History of Nevada, 1881, Thompson and West. Pages 20-29

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER II. THE TRAPPERS AND EARLY EMIGRATION.

Wm. H. Ashley--Jedediah S. Smith’s Expedition in 1825-26-27--
Peter S. Ogden’s Expedition in 1831--Wilton Sublette’s Expedition
in 1812--Bonneville and Walker’s Expedition in 1833--Kit Carson’s
First Visit to Nevada, 1833--Emigration under Captain J. B.
Bartleson in 1841-J. C. Fremont’s Expedition in 1841--The Emigrants
of 1814--Fremont’s Expedition in 1845--Elwin Bryant and other
Emigrants in 1846-The Donner Party Tragedy.

Wm. H. Ashley, of St. Louis, Missouri, a celebrated mountaineer, discovered the Great Salt Lake of Utah in 1824, and a smaller lake near by that received his name, where he erected a fort, and established his headquarters for the remaining years of his adventurous career as a Rocky Mountain trapper. Mr. Ashley had a partner named Jedediah S. Smith, a native of New York, whose mountain life was a chapter of thrilling adventure, until it was ended in 1831, by the arrow of an ambushed Indian assassin on the Cimarron River.

JEDEDIAH S. SMITH’S EXPEDITION IN 1825--26.

The first white man to see any portion of what is now Nevada was a company of some forty trappers under the charge, or leadership, of this noted mountaineer Smith, who crossed the country to California from his rendezvous on the Yellowstone River in [p.21] 1825. His route was through a portion of what is now western Wyoming, down the Humboldt, that was named Mary’s River by him, after his Indian wife; thence to the Walker River country, and out through what has been since known as Walker’s Pass into Tulare Valley, California, where he arrived in July with two companions, In October he recrossed the country, leaving his party trapping in the Sacramento Valley. The only information in our possession in regard to the direction taken by Smith on his return trip across the country is contained in the following extract from a letter to us upon that subject from Captain Robert Lyon, of San Buenaventura, California:

* * * His, Smith’s, notes mention the discovery of Mono Lake (or dead sea) on his return trip in 1825. The upper end of Mono Gulch was very rich and shallow; and when the gulch was first prospected by Cord (the discoverer) in 1859, gold could be seen lying on the granite rock, where it had been washed in sight by the rains; and there is not a placer between Sacramento and Salt Lake where gold-dust could be so easily obtained by inexperienced miners, with only a pan and knife, as in the upper end of Mono Gulch. Rocky Mountain Jack, or Uncle Jack, as he was called, and Bill Reed both spent the summer of 1860 in Alone, and were well known at that time, and both of these old trappers declared they were with Smith in 1825, and that they spent a week prospecting and picking up gold in those foot-bills in 1825. The gold in Mono was not coarse, but I have often found pieces that would weigh from twenty-five cents to two dollars. (See Cross of Virginia City, be was our ditch collector in 1860); and besides there were old stumps which had been cut long years before 1858, for the sprouts had grown to be large trees in 1859. Bill Byrnes, well known in Carson City, always claimed that Jed Smith discovered the Mono mines in 1825, although he (Byrnes) was not of the party. * * *

Upon Mr. Smith’s return to the company’s headquarters, on Green River, near Salt Lake, Mr. Ashley withdrew from the firm, and the business fell into the hands of Smith, M. Sublette, and David Jackson, who were known as the Rocky Mountain Far Company. This firm was so well pleased with the success of the California expedition that it was thought best for Smith to lead another trapping party to the Pacific Coast. He accordingly set out with a larger party than had accompanied him before, but passed South to the Colorado River, where his party were all killed, but two, in a battle with the Indians. Smith and two companions, named Turner and Galbraith, made their escape, and reaching the missions of California, were arrested.

Among the legacies inherited from the old Spanish authorities, and now preserved in the archives of California are the following relating to Captain Smith, his detention and release. He first appears to have arrived in the inhabited regions of California, in 1826, and to have been required by the Government, always suspicious of strangers, particularly Americans, to give an account of himself, his actions, and purpose. Fortunately he found vouchers whom those in power felt their interest to respect.

We, the undersigned, having been requested by Captain Jedediah S. Smith, to state our opinion regarding his entering the province of California, do not hesitate to say that we have no doubt in our minds but that he was compelled to for want of provisions and water, having entered so far into the barren country that lies between the latitudes of forty-two and forty-three west that he found it impossible to return by the route he came, as his horses had most of them perished for want of food and water. He was, therefore, under the necessity of pushing forward to California, it being the nearest place where he could procure supplies to enable him to return.

We further state as our opinions that the account given by him is circumstantially correct, and that his sole object was the hunting and trapping of beaver and other furs.

We have also examined the passports produced by him from the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Government of the United States of America, and do not hesitate to say we believe them to be perfectly correct.

We also state, that in our opinion, his motive for wishing to pass by a different route to the head of the Columbia River on his return, is solely because he feels convinced that he and his companions run great risk of perishing if they return by the route they came.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our bands and seals this twentieth day of December, 1826.
Wm. G. DANA,       [L. S.]
Captain of Schooner Waverly.
WM. M. CUNNINGHAM,       [L. S.]
Captain of Ship Courier.
WM. HENDERSON,       [L. S.]
Captain of Brig Olive Branch.
JAMES SCOTT,       [L. S.]
THOS. Al. ROBBINS,       [L. S.]
Mate of Schooner Waverly.
Thos. SHAW,       [L. S.]
Supercargo of Ship Courier.


The following refers to his second expedition. The locality of his camp is not given but it must have been somewhere Dear the Mission of San Jose, as there was the residence of Father Duran, to whom the letter is addressed.

LETTER FROM CAPTAIN JEDEDIAH S. SMITH TO FATHER DURAN.

REVEREND FATHER: I understand, through the medium of one of your Christian Indians, that you are anxious to know who we are, as Some of the Indians have been at the Mission and informed you that there were certain white people in the country. We are Americans, on our Journey to the river Columbia; we were in at the Mission San Gabriel in January last. I went to San Diego and saw the General, and got a passport from him to pass on to that place. I have made several efforts to cross the mountains, but the snows being so deep I could not succeed in getting over. I returned to this place (it being the only point to kill meat) to wait a few weeks until the snow melts, so that I can go on - the Indians here also being friendly, I consider it the most safe point for me to remain until such time as I can cross the mountains with my horses, having lost a great [p.22] many in attempting to cross ten or fifteen days since. I am a long ways from home, and am anxious to get I here as soon as the nature of the case will admit. Our situation is quite unpleasant, being destitute of clothing and most of the necessaries of life, wild meat being our principal subsistence.

I am, reverend father, your strange, but real friend and Christian brother,
J. S. SMITH.
May 19, 1827.

This pioneer wanderer through what is now Nevada, had taken his last look upon her mountains and villages. He was released by the Spanish a authorities, and reaching his Sacramento rendezvous, fitted out an expedition for the purpose of visiting the Columbia River in Oregon. Arriving with his party at the Umpqua River, it was surprised by the Indians, and he again saw his companions all murdered but two, who escaped with him and made their way to Fort Vancouver. From there, Smith crossed to the Rocky Mountains by a more northern route, accompanied by Peter Ogden, a native of New York, at the head of a brigade of the Hudson Bay Company’s trappers.

PETER S. OGDEN’S EPFDITION IN 1831.

The Hudson Bay Company claimed the region between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains as their exclusive grounds for trapping. Their right, however, was not conceded by the Rocky Mountain Far Company; but, because of the friendly manner in which Smith in his adversity had been treated at Fort Vancouver, he decided to abandon the disputed territory, and separated from Ogden’s party at the head-waters of Lewis River, in 1829, for the purpose of finding his associate partners, and carrying out the design. Ogden commenced his trapping through the region lying west of the Rocky Mountains, and gradually moved to the south, eventually arriving at what had been known as Mary’s River, probably in the spring of 1831; traveled down it, taking the same route to California that Smith had followed in 1825. From this time forward until Fremont foisted the name of Humboldt upon that stream, it was called by some Mary’s, and others Ogden’s River.

MILTON SUBLETTE’S EXPEDITION IN 1832.

The next expedition into the country was led by Milton Sublette, accompanied by Nathan Wyeth, who left Pécrass Hole in the Rocky Mountains, on the twenty-third of July, 1832, for the purpose of trapping the waters of the Mary’s River.* This party reached the head-waters of that stream in August, from where Mr. Wyeth’s party, consisting of fifteen, withdrew from Sublette ana started for Oregon, leaving the latter with about thirty men. Sublette continued his way, trapping down Mary’s River, until his hunters finding no wild game, the party were forced to eat the flesh of the beavers they caught. The season was one of famine for these little animals, which were forced in their hunger to subsist upon wild parsnips, which poisoned their flesh and made them unwholesome food for the trappers, many of whom were made ill from eating them. Because of this it became necessary to at once abandon the river, and strike across the country towards the north, where, after being four days with almost no food, and several weeks in a state of famine, they reached the Snake River about fifty miles above the fishing falls. They were force d, as they passed over the country, to subsist upon ants, crickets, parched moccasins, and puddings made from blood, taking a pint at a time, from their almost famished animals.

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* “Mountain and Frontier,” by Mrs. F. F. Victor, page 119.
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BONNEVILLE AND WALKER’S EXPEDITION IN 1833.

Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville, who died June 12,1878, at the advanced age of eighty-five years, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and who was so fortunate as to have his Rocky Mountain adventures immortalized by Washington Irving-being an officer of the United States army on furlough-fitted out an exploring expedition of -forty men, in 1833, under the guidance of the since celebrated Joseph Walker, for the purpose of seeking beaver regions between the Great Salt Lake and the Pacific Ocean. This party, leaving the general rendezvous in the Green River Valley, reached the head- waters of Mary’s River (Irving calls it Ogden’s River), and trapped slowly down its course until they reached its sink, from where they crossed the country west to Pyramid Lake, thence up Truckee River into the Sierra Nevada, and across those mountains into California.

These were the first explorers, the ommipresent Smith family in the lead, to open the way across the continent, and to name rivers, mountains, and lakes, as lasting memorials of their adventurous lives. Trappers and hunters continued to traverse the basin, and these were followed by emigrants who sought the western coast as their home, and who have left a greater impress upon the country.

KIT CARSON’S FIRST VISIT TO NEVADA.

In 1833, Thomas McCoy, who was in the employ of the Hudson Buy Company, organized a trapping party, and Christopher (Kit) Carson with five companions became members of it. Reports having become generally circulated that Mary’s River was plentifully stocked with beaver, McCoy’s party of trappers sought its waters in search of them. They must have arrived upon the river after it had been trapped by Walker’s party that year, for they met with poor success, and after passing down the stream to its sink returned without going farther, and crossed the country to the Snake River in the north. After this date Kit Carson did not visit any portion of what is now Nevada until with Fremont in 1844.

EMIGRATION UNDER CAPT. J. B. BARTLESON IN 1841.

The Great Basin of Nevada has been the field of but the Indian and the trapper until the summer of 1841. The first explorers have reported of its lakes, its [p.23] rivers, “sinks,” and deserts, and of the great snowy ridge that separates them from the sunny valleys of the Pacific Coast. People seeking that fair land had made the toilsome journey by Oregon, or the stormy voyage by Cape Horn. At Independence, Missouri, a party of young, educated, and energetic adventurers had gathered from different parts of the United States, destined for that land of the far West, and on the eighth of May, 1841, started on their long journey. Many of these pioneers have become conspicuous in the history of the West, and their names are here appended: --
Col. J. B. Bartleson, Captain of the party, returned to Missouri; is Dow dead.
John Bidwell, resides in Chico.
Col. Joseph B. Chiles, resides in Napa County.
Josiah Belden, resides at San Jose and San Francisco.
Charles Al. Weber, founder of Stockton, now dead.
Charles Hopper, resides in Napa County.
Henry Huber, resides in San Francisco.
Michael C. Nye, resides in Oregon.
Green McMahon, resides in Solano County.
Nelson McMahon , returned to Missouri.
Talbot H. Green, resides in Pennsylvania.
Ambrose Walton, returned to Missouri.
John McDowell, returned to Missouri and died.
George Henshaw, returned to Missouri,
Col. Robert Ryckman, returned to Missouri and died.
William Belty.
Charles Flugge, returned to Missouri.
Gwinn Patton, returned to Missouri and died.
Benjamin Kelsey, wife and child, resided within a few years in Santa Barbara County.
Andrew Kelsey, killed by Indians at Clear Lake.
James John, went to Oregon.
Henry Brolaski, went to Callao, and thence to Missouri.
James Dawson, drowned in Columbia River.
Major Walton, drowned in Sacramento River. George Shortwell, accidentally shot on the journey.
John Swartz, died in California.
Grove C. Cook, died at San Jose, California.
D. W. Chandler, died at San Francisco.
Nicholas Dawson, dead.
Thomas Jones, dead.
Robert H. Themes, died March 26, 1878, at Tehama.
Elias Barnett, lived in Napa County.
J. P. Springer, died at or near Santa Cruz.
This was the first party of emigrants to cross the basin of Nevada en route to California. Their journey was made on horseback, and with pack-animals. They followed the then known trail via the South Pass to Salt Lake, thence to the Humboldt and to the Carson and Walker Rivers, following the latter to near its source, when they crossed the Sierra, descending its western slope between the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers, to the San Joaquin Valley, ending their journey at the ranch of Dr. Marsh, near the base of Mount Diablo, on the fourth of November, 1841. At this point the company disbanded, making their future homes in different parts of the country.

FREMONT’S EXPEDITION IN 1843-44.

Fremont, in his second expedition of explorations, visited the Great Basin for the object of ascertaining certain geographical features respecting which there was a discrepancy between the maps of the country and the reports of the trappers. The first was the position of the Talmath, which he says is often called Klamet now written Klamath. He writes: --

From this lake our course was intended to be about southeast, to a reported lake called Mary’s, at some days’ journey in the Great Basin, and thence still on southeast, to the reputed Buenaventura River, which has a place on so many maps, and countenanced the belief of the existence of a great river flowing from the Rocky Mountains to the Bay of San Francisco.

Thence he would go eastward and home. The land was a terra incognita, as he says: --

A great part of it absolutely new to geographical, botanical, and geological science, and the subject of reports in relation to lakes, rivers, deserts and savages hardly above the condition of mere wild animals.

He enters the Great Basin December 16, 1843, passing and naming Lake Abert, in honor of the chief of Topographical Engineers to which Fremont belonged. On the third of January, 1844, he --

Reached and run over the position where, according to the best maps in my possession, we should have found Mary’s Lake or River. We were evidently on the verge of the desert which had been reported to us; and the appearance of the country was so forbidding, that I was afraid to enter it, and determined to bear away to the southward, keeping close along the mountains, in the full expectation of reaching Buenaventura River. Latitude, by observation, 40° 48', 15.

From a high mountain be espied a column of steam sixteen miles distant, indicating the presence of hot springs, and he determined to go to them. Of these he writes as follows: --

This is the most extraordinary locality of hot springs we had met on our journey. The basin of the largest one has a circumference of several hundred feet; but there is at one extremity a circular space of about fifteen feet in diameter, entirely occupied by the boiling water. It boils up at irregular intervals, and with much noise. The water is clear, and the spring deep; a pole about sixteen feet long was easily immersed in the center, but we had no means of forming a good idea of the depth. It was surrounded on the margin with a border of green grass, and near the shore the temperature of the water was 206°. We had no means of ascertaining that of the center, where the heat was greatest; but by dispersing the water with a pole, the temperature [p.24] at the margin was increased to 208°, and in the center it was doubtless higher. By driving the pole towards the bottom, the water was made to boil up with increased force and noise. There are several other interesting places, where water and smoke, or gas escape, but they would require a long description. The water is impregnated with common salt, but not so much as to render it unfit for general cooking, and a mixture of STIOW made it pleasant to drink. The latitude of the springs is 40° 39', 46".

On the tenth of the month he first came in sight of Pyramid Lake. He writes: --

Beyond, a defile between the mountains descended rapidly about 2,000 feet; and filling up all the lower space, was a sheet of green water, some twenty miles broad. It broke upon our eyes like the ocean.

Continuing his narrative, Fremont writes, January 14th: --

Part of the morning was occupied in bringing up the gun; and making only nine miles, we camped on the shore, opposite a very remarkable rock in the lake, which had attracted our attention for many miles. It rose, according to our estimate about 600 feet above the water, and from the point we viewed it, presented a pretty exact outline of the great pyramid of Cheops. Like other rocks along the shore, it seemed to be incrusted with calcareous cement. This striking feature suggested a name for the lake, and I called it Pyramid Lake.

On the night of the 15th, the whites camped at the point where the Truckee flows into Pyramid Lake, and the next day pursued their way up that stream, which Fremont named “Salmon Trout River,” having obtained many trout of the Indians who caught them in the river. At the point where Wadsworth now stands, on the Central Pacific Railroad, they left the river, still looking for the Buenaventura, and followed an Indian trail to the southeast, until what is now called Carson River was reached, at the point where it comes out from the foot-hills near Ragtown into the great plains where it sinks, in Churchill County. The expedition moved down the stream about three hours and camped, January 18th, because of the apparent impossibility of reaching the Rocky Mountains by continuing in that direction, in the worn and exhausted condition to which the journey thus far had reduced them. Fremont determined to give up the attempt and push across the Sierra west to California. The next day they moved up Carson River, in pursuance of this design, and in two more the place where now stands the ruins Of Fort Churchill was reached. Here he ascended a mountain, took a look at the Carson Valley to the southeast, and along its western limits, then at the white snow-capped Sierra beyond, and descending the mountain, again concluded to go farther south, before attempting to cross this formidable border of storm, of snow, and of ice. January 21st, the expedition left the Carson at the point designated, and moved south to the stream now known as Walker River, and moving along the east fork of that stream left it on the 23rd, to pass to the west. The thirty days of struggle for life in the passage over the Nevada Mountains is more properly a part of California history, and we leave the “man of destiny” moving toward the northwest with Indian guides, to attempt and succeed in making the perilous crossing. The mountain howitzer that now is in the possession of Captain A. W. Prey, at Glenbrook, on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe, was abandoned by Fremont on the twenty-ninth of January. It was afterwards found by Win. Wright, known to the literary world as “Dan De Quille.” he gave the point of its locality to a party who was to get the gun and bring it to Virginia City. It had become a question of some importance, at the time, as to whether it should pass into the possession of the Union or secession element in Nevada, and upon its arrival, in June, 1861, at the Nevada mining metropolis, Captain A. W. Prey paid for it, to the party who packed it in, $200, and thus secured its influence on the side of the maintenance of the Union. The gun was of the kind invented for the mountain part o f the French campaign against Algiers.

THE EMIGRANTS OF 1844.
[From Thompson & West’s History of Nevada County, California, 1880.]

The next winter after Fremont made his perilous crossing of the Sierra, another party, a band of hardy pioneers, worked their laborious way through the drifting snow of the mountains, and entered the beautiful valley, one of them remaining in his snowbound camp at Donner Lake until returning spring made his rescue possible. The party consisted of twenty-three men, John Flomboy, Captain Stevens, now a resident of Kern County, California, Joseph Poster, Dr. Townsend, Allen Montgomery, Moses Schallenberger, now living in San Jose, California; G. Greenwood, and his two sons, John and Britt; James Miller, now of San Rafael, California- Mr. Calvin, William Martin, Patrick Martin, Dennis Martin, Martin Murphy and his five sons - Mr. Hitchcock and son. They left Council Bluffs May 20, 1844, en route to California, of the fertility of whose soil and the mildness of whose climate glowing accounts had been given. The dangers of the plains and mountains were passed, and the party reached the Humboldt River, when an Indian named Truckee presented himself and offered to guide them to California. After questioning him closely they employed him as their guide, and as they progressed, found that the statements he had made about the route were fully verified. He soon became a great favorite among them, and when they reached the lower crossing of the Truckee River, now Wadsworth, they gave his name to the beautiful stream, so pleased where they by the pure water and abundance of fish to which be had directed them. The stream will ever live in history as the Truckee River, and [p.25] the fish, the famous Truckee trout, will continue to delight the palate of the epicure for years to come.

From this point the party pushed on to the beautiful mountain lake, whose shores but two years later witnessed a scene of suffering and death unequaled in the annals of America’s pioneers. Here, at Donner Lake, it was decided to build a cabin and store their goods until spring, as the cattle were too exhausted to drag them further. The cabin was built by Allen Montgomery, Joseph Foster, and Moses Schallenberger, all Young men used to pioneer life, and who felt fully able to maintain themselves by their rifles upon the bears and deer that seemed so plentiful in the mountains. The cabin was built of pine saplings, with a roof of brush and rawhides; was twelve by fourteen feet and about eight feet high, with a rude chimney and but one aperture for both a window and door. It was about a quarter of a mile below the foot of the lake, and is of peculiar interest, as it was the first habitation built by white men within the limits of Nevada County, California.

The cabin was completed in two days, and the party moved on across the summit, leaving but a few provisions and a half-starved and emaciated cow for the support of the young men, who had undertaken a task, the magnitude of which they little dreamed. It was about the middle of November when the party left Donner Lake, and they arrived at Sutter’s Fort on the fifteenth of December, 1844, the journey down the mountains consuming a month of toil and privation. The day after the cabin was completed a heavy fall of snow commenced and continued for several days, and while the journeying party were plunging and toiling through the storm and drifts, the three young men found themselves surrounded by a bed of snow from ten to fifteen feet deep. The game had fled down the mountains to escape the storm, and when the poor cow was half consumed the three snow-bound prisoners began to realize the danger of their situation. Alarmed by the prospect of starvation they determined to force their way across the barrier of snow. In one day’s journey they reached the summit, but poor Schallenberger was here taken with severe cramps, and was unable to proceed the following day. Every few feet that be advanced in his attempt to struggle along, he fell to the ground. What could they do? To remain was death, and yet they could not abandon their sick comrade among the drifting snows On the summit of the Sierra. Foster and Montgomery were placed in a trying situation. Schallenberger told them that he would remain alone if they would conduct him back to the cabin. They did so, and providing everything they could for his comfort, took their departure, leaving him, sick and feeble, in the heart of the snow-locked mountains.

A strong will can accomplish wonders, and a determination to live is sometimes stronger than death, and young Schallenberger by an exertion of these was soon able to rise from his bed and seek for food. Among the goods stored in the cabin he found some steel traps, with which he caught enough foxes to sustain himself in his little mountain cabin, until the doors of his prison were unlocked by the melting rays of the vernal sun, and a party of friends came to his relief. On the first of March, 1845, he, too, arrived at Sutter’s Fort, having spent three months in the drifting snows of the “Snowy Mountains,” the Sierra Nevada.

FREMONT’S EXPFDITION OF 1845.

In October, 1845, the “Path-Finder” started from Salt Lake with his party, among whom were Kit Carson and Joseph Walker, to cross the country to the west. After passing over the desert lying immediately beyond that lake, the party was divided, a portion under Theodore Talbot who had accompanied General Fremont from Washington, with Walker as a guide, going to Mary’s River down which it was to pass to the rendezvous near where now is Ragtown, in Churchill County. The balance, under Fremont, consisting of fifteen men, among whom was Kit Carson, passed to the west through the country to the south of that river, and all finally met- in November at the point designated. Remaining but one night in company at the rendezvous they separated, Talbot going to the south by way of Walker’s River and Lake, these waters having been named by Fremont in honor of the famed mountaineer who accompanied Talbot as a guide. Fremont moved up the stream to which he had given the name of his favorite scout, Carson, and passing through the valley and canon that have since received their name from the river, reached the shores of Lake Tahoe and from thence passed over into the Sacramento Valley. In this connection the following letters are of importance:--

PRESCOTT, Arizona Territory,
February 29, 1881.

My DEAR SIRS: What is now called Tahoe Lake I named Lake Bonpland upon my first crossing of the Sierra in 1843-44. 1 gave to the basin river its name of Humboldt and to the mountain lake the name of his companion traveler, Bonpland, and so put it in the map of that expedition. Tahoe I suppose is the Indian name and the lake the same though I have not visited the head of the American since I first crossed the Nevada in ‘44.
Yours truly, J. C. FREMONT.


[Amadé Bonpland, referred to by General Fremont, was a native of France, was born at Rochelle, in 1773, graduated as a physician, and became an eminent botanist. He accompanied Humboldt to America, and subsequently became a joint author with that celebrated traveler and scientist, of several volumes of valuable works on botany, natural history, and monuments of the New World. He was for nearly ten years detained in Paraguay as a prisoner by the Dictator, Dr. Francia, to prevent him from, or to punish him for, attempting to cultivate [p.26] the Maté, or Paraguay, tea in that country. In 1858, he died at Montevideo, the capital of Uraguay, in South America.]

PRESCOTT, Arizona Territory,
March 8, 1881.

DEAR SIRS: Yours of the 3d reached me his morning. Carson River, as well as the others in that region, Humboldt, Walker, and Owens, with the Pyramid and other lakes, were named by me in the winter journey of 1843-44, to which you refer. The only volume which I have had the time to pub is since this one, is a “Geographical Memoir and Map,’ published under an order of the United States Senate, in 1848. 1 would send you a copy if I had one at band. Thanking you for the interest you show in the subject, and for your disposition to arrive at facts, I am yours truly,
J. C. FREMONT.


EDWIN BRYANT, AND OTHER EMIGRANTS OF 1846.

Among the overland emigrants of 1846, was Edwin Bryant, who later published a book entitled “What I Saw in California.” He traveled aportion of the way, from Independence, Missouri, in company with the ill-fated “Donner party-” and he states that---

The number of emigrants on the road for Oregon and California, I estimate at 3,000.

He further records, under date of June 15th, that eighteen persons returning to the States were met, who reported that in advance they had met on the road 430 teams. Add to this those accompanying Bryant, and it makes 470 vehicles bound for the Pacific Coast, one-half of which he states were destined for California.

July 15th Bryant arrived at Fort Bridger, where he found L. W. Hastings, and -Hudspeth of California, awaiting emigrants for that country, to pilot them by a new route just surveyed, that since has become known as Hastings Cut off. On the 20th Bryant and nine companions left that fort on horseback, with pack-animals, as the first to pass over the new route. He left letters to his friends advising them not to follow him with wagons, but to keep the old way by Fort Hall. The same day that Bryant’s party left Fort Bridger, to reach the Humboldt by Hastings Cut-off, that passed to the south of Salt Lake, they were followed by some forty wagons, guided by -Hastings, to break the now road. These reached California through the Great Basin, safe as did Bryant, his companions, and all who went by the way of Fort Hall, but such was not the case, however, with the last California emigrants of that season who followed, contrary to advice, the trail of Bryant.

MAJOR STEPHEN COOPER’S PARTY.

In the spring of 1846, Maj. Stephen Cooper, who now lives in Colusa County, California, started from Missouri for the Pacific Coast accompanied by his family. The Major was a frontiersman of note, having been an associate of Daniel Boone, and had, the year before, accompanied Fremont as far as the Rocky Mountains on his way to California, from -where he had returned through Texas to his home in Missouri. Besides his family the Major, was also accompanied by a train, of which he had charge, consisting of twenty-eight ox-teams transporting emigrants to California. They also passed down the Humboldt River and over the mountains by the Donner Lake route to their destination, arriving in October of that year in the Sacramento Valley.

THE DONNER LAKE TRAGEDY IN 1849.

In April of the above year an emigrant party set out from Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, for California, among whom were two brothers George, and Jacob Donner, and families numbering sixteen, James F. Reed and family of seven persons, and Franklin W. Graves with a, family of twelve. At Independence, Missouri, they were joined by Patrick Breen and. family of nine. Later Mrs. Lavina Murphy, a widow lady with whom was her family, joined them one hundred miles, west of Fort Bridget, and these were the principal members of the Donner party proper that numbered ninety souls. Independence was reached in the first week of May, and the train finally was increased to between two and three hundred wagons. At this point provisions were purchased and the overland journey commenced. On the sixteenth of June Mrs. George Donner in a letter reported very favorably of the expedition up to that time and place, 450 miles from Independence. At Fort Laramie some of them joined in celebrating the Fourth of July, and on the 20th of that month at Little Sandy River, George Donner was elected Captain of the train. At Fort Bridger a portion of the emigrants decided to try a new route to California by the way of Salt Lake, known as the Hastings Cut-off; the remaining members of the party preferring to take the longer, but better known route by which they eventually reached in safety the point of their destination. Those choosing the Salt Lake route were the ones whose tragic fate, leading them to Starvation Camp, has banded their history down to posterity as the darkest page shadowing the history of Pacific Coast pioneer life. With the change of route their trials began, Salt Lake being reached in over thirty instead of seven days as anticipated. Then the great desert beyond that lake was to be crossed, trackless, barren, and desolate and foreboding. From that time forward misfortune’s band lay heavy upon them, hope’s outlines fading grew less distinct in the shadows of each departing day, while in every succeeding event seemed lurking some dark tragedy. At the western margin of the desert it was determined that some one must go forward to Sutter’s Fort, 700 miles, and come back to meet them on the way with provisions. Volunteers were called for to do this when Wm. McCutchen of Missouri, and C. T. Stanton of Chicago, Illinois, [p.27] responded, and started on horseback alone upon the forlorn hope mission of life or death to all who were left behind.

Gravelly Ford, on the Humboldt, was reached, with worn-out cattle, by the emaciated travelers, who were subsisting upon short rations. At this place occurred the saddest event that misfortune cast by the wayside for those victims trailing their course from happy homes in the Ea9f to the court of death by the bank of Lake Donner. There was a Young man some twenty-three years of age, named John Snyder, who was driving one of the teams for Mr. Graves. He was a person of unusually fine appearance, rather tall, well developed, prepossessing, and looked a king among men. In disposition happy, mirthful, jubilant, with a smile and kind word for every one; be had become the favorite of the party. He had one misfortune, that of a fierce, ungovernable temper when the lion of anger was stirred within him. Mary Graves, a tall, graceful, dark-eyed beauty, also one of the emigrants, was to become his bride upon their arrival in California. At this fatal ford an altercation occurred between him and James F. Reed. Mrs. Reed, in rushing between the combatants, received a cruel blow from the butt end of a whip intended for her husband, dealt by Snyder, who the next instant staggered back with his life blood flowing from a mortal wound received in the side from a knife in the band of the enraged husband. Mr. Reed was banished from the train without food, or gun to get it with, to make his way as best be could to California-, but after he had gone affection overtook him. A friend stole out of camp with his gun, accompanied by Mr. Reed’s little twelve-year-old girl Virginia, who had secreted some crackers about her person, and following the wretched traveler, came up with him. But for this be must have perished on the desert, from which cruel fate be was saved through the constancy of a friend and the affections o f his child. The remains of young Snyder were buried near the place where he had fallen. The next day the train moved on with the heart-broken girl, who had looked for the last time upon the One that she had loved, and the little mound that forever covered his form from her sight.

On the ninth of October while moving down the Humboldt, an old man named Hardcoop in company with Keseberg, fell behind the train. That night Keseberg came into camp but the old man did not; he had traveled until his feet burst open, and then laid down and died. At Humboldt sink twenty-eight of their cattle were ran off by Indians, and the party was near the verge of despair. They continued however to struggle on, all of them on foot now except the children and disabled. They were literally starving, some of them being forced to go without food for a day or more at a time. On the fourteenth of October, between Humboldt sink and Wadsworth, Keseberg and a wealthy member of the party named Wolfinger, fell behind and the latter was never seen afterwards; Keseberg came into camp without his companion, and later one Joseph Reinhart, when dying, confessed to having had something to do with the murder of the missing man. The further trials and terrible horrors that beset the path of this ill-starred party is taken from the history before mentioned of Nevada County, California, by Thompson & West, and we quote the following from that work: --

On the nineteenth of October, near the present site of Wadsworth, Nevada, the destitute company was happily reprovisioned by C. T. Stanton; furnished with food and mules, together with two Indian vaqueros, by Captain Sutter, without compensation.

At the present site of Reno it was concluded to rest. Three or four days’ time was lost. This was the fatal act. The storm-clouds were already brewing upon the mountains, only a few miles distant. The ascent was ominous. Thick and thicker grew the clouds, outstripping in threatening battalions the now eagar feet of the alarmed emigrants, until, at Prosser Creek, three miles below Truckee, October 28, 1846, a month earlier than usual, the storm set in, and they found themselves in six inches of newly-fallen snow. On the summit it was already from two to five feet deep. The party, in much confusion, finally reached Donner Lake in disordered fragments. Frequent and desperate attempts were made to cross the mountain tops, but at last, baffled and despairing, they returned to camp at the lake. The storm now descended in all its pitiless fury upon the ill-fated emigrants. Its dreadful import was well understood, as laden with omens of suffering and death. With slight interruptions, the storm continued for several days. The animals were literally buried alive and frozen in the drifts. Meat was hastily prepared from their frozen carcasses, and cabins rudely built. One, the Schallenberger cabin, erected November, 1844, was already standing, about a quarter of a mile below the lake. This the Breen family appropriated. The Murphys erected one three hundred yards from the lake, marked by a large stone twelve. feet high. The Graves family built theirs near Donner Creek, three-quarters of a mile farther down the stream, the three forming the apexes of a triangle; the Breen and Murphy cabins were distant from each other about one hundred and fifty yards. The Donner brothers, with their families, hastily constructed a brush shed in Alder Creek Valley, six or seven miles from the lake. Their provisions were speedily consumed, and starvation, with all its grim attendant horrors, stared the poor emigrants in the face. Day by day, with aching hearts and paralyzed energies, they awaited, amid the beating storms of the Sierra, the dread revelation of the morrow, “hoping against hope” for some welcome sign.

On the sixteenth day of December, 1846, a party of seventeen were enrolled to attempt the hazardous [p.28] journey over the mountains, to press into the valley beyond for relief. Two returned, and the remaining fifteen pressed on, including Mary Graves and her sister, Mrs. Sarah Fosdick, and several other women, the heroic C. T. Stanton and the noble F. W. Graves (who left his wife and seven children at the lake to await in vain his return) being the leaders. This was the “Forlon Hope Party,” over whose dreadful sufferings and disaster we must throw a veil. A detailed account of this party is given from the graphic pen of C. F. McGlashan, and lately published in book form from the press of McGlashan, proprietor of the Truckee Republican, to which we take pleasure in referring the reader. Death in its most awful form reduced the wretched company to seven-two men and five women-when suddenly tracks were discovered imprinted in the snow. “Can any one imagine,” says Mary Graves in her recital, “the joy these foot-prints gave us ? ” We ran as fast as our strength would “carry us.” Turning a sharp point they suddenly came upon an Indian rancheria. The acorn-bread offered them by the kind and awestricken savages was eagerly devoured. But on they pressed with their Indian guides, only to repeat their dreadful sufferings, until at last, one evening about the last of January, Air. Eddy, with his Indian guide, preceding the party fifteen miles, reached Johnson’s Ranch, on Bear River, the first settlement on the western slope of the Sierra, when relief was sent back as soon as possible, and the remaining six survivors were brought in next day. It had been thirty-two days since they left Donner Lake. No tongue can tell, no pen portray, the awful suffering, the terrible and appalling straits, as well as the noble deeds o f heroism that characterized this march of death. The eternal mountains, whose granite faces bore witness to their sufferings, are fit monuments to mark the last resting place of Charles T. Stanton, that cultured, heroic soul, who groped his way trough the blinding snow of the Sierra to immortality. The divinest encomium- “He gave his life as a ransom for many”-- is his epitaph, foreshadowed in his own noble words, “I will bring aid to these famishing people or lay down my life.”

Nothing could be done, in the meantime, for the relief of the sufferers at Donner Lake, without securing help from Fort Sutter, which was speedily accomplished by John Rhodes. In a week, six men, fully provisioned, with Captain Reasin P. Tucker at their head, reached Johnson’s Ranch, and in ten or twelve days’ time, with provisions, mules, etc., the first relief party started for the scene of Donner Lake. It was a fearful undertaking, but on the morning of the nineteenth of February, 1847, the above party began the descent of the gorge leading to Donner Lake.

We have purposely thrown a veil over the dreadful sufferings of the stricken band left in their wretched bevels at Donner Lake. Reduced to the verge of starvation, many died (including numerous children, seven of whom were nursing babes) who, in this dreadful state of necessity, were summarily disposed of. “ Rawhides, moccasins, strings, etc., were eaten. But relief was now close at hand for the poor stricken sufferers. On the evening of the nineteenth of February, 1847, the stillness of death that had settled upon the scene was broken by prolonged shouts. In an instant the painfully sensitive ears of the despairing watchers caught the welcome sound. Captain Tucker, with his relief party, had at last arrived upon the scene. Every face was bathed in tears, and the strongest men of the relief party, melted at the appalling sight, sat down and wept with the rest. But time was precious, as storms were imminent. The return party was quickly gathered. Twenty-three members started, among them several women and children. Of this number two were compelled to return, and three perished on the journey. Many hardships and privations were experienced, and their provisions were soon entirely exhausted. Death once more stared them in the face, and despair settled upon them. But assistance was near at hand. James F. Reed, who had preceded the Donner party by some months, suddenly appeared with the second relief party, on the twenty-fifth of February, 1847. The joy of the meeting was indescribable, especially between the family and the long-absent father. Reprovisioned, the party pressed on, and gained their destination after severe suffering, with eighteen members, only three having perished. Reed continued his journey to the cabins at Donner Lake. There the scene was simply indescribable, starvation and disease were fast claiming their victims. March 1st (according to Breen’s diary), Reed and his party arrived at the camp. Proceeding directly to his cabin, be was espied by his little daughter (who, with her sister was carried back by the previous party), and immediately recognized with a cry of joy. Provisions were carefully dealt out to the famishing people, and immediate steps were taken for the return. Seventeen comprised this party. Half starved and completely exhausted, they were compelled to camp in the midst of a furious storm, in which Mr. Reed barely escaped with his life. This was “Starved Camp,” and from this point Mr. Rood, with his two little children and another person, struggled ahead to obtain hasty relief if possible.

On the second day after leaving Starved Camp, Air. Reed and the three companions were overtaken by Cady and Stone, and on the night of the third day reached Woodworth’s Camp, at Bear Valley, in safety. The horrors of Starved Camp beg,(Par all description, indeed, require none. The third relief party, composed of John Stark, Howard Oakley, and Charles Stone, were nearing the rescue, while W. H. Foster and W. H. Eddy (rescued by a former party) were bent on the same mission. These, with Hiram Miller set out from Woodworth’s Camp in the following morning after Reed’s arrival. The eleven were duly reached, but were in a starving condition, [p.29] and nine of the eleven were unable to walk. By the noble resolution and herculean efforts of John Stark, a part of the number were borne and urged onward to their destination, while the other portion was compelled to remain and await another relief party. When the third relief party, under Foster and Eddy, arrived at Donner Lake, the sole survivors at Alder Creek were George Donner, the Captain of the company, and his heroic and faithful wife, whose devotion to her dying husband caused her own death during the last and fearful days of waiting for the fourth relief. George Donner knew he was dying, and urged his wife to save her life, and go with her little ones, with the third relief, but she refused. Nothing was more heart-rending than her sad parting with her beloved little ones who wound their childish arms lovingly around her neck, and besought her with mingled tears and kisses to join them. But duty prevailed over affection, and she retraced the weary distance to die with him whom she had promised to love and honor to the end. Such scenes of anguish are seldom witnessed on this sorrowing earth, and such acts of triumphant devotion are among her most golden deeds. The snowy cerements of Donner Lake enshrouded in its stilly whiteness no purer life, no nobler heart than Mrs. George Donner’s. The terrible recitals that close this awful tragedy we willingly omit.

The third relief party rescued four of the five last survivors; the fourth and last relief party rescued the last survivor, Lewis Keseberg, on the seventh of April, 1847. Ninety names are given as members of the Donner party. Of these, forty-two perished, six did not live to reach the Mountains, and forty-eight survived. Twenty-six, and possibly twenty-eight, out of the forty-eight survivors, are living today, several residing in San Jose, Calistoga, Los Gatos, Marysville, and in Oregon.

Thus ends this narrative of horrors, without a parallel in the annals of American history, of appalling disasters, fearful sufferings, heroic fortitude, self-denial and heroism.

The emigration increased in 1847, and then the gold discovered in 1848 induced a steady stream of treasure seekers to come from the States, over the plains, and down the Humboldt River in 1849, en route for California. Their number precludes the possibility of a further detail of the advent of those who were but passing through Nevada.




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