USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The beginnings of San Francisco : from the expedition of Anza, 1774, to the city charter of April 15, 1850 : with biographical and other notes, Vol. II > Part 13
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The relief party determined to return on the twenty- second and would take such as were able to travel. To those who remained, they said other relief parties would soon come. The question was, who should go? George Donner had become helpless and his wife would not leave him, though urged to go. From the Donner camp came the two oldest daughters of George Donner: Elitha and Leana; George Donner, Jr., son of Jacob, and William Hook his step-son; Mrs. Wolfinger, and
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Noah James. Mrs. Jacob Donner's two little boys were not big enough to walk and the mother preferred to wait for a larger party to come for them. From the upper camp came Mrs. Reed, her daughter Virginia, and son, James F., Jr. Her two other children, Martha (8 years), and Thomas (3 years), started with the company but they had proceeded only two miles when Glover, of the relief party, told Mrs. Reed that they showed such signs of weakness it was not safe to allow them to go on and that he would take them back. The poor mother was frantic at having to send her little ones back to that dreadful camp, and Mr. Glover promised to return as soon as he arrived at Bear valley and bring Martha and Thomas over the mountains. To this the mother was obliged to consent. Two Murphy children, William G. and Mary M .; Naomi L. Pike; three Graves children, William C., Eleanor, and Lovina; Mrs. Keseburg and her baby girl, Ada; Edward and Simon Breen, children; Eliza Williams, and John Denton, twenty-one, all told, made up the number brought out by the first relief. The seven men constituting this party were: Reasin P. Tucker, captain, Aquila Glover, Riley S. Moultry, John Rhoads, David Rhoads, Edward Coffeemire, and Joseph Sells. When Mrs. Pike, whose husband had been accidentally killed at Truckee meadows, joined the forlorn hope, she left her two year old Naomi, and her infant Catherine, with her mother, Mrs. Murphy. Star- vation had dried her milk and she could no longer nurse the babe. The grandmother succeeded in keeping the infant alive until the arrival of the relief party by ad- ministering to it a little gruel made from coarse flour- a small quantity of which Mrs. Murphy had saved- mixed with snow water. On February 20th the baby died, and little Naomi was carried to her mother by John Rhoads, who bore her through the snow slung
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over his back in a blanket. Another of the men of the relief carried Mrs. Keseberg's baby, but the little one could not survive. She died on the evening of the first day out and was buried in the snow. The second day the company reached Summit valley. When camp was pitched John Denton was missed. John Rhoads went back and found him asleep on the snow, and with much exertion aroused and brought him into camp. He said it was impossible for him to travel another day, and on the morrow he gave out before proceeding very far. His companions built a fire for him and giving him such food as they could, left him. When Captain Tucker's party were going to Donner lake, they had left a portion of their provisions in Summit valley, tied up in a tree. They had found it difficult to carry all they had started with, and besides, thought it well to have something provided for their return should the famished emigrants eat all they carried in, which proved to be the case. The scanty allowances were all eaten, and when the party reached the cache they were horrified to find that wild animals, by gnawing the ropes by which the provi- sions had been suspended, had obtained and consumed all. Starvation now stared them in the face and they pushed on as rapidly as possible. On the twenty-seventh they were met by the second relief under James F. Reed, and being thus succored they reached Johnson's March 2d. In his diary Reed says: "Left camp (head of Bear valley) on a fine, hard snow and proceeded about four miles when we met the poor, unfortunate, starved people. As I met them scattered along the snow-trail, I distrib- uted some bread that I had baked last night. I gave in small quantities to each. Here I met my wife and two of my little children. Two of my children are still in the mountains. I cannot describe the death-like look all these people had. 'Bread'! Bread'! 'Bread'! 'Bread'!
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was the begging cry of every child and grown person. I gave all I dared to them and set out for the scene of desolation at the lake." At Bear valley another cache had been made and this was found unmolested. The utmost caution was taken to prevent the famished people from eating too much. One boy, William Hook, got at the provisions and ate until his hunger was satisfied and in the morning was found to be dying. Finding him past relief they left two of their company with him and continued on their way. Had it not been for the relief afforded by Reed many of the party must have perished.
Realizing the terrible situation of the emigrants Reed hurried on as fast as possible. On February 28th, he made fourteen miles through very soft snow, and on camping sent three of his men ahead who kept on through the night and camped for a short rest within two miles of the cabins, which they reached early in the morning. They found all alive and after feeding them went on to the Donner camp, where they arrived by noon. During the day Reed and the rest of the party came up.
On March 3d Reed started his return taking Mr. and Mrs. Breen and five children, which cleaned up the Breen family-two having gone with the first relief; his own two children, Isaac and Mary M., who had been living with the Breens; two children of Jacob Donner; Solomon Hook, Mrs. Jacob Donner's child by a former husband; and Mrs. Graves and her four remaining children, seven- teen in all. The relief party consisted of James F. Reed, Charles Cady, Charles Stone, Nicholas Clark, Joseph Gendreau, Mathew Dofar, John Turner, Hiram Miller, William McCutchen, and Brittan Greenwood. Many of the younger children had to be carried and all were so weak and emaciated that it was evident the journey would be a slow and painful one, and should a storm
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arise before they got over the mountains, the situation of the party would be extremely grave.
It was decided that Clark, Cady, and Stone should remain at the mountain camps to attend to the helpless sufferers, procure wood for them, and perform such other service as they might need, until the third relief, which, it was thought, would be sent at once, should arrive to bring in all that remained. The second day after the departure of the second relief, while Clark was absent following the tracks of a bear he had wounded, Stone and Cady concluded that it would be madness to remain in the mountains and be caught in the storm they saw coming. They deserted their post, therefore, and en- deavored to overtake Reed and his party. Clark, returning from an unsuccessful hunt late at night, found them gone. When Mrs. George Donner found that the men were going to leave, she persuaded them to take her three little girls, Frances, Georgia, and Eliza, with them over the mountains. She had previously offered five hundred dollars to any one who would take them safely over, and that, or perhaps more, was what induced the two men to undertake the charge. They took the children as far as Keseberg's cabin at the lake, and there left them.
When Clark awoke on the morning after his hunt, he found a fierce storm raging and the tent of Jacob Donner, where he was, literally buried in fresh snow. The storm lasted about a week. The snow was so deep that it was impossible to procure wood and during these terrible days and nights there was no fire in either of the tents. The food gave out the first day and the dreadful cold was rendered more intense by the pangs of hunger, while the wind blew like a hurricane, hurling great pines crashing to the ground about them. In the tent with Clark were Mrs. Jacob Donner, her son Lewis, and the
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Spanish boy, Juan Bautista. George Donner and his wife were in their tent and with them Jacob Donner's youngest son, Samuel.
When the storm cleared away Clark found himself starving like the rest. He had become one of the Donner party. As the storm was ending Lewis Donner died and was buried in the snow. Then Clark succeeded in killing a bear cub and the camp again had food. It had come too late for Mrs. Jacob Donner and her little Samuel. They died and were buried in the snow.
Clark now determined to leave the mountains, and dividing the bear meat with Mrs. George Donner, he started on his journey, accompanied by Juan Bautista.
The little band conducted by Reed had reached the lower end of Summit valley on the evening of the second day out, when the storm burst upon them with fury. All day the men of the relief had urged the party forward with the greatest possible speed, that they might get as near the settlements as they could before the storm caught them. Their provisions were exhausted and Reed sent Gendreau, Dofar, and Turner forward to a cache a few miles below Summit valley. They found the cache destroyed by wild animals and were pushing on for the next one, a few miles beyond, when they were caught by the storm and could neither proceed nor return.
In a bleak and desolate spot in the Summit valley Reed's party was forced to halt. The cold sleet-like snow beat upon them, and a fierce, penetrating wind seemed to freeze the marrow in their bones. With much difficulty they succeeded in building a fire, and the hungry, freezing immigrants crowded around it while Reed planted pine boughs in the snow and banked up the snow both within and without, forming, with the boughs, a wall to protect the party from the cruel wind. Warmed by the fire the
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others slept while Reed labored far into the night, perfect- ing his breastwork and keeping up the fire. At length the fire died down and the cold awakened Mrs. Breen. In an instant she aroused the camp. All were nearly frozen. The fire was renewed and Reed, who had been missed, was found lying unconscious upon the snow. He had fallen exhausted, and, overcome by the fatal drowsiness which proceeds death from freezing, would soon have passed beyond earthly help. They carried him to the fire and after two hours of vigorous rubbing he showed signs of returning consciousness. It was daybreak before he was fully restored.
For several days the storm continued in all its violence and it required the utmost exertions of Mccutchen and Miller to keep alive the fire. The other men, disheartened by this calamity, gave up in despair. Mrs. Graves died from exhaustion the first night in camp, and her death was followed by that of her little son, Franklin, and of the boy, Isaac Donner. The men of the second relief realized that unless they could get help all in the camp would starve. They could not carry all the children through the deep snow, but they determined to set out for the settlements and send back help. They accordingly started, taking with them Solomon Hook and Martha Reed, who could walk, while Hiram Miller carried little Thomas Reed in his arms.
The relief party which had started from Yerba Buena under command of Selim Woodworth reached Bear valley where they were encamped in the deep snow, when the advance of the second relief, Gendreau, Dofar, and Turner reached that point. These men had found food in the second cache, but instead of returning with it to the party they had undertaken to save, they satisfied their own hunger and pushed on for the settlements leaving the remnant of the provisions where it could be
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seen by Reed and his men. In Bear valley they came upon Woodworth's camp and two men, John Stark and Howard Oakley, started for the Reed camp and met Reed and his men coming out. They had been three days on the way from "starved camp" to Woodworth's, and were in a sad plight, with frozen feet and exhausted bodies. Cady and Stone, from Donner lake, overtook Reed on the second day from starved camp and accom- panied the party to Woodworth's.
Meanwhile in the desolate camp in Summit valley eleven unfortunates awaited the coming of a rescuing party. There was no food save a few seeds tied in bits of cloth, a lump of loaf sugar, saved for the babies, and a few teaspoons of tea. Patrick Breen, a feeble man, now worn to a skeleton, and his wife, Margaret, were the only adults; the rest were children, two being nursing infants-Mrs. Graves' Elizabeth, and Mrs. Breen's Isabella. Mrs. Breen waited upon all and attended to all. She fed the babies on snow water and sugar and when she found a child sunken and speechless she broke with her teeth a morsel of the sugar and put it between his lips. She watched by night as well as by day and all received her care. She gathered wood and kept up the fire, without which they could not live. The fire had melted the snow to a considerable depth and at length it was so far beneath them that they felt but little of its warmth. Mrs. Breen sent her son John down into the snow pit and he reported the fire on the bare earth, thirty feet below the surface of the snow. By great exertion she got all her helpless company down into the pit where they would be well sheltered and she constructed a kind of ladder from a tree top which enabled her to ascend and descend. Above, on the snow, lay the bodies of the dead, and to them Patrick Breen resorted for food. His wife would not touch it and declared she would die
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and see her children die rather than have her life or theirs preserved by such means. She never did eat of the bodies herself, and if the father gave to the children, it was without her consent or knowledge. Eight days had passed since Reed and his men left. It seemed as if the very limit of human endurance had been reached. On the morning of the ninth day Mrs. Breen ascended to the surface for her daily supply of wood and to look, as she crawled from tree to tree, for the help that did not come. She felt that if succor did not arrive that day, it would come too late. She descended to the helpless ones and together they repeated the Litany. Then after a rest she again climbed out of the pit to resume her watch for the coming of relief. She was so faint and weak from starvation and from the effort of ascending that her brain whirled and it required all her power to control her own wavering life; but she thought of the miserable ones in the pit who had only her to depend on and she grew steadier. She thought she heard sound of voices, but could see nothing for her eyes were dimmed by the sudden excitement. It must be a delusion of her overtaxed brain. Then the sounds came again, and she heard the words, "There is Mrs. Breen alive yet anyhow." The relief had come.
When Reed and his party had been brought into Woodworth's camp in Bear valley and had been told of the fourteen unfortunates left behind without food, the third relief was at once organized. So dreadful was the condition of the members of the first and second relief parties, that men hesitated to expose themselves to the danger of such frightful suffering. At Yerba Buena, Foster and Eddy, survivors of the forlorn hope, had endeavored to form a relief party, but were unable to obtain volunteers. They set out, therefore, on the trail of Woodworth's party and arrived at his camp the day
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Reed's advance party came in. When Reed's story was told, Foster and Eddy, joined by Hiram Miller, proposed to start at once, and with William Thompson, John Stark, Howard Oakley, and Charles Stone, set out from Woodworth's camp. It was arranged that Stark, Oakley and Stone were to bring in the sufferers at starved camp while Foster, Eddy, Thompson, and Miller were to press forward to the relief of those at Donner lake. Of the eleven at starved camp only two could walk: Mrs. Breen and her son John. A storm appeared to be gathering, and the supply of provisions brought by the three men was limited. The lonely situation, the sights in the camp, and the threatening aspect of the weather, filled the minds of Oakley and Stone with terror. It was proposed to take the three Graves children and Mary Donner, all that the three men could carry, to Woodworth's camp, and abandon the Breens, for the mother would not leave her helpless ones and John was in a semi-lifeless condition. To this programme Stark would not agree. He had come, he said, on a mission of mercy; he would not half do the work; the other two could go if they would; he refused to abandon the helpless. They went, and Stark was left to work out his plan of salvation as best he could. Just how he managed with the seven left to him, the narrator (McGlashan) does not say. Five of the number had to be carried, and the provisions besides. He was a powerful man, weighing two hundred and twenty pounds, of a determined will and undaunted courage. He would carry one or two a distance ahead, put them down, and return for the others. In this way he succeeded in getting them all to Wood- worth's, where the others of the third relief had arrived.
Eddy and his companions reached the lake about the middle of March. They found Nicholas Clark and Juan Bautista at the head of the lake, where they waited until
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the return of the relief party. At the lake were Mrs. Murphy, her son Simon, the three little Donner girls: Frances, Georgia, and Eliza, and Lewis Keseberg. At Alder creek were George Donner and his wife, Tamsen. The injury George Donner had received resulted in erysipelas, and it was evident that he had but a few hours to live. Mrs. Donner had come up from Alder creek to see her little girls and assure herself that they were still safe, and was with them in Mrs. Murphy's cabin when the relief party arrived. They urged her to accompany them and her children over the mountains, and argued that there could only be a few hours of life left to George Donner. She knew this and asked them to remain until she could return to Alder creek and see if he were yet alive. This they refused, as the gathering storm-clouds over the summit warned them to be away, lest they be caught in the storm and all perish. Mrs. Donner refused to leave her husband; she returned to close his eyes and to her own certain death. Eddy and Foster found their children, little James Eddy and baby George Foster, dead, and on the day following their arrival at the lake, started on their return; Eddy carrying Georgia Donner; Thompson, Francis Donner; Miller, Eliza Donner; and Foster, Simon Murphy. Mrs. Murphy had cared for the children and was now sick and entirely helpless. She could not walk. They left her with such provisions as they could, brought her wood, and made her as con- fortable as possible, promising to return with assistance and carry her over the mountains.
The departure of the third relief left at the lake Mrs. Murphy and Keseberg, who had injured his foot and could not walk, and at Alder creek Mr. and Mrs. George Donner. I have no account of the return march of the
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third relief. They took up Clark and Juan Bautista and all reached Woodworth's camp and ultimately Johnson's rancho and Sutter's fort .*
On April 13th the fourth relief party started from Johnson's rancho under command of William O. Fallon, a mountaineer trapper and guide. With him were William M. Foster, John Rhoads, R. P. Tucker, J. Foster, Sebastian Keyser, and Edward Coffeemire. Alcalde Sinclair of Sutter's fort had, by an offer of half of any property that might be saved, induced these men to attempt the rescue of the four left in the mountain camps by the third relief. George Donner was a man of some wealth, and in addition to the valuable stock of goods he was bringing to California, was supposed to have with him twelve or fourteen thousand dollars in coin. It was the hope of recovering this wealth that actuated most of the men of the fourth relief. Foster went with them hoping to save Mrs. Murphy, his wife's mother. They reached the lake April 17th, and found that of the four left by the third relief, Mrs. Murphy and Mr. and Mrs. Donner had died, and Keseberg alone was living. Paying no attention to Keseberg the "res- cuers" began a search for the money, breaking open trunks and scattering their contents. Failing to find any money they came to Keseberg's cabin and demanded of him George Donner's money. Keseberg asked them to give him something to eat but they threatened to kill him if he did not instantly give up the money. At this he gave them some five hundred dollars which he said Mrs. Donner had given him to take to her children, and this was all they could find. They accused Keseberg
* It appears that on the arrival of the third relief at Woodworth's the entire expedition returned to Johnson's, abandoning the four persons still remaining in the mountains. I have seen no explanation of this action.
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of being a murderer and robber and so treated him. They were rough and unkind towards him, left him to his fate, and busied themselves in getting Donner's goods over the mountains; each man, according to Keseberg, carried two bales of silks or other goods, taking one a certain distance and then going back and bringing up the other. Keseberg with his wounded foot could not keep up with them, but dragged himself along and man- aged to reach their camp each night. Arriving at Sutter's fort Keseberg was accused by some members of the relief party of the murder of Mrs. Donner. In Fallon's diary he is also accused of the murder of Wolfinger, of having killed and eaten George Foster, and of having been responsible for the abandonment of Hardcoop. The most revolting statements are made by Fallon concerning what he saw at the camp-statements that have been repeated by others but which are most absurd and impossible. McGlashan who wrote his story from interviews with and statements from the survivors, including Keseberg, discredits the accusations as do other writers. The stories, however, found ready belief and people shunned Keseberg and children fled from him with aversion. At the suggestion of Sutter Keseberg brought suit against Fallon, Coffeemire, and others, for slander, and the jury gave him a verdict of one dollar damages. He became a marked man and misfortune pursued him wherever he went. As a sample of the ridiculous stuff published about him, I quote an extract from Sights in the Gold Region, by Theodore T. Johnson (1849).
"Within a half a mile of our encampment (on the Sacramento river) we saw the house of old Keysburg, the cannibal, who reveled in the awful feast on human flesh and blood during the sufferings of a party of emigrants near the pass of the Sierra Nevada, in the winter of 1847. * It is said that the taste
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which Keysburg then acquired had not left him and that he often declares with evident gusto, 'I would like to eat a piece of you'; and several have sworn to shoot him if he ventures on such fond declarations to them. We therefore looked at the den of this wild beast in human form with a good deal of disgusted curiosity, and kept our bowie knives handy for a slice of him, if necessary."
This ends the story of the Donner party whose tragic fate was known and feared by belated parties of the overland emigration of 1849 and later years. I have followed mainly the narrative of C. F. McGlashan in his History of the Donner Party, and have tried to connect his somewhat loose and disjointed story, omitting as much of the dreadful details as possible, and all laudation of the various actors in the tragedy. That there was great heroism and self-sacrifice displayed by certain members of the Donner and of the relief parties, will be seen by any one who reads the story; but it is, at best, a pitiful story of weakness and incompetence; nor can I see, as McGlashan can, anything brave, generous, or heroic in William Foster's trailing and potting for food the Indians, Luis and Salvador, who had come to serve them.
The destruction of the party may be ascribed, after the preliminary error in taking the wrong route, to in- ternal discord, jealousy, and hatred among them, and to the lack of organization and leadership. That any of the party were saved seems quite remarkable when their condition is realized and the deliberation with which the work of relief was conducted is considered. The abandonment of the four left in the mountains must be strongly condemned. Granting that the saving of Mrs. Murphy and George Donner was impossible and of Keseberg immaterial, the life of Tamsen Donner was worth all the exertion that could have been made, even at the peril of the lives of the rescuers.
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We have seen that of the eighty-eight persons who started with or became joined to the Donner party, six died before entering the sierra, and three-Reed, Herron, and Mccutchen-were in California, leaving of the party seventy-nine, and of this number must be added the Indians, Luis and Salvador, making eighty-one in the mountain camps. Of this number, forty-five were saved, including two of the nursing infants, and thirty-six perished. Only five of the fifteen women died, and four of the five died for those dependent on them. Tamsen Donner gave up her life that she might comfort her husband's last hours. Mrs. Jacob Donner remained and died with her little children. Both women were able to travel. Mrs. Graves sent her husband and eldest daughter, a grown woman, with the forlorn hope; she sent the next three children with the first relief party, and waited, with the four little ones remaining for the second relief. Her life was sacrificed for these children, three of whom were saved. Mrs. Murphy's life was given for the children-her little Simon and her grand- children, Naomi and Catherine Pike, and George Foster. The third relief found her unable to walk. Mrs. Eddy died before the coming of the first relief.
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