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| History of the Donner Party A Tragedy of the Sierra By C. F. McGlashan Truckee, Cal. Twelfth Edition A. Carlisle & Co., Printers San Francisco 1922 Copyrighted 1879 and 1880, by C. F. McGlashan. 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. |
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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 |
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