George Donner

George Donner (1784–March 1847) was the leader of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound American settlers who became snowcovered in the Sierra Nevada of Alta California, Mexico in the winter of 1846–1847. Nearly half of the party starved to death, and some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism.

George Donner was born circa 1784 near Salem, North Carolina. He was the third child and eldest son of George Donner (circa 1752-1844) and Mary Huff (circa 1755-1842). George had three sisters and three brothers, one of whom, Jacob (circa 1789-1846), accompanied him to California as did George's third wife, Tamsen Donner.

Before emigrating westward, George Donner lived just outside Springfield, Illinois. On April 14, 1846, he, his brother Jacob, and James F. Reed, along with their families and hired hands, set out for California in covered wagons as part of the Boggs Company. Three months later, at the Little Sandy River in Wyoming, George was chosen to lead the group, now known as the Donner-Reed Party or Donner Party. The Donner Party took the Hastings Cutoff through the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and crossed the Great Salt Lake Desert, rejoining the California Trail west of Elko, Nevada. They arrived at the Sierra Nevada late in the season and were trapped by snow on the eastern side of Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake) west of Truckee, California.

A rescue party was organized. However, when they arrived Jacob Donner was dead, and George Donner's arm had become gangrenous from an injury to his hand sustained en route to the campsite, while repairing a broken wagon axle. The rescuers took George's daughters Elitha and Leanna, leaving George and his wife behind. The second and third rescue parties found George too weak to travel. When the fourth and last relief party arrived on April 17, 1847, they found George dead in his bed. Some other accounts of George's death indicate that his body had been mutilated.

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