Donner Party

1 Key excerpts on "Donner Party"

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  eBook - ePub

  The Cannibal within

  • Lewis Petrinovich(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Ordeal by Hunger, first published in 1936, and reissued in an expanded edition in 1960 (the edition referred to here). Stewart (1962) later published a general history of the experiences of others who migrated west over the California Trail. There is also a volume containing fascinating letters, narratives, and memoirs written by survivors or based on interviews with them (Johnson, 1996), and a history of the Donner Party based on direct interviews with survivors (McGlashan, 1947; first published in 1880). Although there are minor differences of opinion regarding certain details, and some disagreement regarding the assignment of relative blame for the unfortunate events (see King, 1992, for a revisionist view), there is general agreement concerning the sweep of events as described here.

  The Donner Party was composed mainly of a group of substantial midwestern farmers and businessmen who had packed up their possessions, formed a wagon train, and undertook the arduous journey west to enjoy the benefits of California abundance. They were mainly American-born inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley, and although they may have been pioneers they could not be called frontiersmen—they were country-folk and townspeople, not mountaineers. They were not accustomed to camping, most had never seen a mountain, and there was a great deal of sickness early in the trip.

  There was considerable dissension among members of the company from the very beginning of the journey, and many petty differences of opinions and interests surfaced as the trip progressed. McGlashan (1947) considered these factors to be among the fundamental causes of the calamities that befell the party. Stewart (1962) and Brodhead (1997) agreed that the Donner Party was too small (only about 10 wagons), with too few mature, sturdy adults to make it possible for them to overcome the adversities encountered at the journey’s end. Also, the natural leader of the party (James Reed) was driven off for killing another male member of the party during a fight. Following Reed’s banishment, George Donner, a prosperous farmer who was 62 years old and the father of 15 children, was elected captain of the train on the basis of his kindly, patrician manner. Stewart characterized the party, even in the early stages of the trip, as a shattered and beaten army, over which hung the threats of death from starvation, snow in the mountains, and Indians who shot at hunters from ambush and stole oxen and cattle.

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