August 26, 1970 (12 pages)

4 But a heartening factor was that Caleb (Old) Greenwood, redoubtable guide and trapper, who knew that Sierra in all of its moods, had shed his eightythree years and volunteered to guide the expedition. Moreover, other veterans, such as Reed, Eddy, Foster and McCutcheon, had enrolled. Along the seventyfive miles of rugged trail, word sped from mouth to mouth until it finally reached the lake that rescue was at hand, The name Woodworth was on every tongue. He was looked upon as heavensent deliverer. The start made on February 22 must have been a brave and impressive spectacle. Unfortunately, insofar as the vaunted deliverer Woodworth was concerned if fell far short of expectations. By the time Mule Springs, the jumping-off place into deep snow, was reached, the Midshipman felt the need of rest and contemplation. It mattered not that his toughened veterans of the trail urged the terrible necessity of pushing on to the lake. The commander, minimizing the need for haste, refused to budge. Apparently he had by that time convinced himself that his mission was merely that of assisting such of the perishNevada ounty SELIM E. WOODWORTH as he appeared in later life. A leader who promised much but delivered little. ing refugees as might reach him from the stench holes still fifty miles distant. Eddy, Foster, McCutcheon and other of the men whose families . were imperiled at. the lake, begged, cajoled, even threatened, their leader. His only concession was to move forward a few miles, possibly into Bear Valley, but declared he would not attempt a crossing of the summit and advised the veterans to abandon such exploit. Eddy and Foster left him in disgust and won through to the lake. But Woodworth did guarantee payments from the San Francisco fund to anyone who would bring out a helpless refugee. Soon Woodworth and his entourage were back-tracking to Johnson's and a little later the Passed Midshipman was to return ingloriously to San Francisco. NOTE NUMBER ONE: The exacet site of the makeshift cabins in which Jacob and George Donner lived and died were long in doubt and designated only as on “Alder Creek or Prosser Creek,"\Mrs. Jessie C. Weslow, a resident of Sacramento, who © . both as a child and an adult, lived in that region, believes herself, to be the only person “a # still in life who looked upon one of those huts even peeked into its interior. That was long ago and all traces have disappeared. From a drawing provided by Mrs. Weslow it appears that both cabins stood in Alder Creek Valley, that of George on the Emigrant Road, that of Jacob at an unspecified distance north. . This description is given: “Alder Creek lies four miles northeast of Truckée, in Sections 26 and 27, Township 18 ’N., Range 16 E, As the location is in reality a twin valley it takes its name from the creeks, Alder Creek rises in the west and flows east to join Prosser Creek in Prosser Meadow. From thence on it is Prosser Creek and Prosser Meadow." Mrs. Weslow and Edwin H. Johnson, who has spent several Summers at research work in the Truckee region, believe that those historic sites are now established beyond question and hope that the Centennial Period will bring about the placing of permanent markers, NOTE NUMBER TWO: In writing these sketches I have pondered whether I should reproduce the hideous storytold in San Francisco by Jean Baptiste, the Mexican herder who by some ° (Part Five.) expedient avoided the sacrfices imposed by the refugees and won his way out of the snows. " The account, a verbatim copy of which I have, was preserved by a Naval Lieutenant from the publication "Los Gringoes" six hundred and fifty terrible words of it. McGlashan, in keeping with the policy of deprecation, forebore its publication: Likewise the one participant narrator of the tragedy, Eliza Donner Houghton, rejected the version. No subsequent writer to my knowledge has.given it the light of print. It is, in truth, almost unprintable, Thus its continued obscurity best serves the purpose of this review. But if Baptiste "made up a pack of lies," as has been charged, it took him a long time to repent of his mendacity, It was not until forty years later that he told Eliza that everything at the camp of the Donners was proper ~ho practice of cannibalism, all bodies . buried. Stewart expressesthe opinion that since. Baptiste lied either in his 1847 version or in his interview given after the lapse of four decades, he probably came nearer to the trath in his original statement, although there would exist in such a case ample room for exBy Edmund k aggerations, But no account of t! Party, it matter not h¢ detailed, can rightful missed as overdrawn . The. facts as accept writers thereof borde1 credible. But that is that the extremes to wi harassed castaways should be judged by . standards of well ¢ Americans of 1949, NOTE NUMBER TE lim E. Woodworth was -a Midshipman in Ju served. ON several ships, reached Orego of absence in Septem came to San Francis U.S. Schooner Shark ¢ -ferred to the USS War uary 16, 1846. At tha was "detached from di ‘accompanying order missing from record: immediately thereafte volunteered to lead tt Relief. After "disban The late Representa ry L, Englebright, who trace the record of ¥ in the files of the . partment, told me tha

4 But a heartening factor was that Caleb (Old) Greenwood, redoubtable guide and trapper, who knew that Sierra in all of its moods, had shed his eightythree years and volunteered to guide the expedition. Moreover, other veterans, such as Reed, Eddy, Foster and McCutcheon, had enrolled. Along the seventyfive miles of rugged trail, word sped from mouth to mouth until it finally reached the lake that rescue was at hand, The name Woodworth was on every tongue. He was looked upon as heavensent deliverer. The start made on February 22 must have been a brave and impressive spectacle. Unfortunately, insofar as the vaunted deliverer Woodworth was concerned if fell far short of expectations. By the time Mule Springs, the jumping-off place into deep snow, was reached, the Midshipman felt the need of rest and contemplation. It mattered not that his toughened veterans of the trail urged the terrible necessity of pushing on to the lake. The commander, minimizing the need for haste, refused to budge. Apparently he had by that time convinced himself that his mission was merely that of assisting such of the perishNevada ounty SELIM E. WOODWORTH as he appeared in later life. A leader who promised much but delivered little. ing refugees as might reach him from the stench holes still fifty miles distant. Eddy, Foster, McCutcheon and other of the men whose families . were imperiled at. the lake, begged, cajoled, even threatened, their leader. His only concession was to move forward a few miles, possibly into Bear Valley, but declared he would not attempt a crossing of the summit and advised the veterans to abandon such exploit. Eddy and Foster left him in disgust and won through to the lake. But Woodworth did guarantee payments from the San Francisco fund to anyone who would bring out a helpless refugee. Soon Woodworth and his entourage were back-tracking to Johnson's and a little later the Passed Midshipman was to return ingloriously to San Francisco. NOTE NUMBER ONE: The exacet site of the makeshift cabins in which Jacob and George Donner lived and died were long in doubt and designated only as on “Alder Creek or Prosser Creek,"\Mrs. Jessie C. Weslow, a resident of Sacramento, who © . both as a child and an adult, lived in that region, believes herself, to be the only person “a # still in life who looked upon one of those huts even peeked into its interior. That was long ago and all traces have disappeared. From a drawing provided by Mrs. Weslow it appears that both cabins stood in Alder Creek Valley, that of George on the Emigrant Road, that of Jacob at an unspecified distance north. . This description is given: “Alder Creek lies four miles northeast of Truckée, in Sections 26 and 27, Township 18 ’N., Range 16 E, As the location is in reality a twin valley it takes its name from the creeks, Alder Creek rises in the west and flows east to join Prosser Creek in Prosser Meadow. From thence on it is Prosser Creek and Prosser Meadow." Mrs. Weslow and Edwin H. Johnson, who has spent several

Summers at research work in the Truckee region, believe that those historic sites are now established beyond question and hope that the Centennial Period will bring about the placing of permanent markers, NOTE NUMBER TWO: In writing these sketches I have pondered whether I should reproduce the hideous storytold in San Francisco by Jean Baptiste, the Mexican herder who by some ° (Part Five.) expedient avoided the sacrfices imposed by the refugees and won his way out of the snows. " The account, a verbatim copy of which I have, was preserved by a Naval Lieutenant from the publication "Los Gringoes" six hundred and fifty terrible words of it. McGlashan, in keeping with the policy of deprecation, forebore its publication: Likewise the one participant narrator of the tragedy, Eliza Donner Houghton, rejected the version. No subsequent writer to my knowledge has.given it the light of print. It is, in truth, almost unprintable, Thus its continued obscurity best serves the purpose of this review. But if Baptiste "made up a pack of lies," as has been charged, it took him a long time to repent of his mendacity, It was not until forty years later that he told Eliza that everything at the camp of the Donners was proper ~ho practice of cannibalism, all bodies . buried. Stewart expressesthe opinion that since. Baptiste lied either in his 1847 version or in his interview given after the lapse of four decades, he probably came nearer to the trath in his original statement, although there would exist in such a case ample room for exBy Edmund k aggerations, But no account of t! Party, it matter not h¢ detailed, can rightful missed as overdrawn . The. facts as accept writers thereof borde1 credible. But that is that the extremes to wi harassed castaways should be judged by . standards of well ¢ Americans of 1949, NOTE NUMBER TE lim E. Woodworth was -a Midshipman in Ju served. ON several ships, reached Orego of absence in Septem came to San Francis U.S. Schooner Shark ¢ -ferred to the USS War uary 16, 1846. At tha was "detached from di ‘accompanying order missing from record: immediately thereafte volunteered to lead tt Relief. After "disban The late Representa ry L, Englebright, who trace the record of ¥ in the files of the . partment, told me tha