The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate

Eliza Poor Donner Houghton

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• Publié par: sheaf
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 40
• Langue: English
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Tragic Fate, by Eliza Poor Donner Houghton
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Title: The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate
Author: Eliza Poor Donner Houghton
Release Date: February 18, 2004 [EBook #11146]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DONNER EXPEDITION ***
Produced by Dave Morgan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE EXPEDITION OF THE DONNER
PARTY
AND ITS TRAGIC FATE
BY ELIZA P. DONNER HOUGHTONS. O. Houghton
Eliza P. Donner Houghton
PREFACE
Out of the sunshine and shadows of sixty-eight years come these personal
recollections of California—of the period when American civilization first
crossed its mountain heights and entered its overland gateways.
I seem to hear the tread of many feet, the lowing of many herds, and know
they are the re-echoing sounds of the sturdy pioneer home-seekers. Travel-stained and weary, yet triumphant and happy, most of them reach their various
destinations, and their trying experiences and valorous deeds are quietly
interwoven with the general history of the State.
Not so, however, the "Donner Party," of which my father was captain. Like
fated trains of other epochs whose privations, sufferings, and self-sacrifices
have added renown to colonization movements and served as danger signals
to later wayfarers, that party began its journey with song of hope, and within the
first milestone of the promised land ended it with a prayer for help. "Help for the
helpless in the storms of the Sierra Nevada Mountains!"
And I, a child then, scarcely four years of age, was too young to do more than
watch and suffer with other children the lesser privations of our snow-
beleaguered camp; and with them survive, because the fathers and mothers
hungered in order that the children might live.
Scenes of loving care and tenderness were emblazoned on my mind.
Scenes of anguish, pain, and dire distress were branded on my brain during
days, weeks, and months of famine,—famine which reduced the party from
eighty-one souls to forty-five survivors, before the heroic relief men from the
settlements could accomplish their mission of humanity.
Who better than survivors knew the heart-rending circumstances of life and
death in those mountain camps? Yet who can wonder that tenderest
recollections and keenest heartaches silenced their quivering lips for many
years; and left opportunities for false and sensational details to be spread by
morbid collectors of food for excitable brains, and for prolific historians who too
readily accepted exaggerated and unauthentic versions as true statements?
Who can wonder at my indignation and grief in little girlhood, when I was told
of acts of brutality, inhumanity, and cannibalism, attributed to those starved
parents, who in life had shared their last morsels of food with helpless
companions?
Who can wonder that I then resolved that, "When I grow to be a woman I
shall tell the story of my party so clearly that no one can doubt its truth"? Who
can doubt that my resolve has been ever kept fresh in mind, by eager research
for verification and by diligent communication with older survivors, and rescuers
sent to our relief, who answered my many questions and cleared my obscure
points?
And now, when blessed with the sunshine of peace and happiness, I am
finishing my work of filial love and duty to my party and the State of my
adoption, who can wonder that I find on my chain of remembrance countless
names marked, "forget me not"? Among the many to whom I became greatly
indebted in my young womanhood for valuable data and gracious
encouragement in my researches are General William Tecumseh Sherman,
General John A. Sutter, Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, Mrs. Jessie Benton Frémont,
Honorable Allen Francis, and C.F. McGlashan, author of the "History of the
Donner Party."
My fondest affection must ever cling to the dear, quaint old pioneer men and
women, whose hand-clasps were warmth and cheer, and whose givings were
like milk and honey to my desolate childhood. For each and all of them I have
full measure of gratitude, often pressed down, and now overflowing to their
sons and daughters, for, with keenest appreciation I learned that, on June 10,
1910, the order of Native Sons of the Golden West laid the corner stone of
"Donner Monument," on the old emigrant trail near the beautiful lake which
bears the party's name. There the Native Sons of the Golden West, aided by
the Native Daughters of the Golden West, propose to erect a memorial to all
overland California pioneers.
In a letter to me from Dr. C.W. Chapman, chairman of that monumentcommittee, is the following forceful paragraph:
"The Donner Party has been selected by us as the most typical and
as the most varied and comprehensive in its experiences of all the
trains that made these wonderful journeys of thousands of miles, so
unique in their daring, so brave, so worthy of the admiration of man."
ELIZA P. DONNER HOUGHTON.
Los Angeles, California,
September, 1911.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE PACIFIC COAST IN 1845—SPEECHES OF SENATOR BENTON AND
REPORT OF CAPT. FRÉMONT—MY FATHER AND HIS FAMILY—
INTEREST AWAKENED IN THE NEW TERRITORY—FORMATION OF THE
FIRST EMIGRANT PARTY FROM ILLINOIS TO CALIFORNIA—
PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY—THE START—ON THE
OUTSKIRTS OF CIVILIZATION
CHAPTER II
IN THE TERRITORY OF KANSAS—PRAIRIE SCHOONERS FROM SANTA
FÉ TO INDEPENDENCE, MO.—LIFE en route—THE BIG BLUE—CAMP
GOVERNMENT—THE Blue Rover
CHAPTER III
IN THE HAUNTS OF THE PAWNEES—LETTERS OF MRS. GEORGE
DONNER—HALT AT FORT BERNARD—SIOUX INDIANS AT FORT
LARAMIE
CHAPTER IV
FOURTH OF JULY IN AN EMIGRANT PARTY—OPEN LETTER OF
LANSFORD HASTINGS—GEORGE DONNER ELECTED CAPTAIN OF
PARTY BOUND FOR CALIFORNIA—ENTERING THE GREAT DESERT—
INSUFFICIENT SUPPLY OF FOOD—VOLUNTEERS COMMISSIONED BY
MY FATHER TO HASTEN TO SUTTER'S FORT FOR RELIEF
CHAPTER V
BEWILDERING GUIDE BOARD—SOUL-TRYING STRUGGLES—FIRST
SNOW—REED-SNYDER TRAGEDY—HARDCOOP'S FATE
CHAPTER VI
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS—WOLFINGER'S DISAPPEARANCE—
STANTON RETURNS WITH SUPPLIES FURNISHED BY CAPT. SUTTER—
DONNER WAGONS SEPARATED FROM TRAIN FOREVER—TERRIBLE
PIECE OF NEWS—FORCED INTO SHELTER AT DONNER LAKE—
DONNER CAMP ON PROSSER CREEK.
CHAPTER VII
SNOWBOUND—SCARCITY OF FOOD AT BOTH CAMPS—WATCHING
FOR RETURN OF MCCUTCHEN AND REED
CHAPTER VIII
ANOTHER STORM—FOUR DEATHS IN DONNER CAMP—FIELD MICE
USED FOR FOOD—CHANGED APPEARANCE OF THE STARVING—
SUNSHINE—DEPARTURE OF THE "FORLORN HOPE"—WATCHING FORRELIEF—IMPOSSIBLE TO DISTURB THE BODIES OF THE DEAD IN
DONNER CAMP—ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF FIRST RELIEF PARTY
CHAPTER IX
SUFFERINGS OF THE "FORLORN HOPE"—RESORT TO HUMAN FLESH
—"CAMP OF DEATH"—BOOTS CRISPED AND EATEN—DEER KILLED—
INDIAN Rancheria—THE "WHITE MAN'S HOME" AT LAST
CHAPTER X
RELIEF MEASURES INAUGURATED IN CALIFORNIA—DISTURBED
CONDITIONS BECAUSE OF MEXICAN WAR—GENEROUS
SUBSCRIPTIONS—THREE PARTIES ORGANIZE—"FIRST RELIEF,"
UNDER RACINE TUCKER; "SECOND RELIEF," UNDER REED AND
GREENWOOD; AND RELAY CAMP UNDER WOODWORTH—FIRST
RELIEF PARTY CROSSES SNOW-BELT AND REACHES DONNER LAKE
CHAPTER XI
WATCHING FOR THE SECOND RELIEF PARTY—"OLD NAVAJO"—LAST
FOOD IN CAMP
CHAPTER XII
ARRIVAL OF SECOND RELIEF, OR REED-GREENWOOD PARTY—FEW
SURVIVORS STRONG ENOUGH TO TRAVEL—WIFE'S CHOICE—
PARTINGS AT DONNER CAMP—MY TWO SISTERS AND I DESERTED—
DEPARTURE OF SECOND RELIEF PARTY
CHAPTER XIII
A FATEFUL CABIN—MRS. MURPHY GIVES MOTHERLY COMFORT—THE
GREAT STORM—HALF A BISCUIT—ARRIVAL OF THIRD RELIEF
—"WHERE IS MY BOY?"
CHAPTER XIV
THE QUEST OF TWO FATHERS—SECOND RELIEF IN DISTRESS—
THIRD RELIEF ORGANIZED AT WOODWORTH'S RELAY CAMP—
DIVIDES AND ONE HALF GOES TO SUCCOR SECOND RELIEF AND ITS
REFUGEES; AND THE OTHER HALF PROCEEDS TO DONNER LAKE—A
LAST FAREWELL—A WOMAN'S SACRIFICE
CHAPTER XV
SIMON MURPHY, FRANCES, GEORGIA, AND I TAKEN FROM THE LAKE
CABINS BY THE THIRD RELIEF—NO FOOD TO LEAVE—CROSSING THE
SNOW—REMNANT OF THE SECOND RELIEF OVERTAKEN—OUT OF
THE SNOW—INCIDENTS OF THE JOURNEY—JOHNSON'S RANCH—
THE SINCLAIR HOME—SUTTER'S FORT
CHAPTER XVI
ELITHA AND LEANNA—LIFE AT THE FORT—WATCHING THE COW
PATH—RETURN OF THE FALLON PARTY—KESEBERG BROUGHT IN
BY THEM—FATHER AND MOTHER DID NOT COME
CHAPTER XVII
ORPHANS—KESEBERG AND HIS ACCUSERS—SENSATIONAL