Patrick Breen’s diary entries make it clear that at Donner Lake, just thirty miles to the east and at approximately the same elevation as where Antonio and Franklin Graves died, the precipitation continued to fall as rain through at least midday on December 24. It then turned to snow, either at noon on Christmas Eve or at midnight, depending on whether you take Breen’s “about 12 o’clock” to mean A.M. or P.M. Either way, it was on December 24 that colder air arrived at the lake, and by dawn on Christmas Day, according to Breen, it had been snowing “all night and snows yet rapidly.” The next day, however, he notes that it ceased snowing on the night of December 25 (Christmas night) and was clear on December 26. So if Franklin Graves died just as colder weather arrived and it began to snow on the ridges above the North Fork of the American River, it does not seem that he could have died as late as midnight on December 25, Christmas night, when in fact the skies were just beginning to clear.
experience it before they die: For more on the “hide-and-die” and “terminal burrowing” syndromes associated with the final stages of hypothermia, see Dolinak, 249, and “Hypothermia and Paradoxical Undressing.”
skipping school on Christmas Day: For this and more about the history of Christmas in New England, see both Frum and Larkin, “Christmas in New England Before 1860.”
Christmas cards were printed: University of Minnesota Media History Project Timeline.
plum puddings, and the singing of carols: See Bodenhamer, 419, for more about the evolution of modern Christmas rituals in the Midwest.
“you will want for nothing”: “Christmas at Arlington House.”
“appalling but hope in God Amen”: Breen, 8.
“you can have all you wish”: Virginia Reed Murphy, Across the Plains in the Donner Party; and Kristin Johnson’s Unfortunate Emigrants, 280.
never known—fingernail polish: For more about ketosis and other physiological effects of long-term starvation, see Russell, 37–40.
“Give me my bone!”: Mary Ann Graves’s account in the Truckee Republican of May 17, 1879. Some accounts have Lemuel Murphy dying after he was offered food, which could only have been human flesh. Mary Ann’s account, however, asserts that only the mouse that Lemuel had eaten alive kept him from dying earlier.
above the rim of the canyon: Sarah Foster’s recollection of Lemuel’s death, in McGlashan, 85, emphasizes clear skies and a bright moon that night, which is corroborated for the night of December 26 by Patrick Breen’s diary and by lunar data on the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Web site.
CHAPTER TEN—THE HEART ON THE MOUNTAIN
a bit less human: See Philbrick, 165–66.
rather than resort to cannibalism: Russell, 25.
EATING DEAD CHILDREN IS BARBARISM: Ibid., 149.
butchering their victims for meat: Ibid. See also “September 8, 1941: Siege of Leningrad Begins.”
among his apparent victims: Tucker, 8.
made soup out of them: Russell, 149–51.
hunger-induced psychosis: Tucker, 102.
by the time he died: Philbrick, 166.
worth of the grisly rations: The estimate that they carried only four days’ rations from the “Camp of Death” is Sarah’s own, given in her letter of May 23, 1847.
the ridge visible on the other side: In tracing the probable route of the snowshoe party, I have followed the route outlined on Daniel Rosen’s very helpful Web site up to the point where they left Sixmile Valley, turned southwest at Emigrant Gap, and made their way down into present-day Onion Valley. After careful study of the survivor accounts, I believe that they did not then immediately continue south and descend into the canyon of the North Fork of the American River, but, trying to regain a southwesterly course, crossed Fulda Creek and moved along the northern side of Blue Canyon, roughly where the Central Pacific Rail Road was later constructed. I think they continued to follow the terrain southwest, following the main canyon of the North Fork but avoiding descending into it until the canyon opened out into the relatively wide expanse of Green Valley, where they descended. I believe they then ascended to the long ridge of Iowa Hill on the southern side of the river. There they could continue traveling southwest, the general direction in which they likely and correctly believed Johnson’s Ranch lay. At the far western end of the Iowa Hill ridge, however, they were forced to recross the canyon where the North Fork of the American River turns abruptly to the south, just east of Colfax. Though I am not inclined to follow Thornton in most things, I believe that this route accords with the two crossings that he describes in some detail and that are hinted at in the other accounts. I believe it also accords with the times and distances outlined by Sinclair and Reed, as well as with the topography described in other accounts, the weather as tracked in Patrick Breen’s journal, and the total amount of time taken to reach Johnson’s Ranch. This route is, of course, only theoretical, as is any attempt to retrace the precise route of the snowshoe party, and therefore in the text I have avoided mentioning specific place-names when tracing the later wanderings of the snowshoe expedition.
“their minds were brooding”: Thornton, 28–29.
“adversity with unshaken firmness”: Ibid., 29. And Eliza Gregson, who met the snowshoe survivors when they made it in to Sutter’s Fort, corroborates Thornton concerning the increasing passivity of the men. See Gregson, 9.
friends before family: I am indebted to Kristin Johnson for pointing out this hierarchy.
“you have missed it!”: Thornton, 32.
“I shall live”: Thornton, 33.
and tried to die herself: Thornton, 33. W. C. (Billy) Graves also said that Sarah wanted to die with her husband, in a letter to McGlashan on March 30, 1879 [McGlashan Papers, folder 14].
looking for her and Jay: That Mary was among those who went back looking for Sarah and Jay Fosdick is mentioned by W. C. (Billy) Graves in the same letter to McGlashan.
“You cannot hurt him now”: Gregson, 10.
CHAPTER ELEVEN—MADNESS
for seventy miles: “Sir Daniel Gooch.”
“The Gold Bug”: A list of these and other advances that marked the 1840s can be found on the University of Minnesota Media History Project Timeline.
dusk gave way to darkness: The various places listed in New York City, descriptions of them, and the information about rail, ferry, and steamship service in and out of the city are all from Picture of New York in 1846, 32–160.
aid and a hot meal: Ibid., 108.
transform California forever: While John Marshall claimed to have found the nugget that set off the Gold Rush, his employee, Peter Wimmer, is by some accounts the one who actually first plucked it out of the mud. Wimmer’s wife, Jennie, later famously boiled it in a pot of lye while making soap and thus proved that it was in fact gold when it kept its luster.
“Two and three times”: Virginia Reed to Mary C. Keyes, May 16, 1847. Reprinted in Morgan, 285.
partition day and night: Patty Reed recalled hearing Harriet McCutchen’s “terrible screames” in her letter to McGlashan of April 15, 1879 [McGlashan Papers, folder 38].
if he pursued the subject: Thornton, 34–35.
in order to kill her: W. C. (Billy) Graves, based presumably on Mary Ann and Sarah’s own version of events, told a very different version from Eddy’s in a letter to McGlashan of March 30, 1879: “Eddy had made remarks which made Mary believe he wanted to kill her to eat” [McGlashan Papers, folder 16].
needed to watch their backs: See Philbrick, 172–73, for more about psychic deadening, feral communities, and stress-induced madness.
hot stones around a fire: For more on the omnivorous diets of the Maidu and other California Indians, see Kroeber, 409–11, and also Kroeber’s “The Food Problem in California,” 297–305, in Heizer.
the deadliest of poisons: Kroeber, 526.
Indians of Northern California: Ibid., 409, 526.
though greatly weakened: That Salvador and Luis were alive when the snowshoe party found and subsequently killed them is made clear
in both Sarah’s letter of May 23, 1847 (see “Survivor Sarah Graves Fosdick”), and Mary Ann’s letter of May 22, 1847 (reprinted in Kristin Johnson’s Unfortunate Emigrants, 129–31).
unnamed Maidu village: The names of various Maidu villages in the area where the snowshoe party emerged from the high mountains can be found in Kroeber, 394 and plate 37.
then licking it off: Ibid., 411.
acorn cakes to the strangers: George Tucker to McGlashan, April 5, 1879 [McGlashan Papers, folder 51].
fresh grass instead: Thornton, 38.
“dreadful to look at”: Breen, 10.
vomited green bile: Details about the long-term ravages of malnutrition that Sarah and her companions likely suffered are drawn from Russell, 89–90 and 105.
as temporary homes: The description of William Johnson’s house is based partly on Bryant, 241. See also Steed, 101–4.
approaching her family’s cabin: Thornton, 39.
burst into tears: Ibid.
let alone walk: On February 13, 1847, the California Star reported that Sarah and her companions had arrived at Johnson’s Ranch, “entirely naked, their feet frostbitten.” It seems unlikely that they were completely naked, but they clearly were close to it, and Mary Ann’s feet were in fact so swollen with cuts and frostbite that she could not wear shoes for many weeks. Mary Ann Graves talks about the injuries to her feet in her letter of April 16, 1847 [McGlashan Papers, folder 14].
their shrunken digestive systems: Thornton, 40.
to the hearth of humanity: See Farnham, reprinted in Kristin Johnson’s Unfortunate Emigrants, 151–52, for a description of the joy with which Mary Ann Graves and others saw light emanating from the Ritchie cabin.
“in their heads like stars”: Gregson, 9.
CHAPTER TWELVE—HOPE AND DESPAIR
to grind still more wheat: For this and more details of the preparations at Johnson’s Ranch, see Daniel Rhoads’s statement in Morgan, 325–27.
eighteen to twenty hours a day: Trattner, 23.
in manufactories with no pay: Ibid., 25.
first factory in Rhode Island: Ibid., 26.
children under twelve to ten hours: Ibid., 30.
under twelve in textile mills: Ibid.
“to live or die on them”: Breen, 11.
the emigrants at Truckee Lake: The date of the First Relief party’s departure from Johnson’s Ranch is sometimes given as February 5, based on notations in a diary kept by Ritchie and Tucker, the source of many details of my account here. However, two pieces of evidence suggest that this date, and the subsequent dates, are off by one day: First, Patrick Breen records the arrival of the party at the lake camp on February 18, one day earlier than the Ritchie-Tucker diary asserts. And second, various weather events described in the Ritchie-Tucker diary seem to accord much better with weather noted in Breen’s diary when a one-day adjustment is taken into account. Therefore I have adjusted the dates of events recorded in the Ritchie-Tucker diary by one day. From February 22 on, the dates of Breen’s diary and the Ritchie-Tucker diary agree.
“or do you come from heaven?”: Daniel Rhoads’s statement, reprinted in Morgan, 325–31.
“rejoiced to see them rejoice”: R. P. Tucker to McGlashan, 1879 [McGlashan Papers, folder 53]. In the same letter, Tucker reports that the first person they saw at the lake was Levinah Murphy.
“it maid them all cry”: Virginia Reed to her cousin Mary Keyes, May 16, 1847. Reprinted in Morgan, 286.
for the return trip: Daniel Rhoads mentions the First Relief eating the last of their beef the first night out in his statement, reprinted ibid., 330.
“nigher Pa and somthing to eat”: Virginia Reed to Mary Keyes, May 16, 1847, reprinted ibid., 286.
“death stared us in the face”: Reason P. Tucker’s diary entry for February 23, 1847, reprinted ibid., 333.
wrapped him in it: The coverlet Tucker abandoned with Denton was worth the considerable sum of twenty dollars. Ibid., 453.
would not move on without her: Details of Ada Keseberg’s death are from Daniel Rhoads’s account, ibid., 325–31; the Ritchie-Tucker diary, ibid., 331–36; and Reason Tucker’s 1879 letter to McGlashan [McGlashan Papers, folder 53].
“her body to the wolves”: Reason P. Tucker’s 1879 letter to McGlashan [McGlashan Papers, folder 53].
the Californians had surrendered: For more on the “Battle of Santa Clara,” see Bryant, 100–101.
“the balls that whistled by me”: Reed’s comments to Sutter about the battle were published in an article by Edwin A. Sherman, entitled “An Unpublished Report of the Battle of Santa Clara,” in the San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 1910.
“there is no time to delay”: McCutchen to Reed, January 27, 1847, Sutter’s Fort Archives, item 8-3-308, 48.
“they have done so ere this time”: Breen, 15.
somewhere in the vicinity of Yuba Gap: See King, 95, for more about the location of the meeting of James and Margret Reed. For more details about the meeting itself, see Rarick, 185–86.
“gave to all what I dared”: Reed’s diary of the Second Relief. Reprinted in Morgan, 345.
“in raptures”: J. H. Merryman’s “Narrative of Sufferings of a Company of Emigrants,” published in the Illinois Journal, December 9, 1847, and reprinted ibid., 298.
the Donners’ camp at Alder Creek: The dating in Reed’s diary appears to be off by one day beginning on March 1. He seems to have incorrectly believed that 1847 was a leap year, for he talks about traveling and arriving at the lake on Monday, February 29, a day that did not exist. Patrick Breen in his diary notes Reed’s arrival on Monday, March 1.
“There was nothing else”: Georgia Donner to McGlashan, May 26, 1879 [McGlashan Papers, folder 2].
had left her that morning: The reference to Patty Reed baking bread is from Martha “Patty” Reed Lewis to McGlashan, April 16, 1979 [McGlashan Papers, folder 38]. Cited in Rarick, 195.
“snow will be here until June”: Breen, 16.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN—HEROES AND SCOUNDRELS
shoes of the emigrants: Some of the other items Reed brought are mentioned in item 8-7-308, 6, at the Sutter’s Fort Archives.
over the cabins to the east: Thornton, 73.
whether she lived or died: See Stewart, 220, and Thornton, 73, for the anecdote of the men joking about playing euchre to see who would get Elizabeth Graves’s money.
temperature began to plummet: McLaughlin, 103–4.
“a great lamentation about the cold”: Reed’s journal of the Second Relief. Reprinted in Morgan, 347.
“for the first fall of the season”: James Reed quoting Sutter, in McGlashan, 122.
“all covered with water”: George Tucker to McGlashan, 1879. Reprinted in Morgan, 324.
“has ever been known in Calafornia”: Steed, 27.
still as deep as twenty feet: Clyman’s and Craig’s accounts of deep drifts of snow at the crest of the Sierra Nevada are reprinted in McLaughlin, 151–52.
“keen as a two-edged knife”: Charlotte Brontë, quoted in Barker, 517.
perhaps a million lives: Cahill, 221.
exceptionally cold weather in the Arctic: See transcripts from the PBS Nova broadcast of February 28, 2006, “Arctic Passage.” Online at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3307_arctic.html.
if the air is cold enough: For more on the relationship between precipitation and snowfall accumulations, see McLaughlin, 155–57.
forty-one feet of snowfall per winter: See the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort’s Web site. Online at www.sugarbowl.com/history.
“stared them in the face”: Reed’s “Narrative of the Sufferings of a Company of Emigrants,” Illinois Journal, December 9, 1847. Reprinted in Morgan, 299.
and the cold grew lethal: See McLaughlin, 104–6, for more about the passage of the cold front through the Sierra Nevada.
“nothing ever equaled it”: Reed’s diary of the Second Relief. Reprinted in Morgan, 349.
among survivors of disasters: Foa, 19–20.
&
nbsp; when subjected to the same trauma: Ibid., 5.
than do more mature adults: Van der Kolk, 135.
of a parent develop PTSD: Thomas, 38.
what you have done: Tangney, 90–110.
particularly hostility and aggression: Ibid., 110.
norepinephrine levels soar: Thomas, 21–35.
hallucinations brought on by the disorder: Kendall Johnson, 48.
depression and/or substance abuse: Foa, 7.
in the bodies of disaster survivors: Trevisan, 491–94.
“how to cry again”: Mary Ann Graves, quoted in “Mary Ann Graves, A Heroine of the Donner Party,” in Nevada County Historical Society 8, July 1954. Reprinted in Kristin Johnson, Unfortunate Emigrants, 127.
“while they and I live”: Morgan, 356. John Stark was perhaps the greatest hero of the Donner Party, almost single-handedly responsible for bringing all of the Breens as well as some of the Graves and Donner children out of the mountains.
“save my children!”: Thornton, 85.
“photographed on my mind”: John Breen to McGlashan, April 20, 1879 [McGlashan Papers, folder 11].
escape the heartrending scenes: Houghton, chapter 15.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN—SHATTERED SOULS
a little after noon: Much of what is known about the Fallon expedition comes from an account in the June 5, 1847, edition of the California Star reputed to be Fallon’s journal. No copy of the journal itself has survived, and there is some controversy as to whether Fallon really authored the alleged journal himself. I have used it judiciously, omitting many of the more lurid details and relying on it primarily for a basic outline of events and dates. Much of what it says, however, particularly about Louis Keseberg, is borne out by Keseberg’s own statement given to McGlashan in April 1879 and reprinted in McGlashan’s book. Other details are substantiated by Reason Tucker’s letter to McGlashan, alluded to below.