Across the Plains in the Donner Party by Virginia Reed Murphy

 First Published: July 1891

This is the account of the Donner tragedy from one of the survivors, Virginia Reed Murphy. Virginia Reed Murphy (1833 or 1834 – 1921) was an American memoirist and survivor of the Donner Party. 

The party departed in 1846, and the originator of moving to California was Virginia's father, James F. Reed. James Frazier Reed (November 14, 1800 – July 24, 1874) was an Irish-born American businessman, soldier and pioneer in the American West, notable for being an organizing member of the ill-fated Donner Party emigration to California in 1846.  In 1845, Reed decided to head west to California and organized a small group, which left the Springfield, Illinois area in April 1846.

The members that joined him were George Donner and Jacob Donner.

 George Donner was about 60 years old and living near Springfield, Illinois. With him were his 44-year-old wife Tamsen, their three daughters Frances (6), Georgia (4), and Eliza (3), and George's daughters from a previous marriage: Elitha (14) and Leanna (12). 

George's younger brother Jacob (56) joined the party with his wife Elizabeth (45), stepsons Solomon Hook (14) and William Hook (12), and five children: George (9), Mary (7), Isaac (6), Lewis (4), and Samuel (1).

James F. Reed (45) was accompanied on the journey by his wife Margret (32), stepdaughter Virginia (13), daughter Martha Jane ("Patty", 8), sons James and Thomas (5 and 3), and Sarah Keyes, Margret's mother.

The Reeds hired three men to drive the ox teams: Milford ("Milt") Elliott (28), James Smith (25), and Walter Herron (25). Baylis Williams (24) went along as handyman and his sister, Eliza (25), as the family's cook.

In Kansas they saw the first Indians, the Kaws. The Kaw Nation, also known as the Kanza or Kansa, is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas. The Kaw people historically lived in the central Midwestern United States. 

Grandma Sarah Keyes died of tuberculosis on 29 May after reaching the Big Blue River. She was buried nearby, off to the side of the trail, with a gray rock inscribed, "Mrs. Sarah Keyes, Died May 29 1846; Aged 70".

They celebrated 4 July in Fort Laramie. Fort Laramie is a historic 19th-century fur trading post, diplomatic site, and military installation located in eastern Wyoming.

There they saw the Sioux that were on the war path to fight the Crows or Blackfeet. The Sioux are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America.

The party was told that the Hastings Cut-off would allow them to reach California more quickly, so the party was divided. On July 20, at the Little Sandy River, most of the wagon train opted to follow the established trail via Fort Hall. A smaller group opted to head for Fort Bridger and needed a leader. 

This started the problems. On 5 October 1846 Reed stabbed one of the drivers to death. John Snyder angrily beat the ox of Reed's hired teamster Milt Elliott. When Reed intervened, Snyder rained blows onto his head with a whip handle—when Reed's wife attempted to intervene, she too was struck. Reed retaliated by fatally stabbing Snyder. The Donner party held a council to decide what to do with Reed, and they allowed Reed to leave the camp without his family, who were to be taken care of by the others. Reed departed alone the next morning, unarmed,but his stepdaughter Virginia rode ahead and secretly provided him with a rifle and food.

After Reed's departure, the party reached what was to be called Donner Lake, where they had to build cabins to protect themselves from the inclement weather. It was October 20 and they had heard at Sutter's Fort that the pass (now known as Donner Pass) would not be snowed in until the middle of November. Sixty members and associates of the Breen, Graves, Reed, Murphy, Keseberg and Eddy families set up for the winter at Truckee Lake. Three widely separated cabins of pine logs served as their homes, with dirt floors and poorly constructed flat roofs that leaked when it rained. 

They realised that they would die if they waited and a party was organized and maed 'Forlorn Hope'. 

Margaret and her children decided  to try to find help but two of the children returned. Reef found them and took them to safety. James Reed made it out of the Sierra Nevada to Rancho Johnson in late October. He was safe and recovering at Sutter's Fort, but each day he became more concerned for the fate of his family and friends. The party of roughly 30 horses and a dozen men carried food supplies, and expected to find the Donner Party on the western side of the mountain, along the Bear River below the steep approach to Emigrant Gap, perhaps starving but alive. When they arrived in the river valley, they found only a migrant couple who had been separated from their company and were near starvation.

Of the 87 people who entered the Wasatch Mountains, only 48 survived. Only the Reed and Breen families remained intact. The children of Jacob Donner, George Donner, and Franklin Graves were orphaned. William Eddy was alone; most of the Murphy family had died. Only three mules reached California; the remaining animals perished. Most of the Donner Party members' possessions were discarded.