Donner Party

Members of "The Forlorn Hope"
Name	Age
Antonio*	23‡
Luis*	19‡
Salvador*	28‡
Charles Burger†	30‡
Patrick Dolan*	35‡
William Eddy	28‡
Jay Fosdick*	23‡
Sarah Fosdick	21
Sarah Foster	19
William Foster	30
Franklin Graves*	57
Mary Ann Graves	19
Lemuel Murphy*	12
William Murphy†	10
Amanda McCutchen	23
Harriet Pike	18
Charles Stanton*	30
* died en route † turned back before reaching pass ‡ estimated age

Members rescued by first relief
Name	Age
Elitha Donner	14
Leanna Donner	12
George Donner, Jr.	9
William Hook*	12
Margret Reed	32
Virginia Reed	12
James Reed, Jr.	6
Edward Breen	13
Simon Breen	8
William Graves	17
Eleanor Graves	14
Lovina Graves	12
Mary Murphy	14
William Murphy	10
Naomi Pike	2
Philippine Keseberg	23
Ada Keseberg*	3
Doris Wolfinger	20
John Denton*	28
Noah James	20
Eliza Williams	31
* died en route

Members rescued by second relief
Name	Age
Isaac Donner*	5
Patty Reed	9
Thomas Reed	4
Patrick Breen†	51
Margaret Breen†	40
John Breen†	14
Patrick Breen, Jr.†	9
James Breen†	5
Peter Breen†	3
Isabella Breen†	1
Elizabeth Graves*	45
Nancy Graves†	9
Jonathan Graves†	7
Franklin Ward Graves, Jr.*	5
Elizabeth Graves†	1
Mary Donner†	7
Solomon Hook	15
* died en route † came out with John Stark

Members rescued by third relief
Name	Age
Eliza Donner	3
Georgia Donner	4
Frances Donner	6
Simon Murphy	8
Jean Baptiste Trudeau	16

The Donner Party (sometimes called the Donner-Reed Party) was a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846. They were delayed by a series of mishaps and mistakes, and spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada. Some of the pioneers resorted to cannibalism to survive.

The journey west usually took between four and six months, but the Donner Party was slowed by following a new route called Hastings Cutoff, which crossed Utah's Wasatch Mountains and Great Salt Lake Desert. The rugged terrain and difficulties encountered while traveling along the Humboldt River in present-day Nevada resulted in the loss of many cattle and wagons and splits within the group.

By the beginning of November 1846, the settlers had reached the Sierra Nevada where they became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall near Truckee (now Donner) Lake, high in the mountains. Their food supplies ran extremely low and, in mid-December, some of the group set out on foot to obtain help. Rescuers from California attempted to reach the settlers, but the first relief party did not arrive until the middle of February 1847, almost four months after the wagon train became trapped. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived to reach California, many of them having eaten the dead for survival.

Historians have described the episode as one of the most bizarre and spectacular tragedies in Californian history and western-US migration.

During the 1840s, the United States saw a dramatic increase in pioneers, people who left their homes in the east to settle in Oregon and California. Some, such as Patrick Breen, saw California as a place where they would be free to live in a fully Catholic culture, but many were inspired by the idea of Manifest Destiny, a philosophy which asserted that the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans belonged to European Americans and they should settle it. Most wagon trains followed the Oregon Trail route from Independence, Missouri to the Continental Divide, traveling at about 15 miles (24 km) a day on a journey that usually took between four and six months. The trail generally followed rivers to South Pass, a mountain pass in Wyoming, which was relatively easy for wagons to negotiate. From there, wagon trains had a choice of routes to their destination.

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Wikipedia