History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the SierraMcGlashan, C. F. (Charles Fayette)
History
History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra
McGlashan, C. F. (Charles Fayette)
Donner Party; Overland journeys to the Pacific
"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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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