  Mrs. Margaret Breen.
+
+     The spring's soft light, its tender, dreamy beauty
+        Veils all the land around us, and the dome
+     Of the blue skies is ringing with the music
+        Of birds that come to seek their summer home.
+
+     But one whose heart this beauty often gladdened
+        No more shall see the fragrant flowers expand;
+     For her no more of earth--but fairer portion
+        Is hers, the beauty of the Better Land;
+
+     The beauty of that land to which with yearning
+        Her true heart turned in faith and trust each day
+     The land whose hope a glorious bow of promise
+        Illumed her path across life's desert way.
+
+     A loving wife; a fond, devoted mother;
+        A friend who reckoned friendship not a name;
+     A woman who with, gentle influence brightened
+        The hearts of all who to her presence came.
+
+     A halo of good deeds her life surrounded;
+        Her crown of years was bright with deeds of love;
+     Hers was a gift of charity whose merits
+        A golden treasure waiteth her above.
+
+     Out of the wealth the Master gave unto her
+        She clothed the needy and the hungry fed;
+     The poor will mourn a true friend taken from them
+        Above her will the orphan's tear be shed.
+
+     The orphan's prayer, a prayer of power unbounded.
+        In grateful accents shall for her ascend,
+     And strength and consolation for her children
+        Down from the Savior's pitying heart descend;
+
+     For over death the Christian's faith doth triumph--
+        The crown of victory shines above the Cross;
+     Hers is the fadeless joy and ours the sorrow--
+        Hers is the gain and ours the bitter loss.
+
+     And while the hearts of kindred ache in sadness,
+        And gloom rests on her once fair home to-day,
+     As a true friend who mourns a loved one taken,
+        This simple wreath upon her grave I lay.
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIII.
+
+
+
+     The Orphan Children of George and Tamsen Donner
+     Sutter, the Philanthropist
+     "If Mother would Only Come!"
+     Christian and Mary Brunner
+     An Enchanting Home
+     "Can't You Keep Both of Us?"
+     Eliza Donner Crossing the Torrent
+     Earning a Silver Dollar
+     The Gold Excitement
+     Getting an Education
+     Elitha C. Donner, Leanna C. Donner, Frances E. Donner, Georgia A.
+        Donner, Eliza P. Donner.
+
+
+
+Unusual interest attaches to the three little orphan children mentioned
+in a preceding chapter. Frances, Georgia, and Eliza Donner reached
+Sutter's Fort in April, 1847. Here they met their two elder sisters,
+who, in charge of the first relief party, had arrived at the Fort a few
+weeks earlier. The three little girls were pitiable-looking objects as
+they gathered around the blazing fire, answering and asking questions
+respecting what had taken place since they parted with their sisters at
+their mountain cabins.
+
+Among the first to stretch forth a helping hand to clothe the needy
+children was that noble philanthropist, Capt. John A. Sutter. Other
+newly-found friends gave food from their scanty supplies, and the
+children would have been comfortable for a time, had not some pilfering
+hand taken all that had been given them. They were again obliged to ask
+for food of those whom they thought would give. As the weather became
+warmer it had a cheering influence over them. They forgot their wish
+for heavier clothing; but oftener repeated the more heartfelt one--"If
+mother would only come!"
+
+Those who have suffered bereavement under similar circumstances can
+understand how fully these little girls realized their situation when
+they were told that their mother was dead.
+
+Not long after it became known that their parents were dead, Georgia and
+Eliza enlisted the sympathies of a kindhearted Swiss couple, Christian
+and Mary Brunner, who lived a short distance from the Fort. Mrs. Brunner
+brought them bread, butter, eggs, and cheese, with the kind remark to
+those in whose hands she placed the articles: "These are for the little
+girls who called me grandma; but don't give them too much at a time." A
+few days later, upon inquiring of them how they liked what she brought,
+grandma was told they had not had anything, and was so surprised that
+she decided to take Georgia home with her for a week. Georgia was more
+delicate than her younger sister. Eliza was promised that she should be
+treated as kindly upon Georgia's return. The week passed, and Georgia
+returned, looking stronger. She told such wonderful stories about the
+many cows! lots of chickens! two sheep that would not let her pass
+unless she carried a big stick in sight! about the kindness grandma,
+grandpa, and Jacob, his brother, had shown to her, that it seemed to
+Eliza the time would never come when she and grandma were to start to
+that enchanting home! Such a week of pleasure! Who but that little girl
+could describe it! Grandma's bread and milk gave strength to her limbs
+and color to her cheeks. She chased the chickens, and drove the cows;
+she brought chips for grandma, rode the horse for Jacob, and sat upon
+grandpa's knee so cheerfully, that they began to feel as if she belonged
+to them. But her week had come to an end! Grandma, all dressed for a
+walk to the Fort, sought the little girl, who was busy at play, and
+said: "Come, Eliza, I hear that Georgia is sick, and I am going to take
+you back, and bring her in your place." The sweet little girl looked
+very grave for a moment, then glancing up with her large black eyes into
+that dear old face, she took courage, and asked, with the earnestness of
+an anxious child: "Grandma, can't you keep both of us?"
+
+This simple question provided a home for both until after Hiram Miller
+was appointed their guardian. He was intrusted with their money,
+obtained from Keseberg and from other sources. The little sisters were
+then again separated. Frances had found a home in Mrs. Reed's family.
+Georgia was to go with grandpa, who was about to remove to Sonoma.
+Eliza went to her eldest sister, who was now married and living on the
+Cosumnes River. Here she remained until winter. Then, hearing that Mr.
+Brunner's family and Georgia desired her return, she became so homesick
+that her sister consented to her going to them. Fortunately, they heard
+of two families who were to move to Sonoma in a very short time, and
+Eliza was placed in their charge. This journey was marked with many
+incidents which seemed marvelous to her child-mind. The one which
+impressed itself most forcibly occurred upon their arrival at the bank
+of the Sonoma River. She was told that Jacob would meet her here and
+take her to grandma's, and was delighted that her journey was so nearly
+over. Imagine her disappointment at finding the recent rains had raised
+the river until a torrent flowed between her and her anxious friends.
+For days Jacob sought the slowly-decreasing flood and called across
+the rushing stream to cheer the eager child. Finally, an Indian, who
+understood Jacob's wish, offered to carry her safely over for a silver
+dollar. Never did silver look brighter than that which Jacob held
+between his fingers, above his head, that sunny morning, to satisfy the
+Indian that his price would be paid when he and his charge reached the
+other bank.
+
+What a picture this scene presents to the mind! There is the Indian
+leading his gray pony to the river's side! He examines him carefully,
+and puts the blanket on more securely! He waits for the approaching
+child. How small she is--not five years old! How she trembles with
+dread as the swift current meets her eye! Yet she is anxious to go. One
+pleading look in the Indian's face, and she is ready. He mounts; she
+is placed behind him; her little arms are stretched tightly around his
+dusky form! He presses his elbows to his sides to made her more secure,
+and, by signs, warns her against loosening her grasp, or she, like the
+passing branches, will be the water's prey! They enter the stream. Oh
+how cold the water is! They reach the middle; her grasp is tighter, and
+she holds her breath with fear, for they are drifting with the current
+past where Jacob stands! But joy comes at last. They have crossed the
+river. There stands the pony, shaking the water from his sides. The
+Indian takes his dollar with a grunt of satisfaction, and Jacob catches
+up the little girl, mounts his horse, and hurries off to grandpa's,
+where grandma, Leanna, and Georgia are waiting to give her a warm
+welcome.
+
+Months passed pleasantly, but gradually changes occurred. The war with
+Mexico ended, and gold was discovered. All the men who were able to go,
+hurried off to the mines to make a fortune. The little girls gave up
+their plays, for grandma was not able to do all the work, and grandpa
+and Jacob were away. They spent seven years with Mr. and Mrs. Brunner,
+They were kindly treated, but their education was neglected. In 1854,
+their eldest sister, Elitha, and her husband, came to Sonoma, and
+offered them a home and an opportunity of attending school. This kind
+offer was accepted. For six years Eliza remained in Sacramento, in
+the family of her sister, Elitha. To her she was indebted for the
+opportunity she enjoyed of attending, for one year, with her sister
+Frances and afterwards Georgia, St. Catherine's Academy, at Benicia, and
+the public schools of Sacramento.
+
+Elitha C. Donner married Perry McCoon, who was subsequently killed by a
+runaway horse. On the eighth of December, 1853, Mrs. McCoon was married
+to Benj. W. Wilder. They reside on the Cosumnes River, a few miles from
+Elk Grove, Sacramento County, Cal., and have six children. Leanna C.
+Donner was married September 26, 1852, to John App. They now reside in
+Jamestown, Tuolumne County, Cal., and their family consists of Rebecca
+E., born February 9, 1854; John Q., born January 19, 1864; and Lucy E.,
+born August 12, 1868, who reside with their parents.
+
+Frances E. Donner was married November 24, 1858, to William R. Wilder,
+and now resides at Point of Timber, Contra Costa County, Cal. Their
+children are: Harriet, born August 24, 1859; James William, born May 30,
+1863; Frances Lillian, born July 17, 1867; Asaph, born May 7, 1870;
+and Susan Tamsen, born September 3, 1878. Georgia A. Donner was married
+November 4, 1863, to W. A. Babcock. Their family consists of Henry A.,
+born August 23, 1864; Frank B., born June 29, 1866; and Edith M., born
+August 24, 1868. Their address is Mountain View, Santa Clara County,
+Cal.
+
+Eliza P. Donner, on the tenth of October, 1861, was married to Sherman
+O. Houghton. Mr. Houghton was born in New York City, April 10, 1828,
+served in the Mexican war, was Mayor of San Jose in 1855 and 1856,
+represented California in the Forty-second and Forty-third Congress,
+and is at present a prominent member of the San Jose bar. Mr. and Mrs.
+Houghton have six children. The youngest living was born in Washington,
+D. C., at which city his family resided during the four years he served
+as member of Congress. Their children are: Eliza P., Sherman O., Clara
+H., Charles D., Francis J., and Stanley W. Their youngest born, Herbert
+S., died March 18, 1878, aged twenty months. Mary M. Donner, daughter of
+Jacob Donner, was adopted into the family of Mr. James F. Reed, in 1848.
+She continued a member of this family until her marriage with Hon. S.
+O. Houghton, of San Jose, August 23, 1859. June 21, 1860, Mrs. Mary M.
+Houghton died, leaving an infant daughter, Mary M., who is now a young
+lady, and a member of the family of Mr. and Mrs. Houghton.
+
+George Donner, Jr., son of Jacob Donner, married Miss Margaret J.
+Watson, June 8, 1862. Their children now living are: Mary E., Corn J.,
+George W., John C., Betty L., and Frank M. Albert, their eldest, died
+in 1869, and an infant son died in 1875. George Donner, Jr., died at
+Sebastopol, February 17, 1874. Mrs. Donner now lives with her children
+on their farm near Sebastopol, Sonoma County, California.
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIV.
+
+
+
+     Yerba Buena's Gift to George and Mary Donner
+     An Alcalde's Negligence
+     Mary Donner's Land Regranted
+     Squatters Jump George Donner's Land
+     A Characteristic Land Law Suit
+     Vexatious Litigation
+     Twice Appealed to Supreme Court, and Once to United States
+            Supreme Court
+     A Well taken Law Point
+     Mutilating Records
+     A Palpable Erasure
+     Relics of the Donner Party
+     Five Hundred Articles
+     Buried Thirty-two Years
+     Knives, Forks, Spoons
+     Pretty Porcelain
+     Identifying Chinaware
+     Beads and Arrow-heads
+     A Quaint Bridle Bit
+     Remarkable Action of Rust
+     A Flintlock Pistol
+     A Baby's Shoe
+     The Resting Place of the Dead
+     Vanishing Landmarks.
+
+
+
+Yerba Buena's citizens, shortly after the arrival of George and Mary
+Donner, contributed a fund for the purpose of purchasing for each of
+them a town lot. It happened that these lots were being then distributed
+among the residents of the town. Upon the petition of James F. Reed,
+a grant was made to George Donner of one hundred vara lot number
+thirty-nine, and the adjoining lot, number thirty-eight, was granted to
+Mary. The price of each lot was thirty-two dollars, and both were paid
+for out of the fund. The grants were both entered of record by the
+Alcalde, George Hyde. The grant made to George was signed by the
+Alcalde, but that made to Mary was, through inadvertence, not signed. A
+successor of Hyde, as Alcalde, regranted the lot of Mary Donner to one
+Ward, who discovered the omission of the Alcalde's name to her grant.
+This omission caused her to lose the lot. In 1851, a number of persons
+squatted on the lot of George Donner, and in 1854 brought suit against
+him in the United States Circuit Court to quiet their title. This suit
+was subsequently abandoned under the belief that George Donner was dead.
+In 1856, a suit was instituted by George Donner, through his guardian,
+to recover possession of the lot. Down to the spring of 1860, but little
+progress had been made toward recovering the possession of the lot from
+the squatters. The attorneys who had thus far conducted the litigation
+on behalf of George Donner, were greatly embarrassed because of their
+inability to fully prove the delivery of the grant to him, or to some
+one for him, the courts of the State having, from the first, litigation
+concerning similar grants, laid down and adhered to the rule that such
+grants did not take effect unless the original grant was delivered to
+the grantee. Such proof was therefore deemed indispensable.
+
+After such proofs upon this point as were accessible had been made,
+the proceedings had ceased, and for several months there had been no
+prospect of any further progress being made. During this time, one
+Yonti, who had undertaken to recover possession of the lot at his own
+expense for a share of it, had the management of the case, and had
+employed an attorney to conduct the litigation. Yontz became unable,
+pecuniarily, to proceed further with the case, and informed Donner
+of the fact, whereupon the latter induced his brother-in-law, S. O.
+Houghton, to attempt to prosecute his claim to some final result. Mr.
+Houghton applied to the court to be substituted as attorney in the case,
+but resistance was made by the attorney of Yontz, and the application
+was denied. Houghton then applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of
+mandate to compel the judge of the court before which the suit was
+pending, to order his substitution as attorney of record for Donner.
+This writ was granted by the Supreme Court, and in January, 1861, Mr.
+Houghton became the attorney of record. This suit had been brought
+by Green McMahon, who had been appointed Donner's guardian for that
+purpose, and after a full examination of the case, Mr. Houghton
+dismissed it, and immediately commenced another in the name of George
+Donner, who was then of age. In the following year, February, 1862, it
+was brought to trial before a jury, and after a contest which lasted ten
+days, a verdict was rendered in favor of Donner.
+
+The squatters appealed to the Supreme Court of the State where the
+verdict of the jury was set aside, a new trial ordered, and the case
+sent back for that purpose. This new trial was procured by means of an
+amendment of the law, regulating trials by jury in civil cases.
+This amendment was passed by the Legislature, at the instance of the
+squatters, after the verdict had been rendered. A new trial was had in
+1864, before a jury, and resulted in another verdict for Donner. The
+first trial had attracted much attention, and was frequently mentioned
+in the newspapers of San Francisco, and thus several persons who were
+present when the grant was made had their attention called to the
+controversy, and to the difficulty encountered in proving a delivery of
+the grant. They communicated to Donner the fact that it was delivered
+for him to William McDonald, the man with whom he lived at the time.
+They also narrated the circumstances attending the delivery of the
+grant. This information, however, came too late for the purposes of the
+trial. Prior to the second trial, the written testimony of all these
+witnesses was procured and in readiness for use when required, but it
+was never required. Mr. Houghton and the attorneys whom he had called
+upon to aid in the case, determined to rest its decision upon another
+ground. They concluded to insist that, as it was a grant issuing from
+the government through its instrument, the Alcalde, who was invested
+with authority for the purpose, no delivery of the grant was necessary,
+and that none was possible, as the entry on the record book of the
+Alcalde was the original, it bearing his official signature and being a
+public record of his official act. This was a bold attack upon the rule
+which the courts had long established to the contrary. After a full
+argument of the question at the second trial, the court sustained
+the view of the law taken by Mr. Houghton and his associates, and, on
+appeal, the decision was sustained by the Supreme Court of the State,
+and subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States,
+before which the question was carried by writ of error.
+
+Donner's attorneys adopted this course because, at the first trial, the
+squatters had produced the copy of the grant which had actually
+been issued and delivered. This they had obtained possession of and
+mutilated, and then had surreptitiously placed it in the office of the
+County Clerk of San Francisco, who was the custodian of the records of
+the office of the Alcaldes of San Francisco. Their purpose was to make
+it appear that it had never been signed or issued by the Alcalde, but
+had been transferred with the other papers and records of that office
+to the office of the County Clerk. This document was written on paper
+having the same watermarks as numerous other grants to other persons,
+admitted to be genuine, made about the same time as the grant to Donner.
+The body of this instrument was in the handwriting of the then clerk of
+the Alcalde, and the certificate that the Alcalde's fees had been
+paid bore the genuine signature of the clerk. There was, however, no
+signature or name where the signature of the Alcalde should have been;
+but there was, instead, a plain, palpable erasure, easily seen by
+holding the paper to the light.
+
+George Donner lived to see his property become very valuable, but the
+vexatious litigation above described was not terminated until after his
+death. Meantime, however, he sold his interest, receiving therefor a
+considerable sum of money.
+
+In conclusion it may be proper to speak of the many interesting relics
+which have recently been found under the former sites of the cabins
+of the Donner Party. When the last relief party left Donner Lake, all
+articles of minor value were left scattered here and there about the
+floors and dooryards. Soon afterward the tide of emigrant travel turned
+principally to other routes, and the Donner Lake road was comparatively
+deserted. Years passed, and the loose soil, the windblown dust, the
+grass and fallen leaves covered the articles from sight. It was twenty
+years before men began to search for the sites of the cabins, and to
+carry away little mementos of the mournful place. Nothing at this time
+remained in sight save a few charred logs, and a few score of tall,
+unsightly stumps. Even the old pioneers had great difficulty in pointing
+out the location of more than one or two of the cabins. After the
+preparation of this history began, the author induced several of the
+survivors to visit Donner Lake, and to assist in definitely determining
+the location and boundaries of the cabins. Digging in the earth which
+thirty-two years ago formed the cabin floors, the most interesting
+relics were found. A collection of over five hundred of these articles
+is in the author's possession. There are spoons which are bent and
+rust-eaten, some of which are partially without bowls, and some
+destitute of handles, the missing portions being vaguely shadowed in the
+rust-stained earth in which they were imbedded. Knives there are whose
+blades are mere skeleton outlines of what they formerly were, and which
+in some instances appear to be only thin scales of rust. The tines of
+the forks are sometimes pretty well preserved, sometimes almost entirely
+worn away by the action of rust.
+
+Among the relics found at the Breen cabin are numerous pieces of old
+porcelain, and chinaware. These fragments are readily distinguished
+by painted flowers, or unique designs enameled in red, blue, or purple
+colors upon the pure white ground-surface of the china-ware. This ware
+is celebrated for the durability of its glaze or enamel, which can not
+be scratched with a knife, and is not acted upon by vegetable acids. The
+relics unearthed were found at a depth of from one to six inches beneath
+the ground which formed the floor. A fragment of this ware, together
+with an old-fashioned gun-flint, was sent to Hon. James F. Breen, who
+wrote in reply:
+
+"The relics, piece of chinaware and gun-flint, are highly appreciated.
+The chinaware was at once recognized by my brother. In fact, there is
+one piece of the china set (a cream pitcher) still in the possession of
+my brother. The piece sent is recognizable by the decoration figures,
+which correspond exactly with those on the pitcher."
+
+There is less of the "ghastly" and "horrible" among the relics thus far
+discovered than would be supposed. There are many, like the beads and
+arrow-heads, which were evidently treasured by members of the party as
+relics or curiosities collected while crossing the plains. There are
+pieces of looking-glass which reflected the sunken, starved features
+of the emigrants. Among the porcelain are pieces of pretty cups and
+saucers, and dainty, expensive plates, which in those days were greatly
+prized. Bits of glassware, such as tumblers, vials, and dishes, are
+quite numerous. Bolts, nails, screws, nuts, chains, and portions of the
+wagon irons, are almost unrecognizable on account of the rust. The nails
+are wrought, and some of them look as if they might have been hammered
+out by the emigrants. One of these nails is so firmly imbedded in rust
+alongside a screw, that the two are inseparable. Metallic buttons are
+found well preserved, a sewing awl is quite plainly distinguishable, and
+an old-fashioned, quaint-looking bridle-bit retains much of its original
+form. Some of the more delicate and perishable articles present the
+somewhat remarkable appearance of having increased in size by the
+accumulations of rust and earth in which they are encased. This is
+especially the case with a darning-needle, which has increased its
+circumference in places nearly one half, while in other places it is
+eaten away until only a mere filament of steel remains. The sharp point
+of a curved sewing-awl has grown with rust until it is larger than the
+body of the awl. Several fish-hooks have been found, all more or less
+rust eaten. A brass pistol, single barreled, apparently a century old,
+was found under the Graves cabin, and near it was an old flint-lock.
+In the corner of the fire-place of the Reed cabin were found several
+bullets and number two shot. Gun-flints, ready for use or in a crude
+form, were found in each of the cabins.
+
+W. C. Graves visited the site of his father's cabin on the twenty-first
+of April, 1879, and many articles were dug up in his presence which he
+readily recognized. A large number of the leading citizens of Truckee
+were present, and assisted in searching for the relics. Among other
+things was a cooper's inshave, which belonged to his father, who was a
+cooper by trade. An iron wagon hammer was also immediately recognized
+as having been used in their wagon. A small tin box, whose close-fitting
+cover was hermetically sealed with rust, was found, and while it was
+being examined, one of the gentlemen, Mr. Frank Rabel, tapped it lightly
+with his knife-handle. The side of the box crushed as easily as if it
+had been an egg-shell. The wonderful fact connected with this relic,
+however, is that Mr. Graves said, before the box was crushed, that his
+mother kept oil of hemlock in this box, and that upon examination a
+distinct odor of oil of hemlock was found remaining in the box.
+
+A whetstone, or what might more properly be called an oil-stone, was
+discovered at the Breen cabin. On this stone were the initials "J. F.
+R.," which had evidently been cut into its surface with a knife-blade.
+Mrs. V. E. Murphy and Mrs. Frank Lewis, the daughters of James F. Reed,
+at once remembered this whetstone as having belonged to their father,
+and fully identified it upon examination.
+
+A great many pins have been found, most of which are the old-fashioned
+round-headed ones. A strange feature in regard to these pins is
+that although bright and clean, they crumble and break at almost the
+slightest touch. The metal of which they are made appears to be entirely
+decomposed. One of the most touching relics, in view of the sad, sad
+history, is the sole of an infant's shoe. The tiny babe who wore the
+shoe was probably among the number who perished of starvation.
+
+The big rock against which the Murphy cabin stood is half hidden by
+willows and by fallen tamaracks, whose branches are interlaced so as to
+form a perfect net-work above the place where the cabin stood. Under the
+floor of this cabin the remains of the poor victims are supposed to have
+been buried. Nature appears to have made every effort to conceal the
+spot. In addition to the bushes and the fallen trees there is a rank
+growth of marsh grass, whose rootlets extend far down in the soil, and
+firmly resist either shovel or spade. Until very late in the summer
+this mournful spot is still further protected by being inundated by the
+waters of Donner Creek. It is hardly necessary to remark that no relics
+have ever been found under the site of the Murphy cabin. The tall stumps
+which surround this rock, and the site of the Graves and Reed cabin, and
+which are particularly numerous around the site of the Donner tents at
+Alder Creek, are of themselves remarkable relics. Many of them were cut
+by persons who stood on the top of very deep snow. They are frequently
+ten, fifteen, and twenty feet in height. Time and the action of the
+elements have caused them to decay until, in some instances, a child's
+hand might cause them to totter and fall. In a few years more they all
+will have disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's History of the Donner Party, by C.F. McGlashan
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY ***
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