Surrounded by horrors as they were, it seemed they could endure the thought of yet an additional horror....There were the dead, the victims who already had perished!...
Seven of the fifteen got through to the Sacramento Valley, among these the young girl, Mary Graves, described as "a very beautiful girl, of tall and slender build, and, exceptionally graceful character." The story brought out by these survivors of the first party to cross the Sierras from the starving camp set all California aflame.There were no less than three relief expeditions formed, which at varying dates crossed the mountains to the east.Some men crossed the snow belt five times in all.
The rescuers were often in as much danger as the victims they sought to save.
And they could not save them.Back there in their tents and hovels around Donner Lake starvation was doing its work steadily.
There is contemporary history also covering the details of this.
Tamsen Donner, heroine that she was, kept a diary which would have been valuable for us, but this was lost along with her paintings and her botanical collections.The best preserved diary is that of Patrick Breen, done in simple and matter-of-fact fashion throughout most of the starving winter.Thus:
"Dec.17.Pleasant; William Murphy returned from the mountain party last evening; Baylis Williams died night before last;Milton and Noah started for Donner's eight days ago; not returned yet; think they are lost in the snow.
"Dec.21.Milton got back last night from Donner's camp.Sad news; Jacob Donner, Samuel Shoemaker, Rhineheart, and Smith are dead; the rest of them in a low situation; snowed all night, with a strong southwest wind.
"Dec.23.Clear to-day; Milton took some of his meat away; all well at their camp.Began this day to read the "Thirty Days'
Prayers"; Almighty God, grant the requests of unworthy sinners!
"Jan.13.Snowing fast; snow higher than the shanty; it must be thirteen feet deep.Can not get wood this morning; it is a dreadful sight for us to look upon.
"Jan.27.Commenced snowing yesterday; still continues today.
Lewis Keseberg, Jr., died three days ago; food growing scarce;don't have fire enough to cook our hides.
"Jan.31.The sun does not shine out brilliant this morning;froze hard last night; wind northwest.Landrum Murphy died last night about ten o'clock; Mrs.Reed went to Graves's this morning to look after goods.
"Feb.4.Snowed hard until twelve o'clock last night; many uneasy for fear we shall all perish with hunger; we have but little meat left, and only three hides; Mrs.Reed has nothing but one hide, and that is on Graves's house; Milton lives there, and likely will keep that.Eddy's child died last night.
"Feb.7.Ceased to snow at last; today it is quite pleasant.
McCutchen's child died on the second of this month.
"[This child died and was buried in the Graves's cabin.Mr.W.C.
Graves helped dig the grave near one side of the cabin, and laid the little one to rest.One of the most heart-rending features of this Donner tragedy is the number of infants that perished.Mrs.
Breen, Mrs.Pike, Mrs.Foster, Mrs.McCutchen, Mrs.Eddy, and Mrs.Graves each had nursing babes when the fatal camp was pitched at Donner Lake.]
"Feb.8.Fine, clear morning.Spitzer died last night, and we will bury him in the snow; Mrs.Eddy died on the night of the seventh.
