The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate

The Expedition of the Donner
Party and its Tragic Fate

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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
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[Illustration: S.O. HOUGHTON]
THE EXPEDITION OF THE DONNER PARTY
AND ITS TRAGIC FATE

BY ELIZA P. DONNER HOUGHTON

[Illustration: 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