Across the Plains in the Donner Party (PDF)

The story of the Donner party's disastrous journey was first recorded in diaries and letters written along the way. After the trip was completed and rumors about the party's horrible experiences began to circulate, including shocking stories about cannibalism, newspaper reporters interviewed the survivors. These published articles grabbed the public's interest, and there was a demand for more information for many years to come.
In 1891, James Reed's stepdaughter, Virginia, who was by then Mrs. J. M. Murphy, was asked by Century magazine to write an article about her experiences in the Donner party. Her story, “Across the Plains in the Donner Party,” is the most complete record written by a member of the party, and it is the foundation for the text that follows.
Virginia's words in Part One are supplemented by letters Mr. Reed wrote to relatives in the United States as he traveled west. He sent these letters home with men he met on the trail who were returning east. News about people heading to California was in such demand in the travelers' hometowns that their letters were given to local newspapers for publication. Reed's letters appeared in several issues of the Sangamo Journal in Springfield, Illinois, in 1846. To distinguish Reed's accounts from Virginia's story in the following pages, his letters have been put into separate chapters beneath his byline.
A chronology, illustrations, charts, and maps have been added to make the story easier to understand. In addition, spelling and punctuation have been standardized for the reader's ease.
And finally, even though the names, dates, and events that Virginia described have been verified against numerous historical records, readers should remember that “Across the Plains in the Donner Party” is Virginia's version of what happened, written forty-five years after it took place. Not every survivor would have described these events exactly the way she did. The death of John Snyder, for instance, was seen as murder by some, but self-defense by Virginia. Even so, her story is an important contribution toward our understanding of what actually happened to the Donner party.