[This is the story of three brothers of my great-great grandmother who went to California for the Gold Rush and back again. It was published in the Weldon (Illinois) Record in 1905. It is an amalgam of reminiscences of all three brothers, not of any particular one. The copy I have was typed by someone, probably my grandmother, from the original – there are some obvious transcription mistakes, others could have been in the original. I have made some comments and obvious corrections in square brackets. Part 1. Part 2.]

Arriving in California

Arriving in California

We came to [Humboldt] river. We had not seen any signs of buffalo since we left Salt Lake City. The Indians said [there] had been a sleet ten years before, which stayed on two weeks and all the buffalo had starved. We saw plenty of old horns and bones. We believed this story true. [Humboldt] river runs west. We followed it the whole length to where it spreads out and evaporates. Here we came to the sandy desert, Mark lost a half pound of weight a day. Jonathan contracted mountain fever, and was very sick for two days and lay on the mules.

The last three days we traveled along the river, which seemed to grow smaller, and to sink into the ground and evaporate. All the rain that falls into the great Basin has to evaporate to get away. About forty miles before we came to the sink, John stayed behind to hunt a mule [that] had dropped out. After we had gone ten miles Mark stopped to wait for him. [The next line went off the bottom of the page and is illegible.]

We found the mule late in the evening. We passed their camp without seeing them. We picketed the mules out and slept until morning. We had nothing to eat since the morning before. Still thinking they were ahead we pushed on to the sink. This was a hot place. There were campers there. We tried to buy something to eat, but they would not sell anything as they were scarce, but gave us something. We had but four dollars and a half in money.

Not finding our company here, we packed a bunch of grass on each mule and when night came we started across the Great American desert which was 65 miles across. When we were out about forty miles the road forked. Each one looked plain. We didn’t know which one to take, but thought they came together later on. We took to the right which led into the Truckee river route about 25 miles to the river. We traveled that night and the next day at dark we were within two miles of the river. About twelve o’clock at night we went to sleep walking, and would stumble against each other. We laid down and took a nap fastening the mules to the sagebrush.

About ten o’clock the next day we came to a boiling spring or geyser, with numerous opening[s] eighteen inches in diameter and about 100 feet in depth. We could hear the water boiling which came to the top, and boiled over every twenty minutes. The water was blue and said to be poisonous.

The company had taken the left hand road which led to Carson river. They crossed the mountains more [than] fifty miles south of the Truckee route. There were four of them, Jonathan and the three men from St. Louis. We finally came to a hot spring, the first good water we had seen. John found some ginger in one of his pockets and we found a can and made some tea which we drank. One mule had a light load and the other no load, but we could walk better [than] he could carry us as he was almost worn out. John got the sore eyes from the alkali dust. We stayed at the spring over night. There was plenty of grass.

Next morning when we started a man from New York got on hisparel [?] to bother him. Then he got [a] horse and started with us and stayed with us all the rest of the journey. He was a disagreeable [cowardly] man and seemed to be afraid all the time. We traveled up the Truckee river [canyon] which in most places is half a mile wide. The river is small and very crooked, running from one bluff to another. The trail crossed it thirty times.

When we reached the summit of the Sierra Nevada mountains we had passed all the immigrant trains except a company of fur traders with about a dozen mules. One day we were not far from the summit and lost the trail. There were mule tracks all around but not on the trail. It was brushy and looked wild. The old man stayed with the mules, while we were trying to find the trail. After a while he became scared and started to come to us without seeing us and hallowing quite loud. We could not answer for laughing. He then yelled very loud and let off a few [of] the most doleful yells I ever heard. He thought he was lost in a wild country.

When we were half way through the canyon, we saw tracks which were made by a band of Indians. We had just fallen in with a small party. They thought we had better travel together until after dark, so the Indians could not locate our camp. We came upon a company of twelve men, and camped with them and we were not molested.

Our youngest mule in crossing the country would pick up stones, and work them around in his mouth and drop them out. The oldest mule could stand more. The younger mule finally gave out so we tied him to a sage brush and went on.

The sand went right to the river. The water was two feet deep and cool from the mountains. We bathed our faces, drank, and bathed our faces again and were refreshed. We crossed over and when we came to the other bank the grass was [waist] high. As fine a grass as you ever saw grow. We turned the mules in. Next morning we went around to the people who were there and tried to buy provisions. I bought four pounds of flour and a piece of [bacon]. We had a frying pan tied on the pack. I mixed up some dough and we had some [grub].

We went back to see about the other mule. We met Whitesides, an old acquaintance, and he had one of his men bring the mule and tied it to that I could find it near, which I did. I took him across and turned him loose. We knew that as the boys were not here that they had [gone] the Carson [river] route. We stayed here a day. Then we started to [Sacramento] on one half pound [of] provisions a day. We went up the Truckee river and [crossed] 27 times in one day.

Charley, a friend and two fellows from Michigan wanted us to stay until the mules were recruited; so we could go straight up the mountain, but we had no provisions and it was too steep a mountain for any mule to climb. We passed them in the afternoon. About thirty Indians came down in front of us. We saw them first and got our mules under brush. They went to the camp, looked around and left. Charley Miller came up and we told him about the Indians. They looked terribly frightened and traveled on as fast as possible. We overtook them just at dark, and camped 200 yards away in the deep grass and held the lariats of our mules so they could not get them.

When we were near the source of the Truckee river, we saw [where] the Dorner family and company had started. They started overland in “49” from McLean Co., Illinois. (I knew some of their folks.) [They] were overtaken by a snowstorm in the mountains in the fall; there were a great many of them. The Indians discovered them and carried the news to Sutter’s fort, the whites made up a company and went after them. Those who were alive had lived on human flesh. One woman when the discovering party came after them hid her [husband’s] heart to eat on the road. [As you might suspect, I think this must be referring to the Donner party, which in fact started off from Sangamon county in Illinois, albeit in 18946, not 1849. McLean county was adjacent to Sangamon, and also had Donner relatives there, although as far as I can tell no Donners from McLean county were in the Donner party.]

Donner Summit

Donner Summit today

The depth of the snow was shown where the party had cut the trees off, and left stumps ten and twelve feet high, when the snow was gone. At one place they had made a camp by a fallen redwood, by taking the bark which is 15 inches thick and leaning It up against a 12 foot log. This would make a fine camp. We went down this slope. Nothing of importance happened.

Alder Creek, site of the Donner Camp, in 1866

Photo by Lawrence and Houseworth/Library of Congress

One day we saw a bear track which measured twelve inches in diameter. We saw but one wild Indian. He was running and had no wearing apparel. Down where the Bear river runs into the [Sacramento] valley, we found good grazing. We stopped to let our mules rest and graze. This was the fifth of [August]. Here was the Johnson ranch. There were several old adobe buildings look as if it had been settled a long time. A man by the name of Nicholas kept the store. I recollect he sold flour sugar and bacon, etc., at the same price.

There was a camp of civilized Indians here. We were out of money. Charley Miller had just fifty cents, and some beans. He told me to take the money and buy all the meat I could with it. I bought one pound. We cooked the beans and meat and made a pot of bean soup. We ate our soup and rested until the cool of the evening.