FREE ESSAY ON THE DONNER PARTY

THE DONNER PARTY

The Donner Party
It's one of the greatest tragedies of all time, yet few of us know the whole story. The
story is of the misled, inexperienced Donner Party. It is the story of eighty-one
emigrants who traveled in hopes of reaching the land of California. Forty-seven, whose
hopes were crushed by many contributing factors. The most horrible and misleading factor
of all was the human mind and its persistent need to explore and conquer everything,
whether within reach or not in the shortest and fastest way possible. This aspect of
taking the shortest route that led to the downfall, and in some cases, to death, of the
Donner Party. 
It was advertised as a new and shorter route west to California and saved pioneers 350 to
400. Unfortunately some crucial things weren't mentioned in this advertisement, one of
which was the fact that the new route had never been traveled upon; and two, that the
writer was a power hungry man whose only motive was to lure settlers into California
under his direction so he could establish the area as an independent republic. This route
was known as Hasting's Cutoff and was mentioned in Lansford W. Hasting's book, The
Emigrant's Guide to California and Oregon. Many pioneers eager to make their fortunes,
escape disease, or to satisfy their hankering for a new experience read this book and, I
might add, all as quickly as possible. Among the readers of the book was James Reed. 
James Frasier Reed was a business man who had made a small fortune in his Illinois
practice. He had logical reasons for moving to California. One, his wife, Margaret Reed,
suffered from horrible headaches and it was assumed that she would fare better in a nicer
climate and James Reed wanted more money. He felt that this could be accomplished in a
land as rich as California. Reed also had four children: Virginia, Martha, James, and
Thomas whom he wanted better lives for, and he believed this could be attained in
California. When James Frasier Reed first read the book he was blown away by the idea of
getting to California safely and quicker, he acted upon it and found others to travel
with him. Among these other travelers were the Donners, the Graves, the Breens, the
Murphys, the Eddys, the McCutcheons, the Kesebergs, and the Wolfingers. Thanks to an
advertisement in the Springfield, Illinois, Gazette, two Mexican boys, and a number of
bachelors. 
On April 16, 1846, the emigrants that would soon be named the Donner Party, loaded their
nine wagons and, departed from Springfield, Illinois. Their 2500 mile journey to San
Francisco would take them approximately four months and they would cross three mountain
ranges, deserts, plains, and rivers. Little did they know they would be the first ever to
travel this route. 
The party's first stop was Independence, Missouri, where they bought food and traded for
any necessities. When they left Independence on May 12, 1846, they were amidst a violent
thunderstorm. This storm soon ceased and they eventually reached the eastern bank of the
Big Blue River where they attempted to build ferries that would transport them and the
wagons to the other side. During this a two-day process, the Donner Party experienced its
first death. Margaret Reed's mother, Sarah Keyes, who had been suffering from
consumption, died at the river and was immediately buried there. On May 31, the last of
the wagons was ferried over the river, and the Donner Party was on its way again. 
On June 16, the party was two hundred miles from Fort Laramie and had traveled, so far,
without difficulty. Finally on June 27, one week behind schedule, they reached Fort
Laramie where Reed ran into an old friend from Illinois, James Clyman, and quickly
interrogated him about the new route. Clyman gave his honest opinion stating that the
road was barely possible on foot and would be impossible with wagons. He advised Reed to
take the regular wagon trail, not this new, false route, but Reed, too enchanted by the
idea of a shorter and briefer route, ignored Clyman's warning and embarked on the path to
Fort Bridger. 
On July 17, when the party was attempting to cross the Continental Divide, a man carrying
a letter from Lansford W. Hastings met them. The letter stated that Hastings would meet
the party at Fort Bridger and that he would personally take them over the pass. The party
was happy about this and continued on in good spirits. 
On July 20, they reached the Sandy River, which was the parting of the routes. It was
either Hasting's new cutoff or the normal, withered wagon path. The Donner Party went the
risky way towards Fort Bridger while all of the other wagons took the other route. This
was the point of no return. The Donner Party had sealed its fate with Lansford W.
Hastings and his new route to California. 
While on their way to Fort Bridger, the party decided to pick a leader, and though James
Reed was the obvious choice, some believed that he was too aristocratic, so they chose
Donner. One week after this they rolled into Fort Bridger where they were greeted with a
note from Lansford W. Hastings, not the man himself. The note said that he had left with
another group of emigrants and that they should follow and try to catch up. The Donner
Party spent four days at Fort Bridger and then they pressed on for the rest of what they
thought was a seven-week journey. 
On July 31, the party entered Hasting's cutoff and for the first week they made ten or
twelve miles a day, pretty good for a group of nine wagons. On August 6, the party came
to a halt. They had received another note from Hastings. It stated that the road was
impassable, they were four days behind the other party and Hastings wouldn't come back to
lead them. He wrote that they should take the other trail through the salt basin. The
party heeded this warning and turned off into the wilderness. They decided to tackle
Emigrant Canyon and due to this they barely made two miles a day. It took the party six
days to travel eight miles and when they discovered that some of their wagons would have
to be abandoned, morale sank to the deepest depths. Finally reached the Salt Lake Shore.
It had taken them one month, not one week as Hastings had claimed, to reach this shore,
and since they were tired of blaming Hastings, they blamed James Reed instead. 
On August 25, Luke Halloran, one of the young men traveling with the Donners died of
consumption. On August 30, the party began to cross the desert. They believed it would
only take them two days and two nights (according to Hastings). The desert sand was very
moist and deep and due to this, the wagons sank into the sand causing major delays for
the slow party. On the third day of desert travel the water ran out and Reed's oxen ran
away. When they finally emerged from the eighty-mile desert two days later they had lost
a total of thirty-two oxen and had to abandon one of the wagons. The desert had cost them
most of their desperately needed supplies. Since they couldn't get back to Fort Bridger,
two of the two young men traveling with the Donners, William McCutcheon and Charles
Stanton rode ahead to retrieve more supplies. 
On September 26, they reached the Humboldt River where Hasting's second cutoff met up
with the original. They had traveled extra 125 miles on that second route and cursed
Hastings for this extra mileage. The Donner Party would now have to travel the rest of
the way alone. Hastings had made it to Sutter's Fort with eighty other wagons in early
September and was no longer there to leave notes for them. The members of the Donner
Party were furious at this point. 
On October 5, this tension took its toll. Two wagons became entangled and John Snyder the
teamster of one wagon began whipping the oxen of the other. James Reed was infuriated and
ordered him to stop. When he wouldn't, Reed grabbed his knife and stabbed John Snyder in
the stomach. Snyder, died, and James Reed had to be protected by his family so no one
could harm him in retaliation for the death. His family, however, couldn't protect him.
He was to be banished, although Lewis Keseberg claimed hanging was the rightful
punishment for such a crime. Reed was last seen riding off towards the west. 
Another example of the harshness of the Donner party occurred on October 7, when Lewis
Keseberg turned Mr. Hardcoop, a Belgian traveling with him, out of his wagon. Mr.
Hardcoop went around knocking on the wagon doors, but no one would let him in. He was
last seen sitting by the roadside, unable to walk.
On October 12 another tragedy occurred. The Piute Indians killed twenty-one oxen with
poison tipped arrows, which made a grand total of one hundred animals dead on the trip. 
On October 16, they reached the Truckee River, the gateway to the Sierra Nevada. On
October 19, when their food source was completely wiped out, Stanton and McCutcheon
emerged leading seven mules loaded with food, two Indian guides, and news of a clear path
through the Sierra Nevada. On October 31, when they were 1,000 feet from the summit, the
Donner wagon broke, and when George Donner was fixing it he cut his hand. The party fell
greatly behind. 
While the rest of the party was waiting for the Donners to come, snow began to fall. The
party made a dash for the path, but by the time they had reached the midpoint, five new
feet of snow had already fallen. Stanton and the two Indians made it as far as the
summit, but could go no further. Hopeless, they retraced their steps to the lake to make
a winter camp. 
Meanwhile at Sutter's Fort, everyone, including James Reed who had stumbled into the fort
in late October, waited anxiously for the Donner Party. James Reed pressed Sutter for
horses and men to travel with him to rescue the party, and when this was granted he began
traveling towards the summit that the Donners intended to cross. Reed and his party,
however, had to turn back only twelve miles from the summit due to the horrid weather. It
was obvious, though no one wanted to admit It. that the Donner Party was on its own until
the snow cleared. 
Back at the lake, after two more attempts were made to get over the pass in the
twenty-foot snow pack, the Donner Party realized that they would be stuck until the snow
cleared, so they set up camp. The nine Breens slept in a small shack, the Eddys were also
in a small shack, the Murphys, the Fosters, and the Pikes all slept together, and the
Reeds, the Kesebergs, and the Graves all slept in different shacks. The two Donner
families, six miles away, huddled together near a small river. There were now twenty-one
men, fifteen women, thirty-five children and, six infants in the Donner party. 
On Thanksgiving, it began to snow again, and on November 29, the last of the oxen were
killed. On November 30, five more feet of snow fell, and they realized that any plans of
departure would have to be put off. Two days later the cattle were all killed (except
three or four), and the party began eating boiled hides, twigs, bones, bark, etc. On
December 15, Bails Williams died of malnutrition and realizing that something had to be
done before they all died, five men, nine women, and one child departed for the summit.
Eddie Graves was among those who left. He made snowshoes for the fifteen travelers, and
they each had six days of starvation rations. On the sixth day of travel the food ran
out. They were desperate for food. Some suggested drawing straws to decide who would be a
human sacrifice and provide food for the rest of the group. Patrick Dolan got the
smallest piece of paper, but no one had the heart to kill him. 
The party went three days without food, barely surviving the tornado winds. Antonio, a
Mexican teamster, and Frank Graves both died of starvation and hypothermia. Patrick Dolan
went crazy, slipped into a coma, and eventually died. While Lemuel Murphy, the twelve
year-old boy, just lay on the ground shuddering. Desperate and starving, the survivors
began to eat Patrick Dolan. The Indians would not engage in this act of cannibalism, and
left when they were told that many were planning to eat them after the others were
roasted. The party made sure that no one ate his or her kin by the labeling of the meat.
This small expedition was an obvious failure. 
Many died in the months at the lake. Among the dead were: Milt Donner, Jacob Donner,
Margaret Graves, Mr. Elliot, Mrs. Eddy, Sam Schumaker, Joseph Reinhart, and James Smith.
On New Year's another storm hit and many prayers were said. On January 17, 1847, a
bleeding skeleton of a man showed up at the Grave's door. It was William Eddy and the six
other survivors from the recent expedition. Only two out of the ten men survived, but all
five women lived through the journey. The seven survivors told their stories: Sarah
Fos*censored* told of the eating of her husband and the others talked about their
discovery of the two starved/dead Indians. They had endured twenty days in the wilderness
with no food but each other. 
Relief for the Donner party was being arranged at Sutter's Fort. On January 10, James
Reed rushed to San Francisco to obtain relief for his family and friends, but it was two
weeks before anyone agreed to come. On February 5, the first relief party left Johnson's
ranch, and the second, headed by James Reed, left two days later. On February 19, the
first party made up of seven freezing men, reached the lake. At first they thought that
it was deserted, but a ghostly figure of a woman soon appeared followed by anyone who was
able to move. 
The party found twelve emigrants dead and forty-eight who had either gone crazy or were
barely clinging to life. Only twenty-four individuals could leave with the first relief
party, and since no children had died in the Reed, Donner, or Breen families, they (the
Donners and the Breens) stayed behind along with eight others. The first relief party
left and during the party's voyage back to Sutter's Fort, two children died. Margaret
Reed and her children had been separated from their father for five months, and when the
first and second relief parties ran into each other, they were finally reunited. 
By February 26, the second relief party still hadn't come and the remaining survivors
began to eat dead human flesh. When the second relief party had finally come and gone,
the worst storm of the season occurred. Mrs. Graves and two Donner children died during
the journey to the fort and were eventually consumed. The party was stranded for two days
before the third relief party found them. The fourth party was stranded for one month due
to horrid storms, and when they finally reached the lake they found seven more survivors.
Among them was Lewis Keseberg who was found crazy with many half consumed bodies around
him. It took two months and four relief parties to rescue the entire surviving Donner
party. 
There were many statistics gathered from this horrid event. Two-thirds of the men in the
party perished, while two-thirds of the women and children lived. Forty-one individuals
died, and forty-six survived. The Donners suffered the most; everyone in their family
died, but the entire families of the Breens and the Reeds survived. The survivors of the
tragic Donner party went on to do various things. Some got married, others sought gold,
and one individual, Lewis Keseberg, opened a restaurant. 
It is human nature to want to blame an individual for the tragedies that occur in our
lives. Some blame power hungry Lansford W. Hastings for this tragedy. Others blame James
Reed for not heeding Clyman's warning about the deadly route, and others just plain blame
the weather for this horrible occurrence. Blame is an excuse that we have invented to
cover up our mistakes and in my opinion this was a vast mistake of the human mind. If we
weren't always so eager to take the easy or the short way, we would save ourselves
expansive amounts of trouble. It's funny how we learn the most valuable lessons from
tragedies such as this, but I guess that's just another example of our human nature.
Word Cited
King, Joseph A., The Donner Party 
New York: G. Braziller, 1972
McGlachan, C.F., History of the Donner Party
Ann Arbor University: Microfilms, 1966