Special Collections Paper

Of the many groups who safely migrated over-land to California , the decision to take the supposedly three hundred-mile shortcut known as "Hastings Cut Off" proved deadly for the Donner Party.  Instead of taking a week to get to the Great Salt Lake it took them a month and this meant a shortage of supplies.  Moreover, the party had to wait for four months near Donner Lake due to an early and heavy winter that amounted to a snow depth of twenty-two feet.  Only forty-five of the seventy-nine persons on the original Donner Party survived (Rolle, pg. 99). 

Although everyone in the Donner party experienced the same hardship, it was the worldview of each individual that determined their unique outlook on the experience.  In this paper I will compare and contrast the worldview of two men (Patrick Breen and J. Quinn Thornton) and one woman (Virginia Murphy).  Although the focus of this paper is on the immense differences between each person's point of view, an inherent similarity between all three pioneers is that they chose to use the written word to address the tribulations of their journey.  By examining each of the three authors we will see the positive and negative aspects of using primary source documents. 

The interesting thing I discovered when reading journal entries by Patrick Breen was that he was Christian and was ultimately concerned with his faith as a mechanism to overcome the gruesome reality of the Donner Party.  He talks of his hope in God, gives praise for recovering from sickness, and asks God for a positive outlook on what is happening.  Shortly after Christmas Breen writes an entry that really embodies how he ties in his worldly circumstances with his Christian perspective.  He says, "Last of the year, may we with God's help spend the coming year better than the past which we purpose to do if Almighty God will deliver us from our present dreadful situation which is our prayer if the will of God sees it fitting for us Amen" (Breen, pg. 277).  Patrick Breen repeatedly acknowledges the physical world (especially the harsh weather) but he is able to balance worldly circumstances with a spiritual hope and this gives him a unique perspective.  Although the winter was undoubtedly the hardest obstacle that the Donner Party would have to overcome, this man found his courage in God.  Ultimately, Breen's perspective was transcendent because he focused on the power of another world as a means to deal with the gravity of his own.  This is a legitimate and effective way to deal with hardship.  

J. Quinn Thornton, on the other hand, was not Christian; therefore, he did not hold the Christian perspective that Breen held.  He was more candid about his feelings and the immense suffering the whole party was feeling.  Each man had a specific focus that shines through in his writings.  Looking at the entries from the same period we can see that Thornton focused more on acquiring food through hunting as opposed to Breen's focus on the weather.  Thornton 's focus also makes sense because most of the oxen were already killed and food was extremely scarce.  Even the language that Thornton uses portrays the enormity of the situation.  He uses strong words that capture the feelings of the people such as "rescue", "miserable", and "starvation."  In October he wrote, "Eddy killed a duck and one gray squirrel.  Nothing of importance occurred between this date and the twenty-first beyond the fears of starvation, and the increasing weakness of the emigrants" (pg. 32).  In his writings he is honest and directly confronts the constant pain in his life.  It was through writing that Thornton was able to talk about the suffering and hopefully was able to find some relief. 

A great way to show how Breen and Thornton 's worldview differ is to look at the events that they recorded.  Starvation was such a threat during these winter months that cannibalism was an unfortunate solution.  A very intriguing fact is that Patrick Breen does not talk of this, but Thornton does.  This is an instance where Thornton comments on the tangible and tremendous struggles of the Party where Breen does not.  In vivid language Thornton says, "The horrible expedient of eating human flesh was now again proposed.  This Mr. Eddy declined doing, but his miserable companions cut the flesh from the arms and legs of Patrick Dolan, and roasted and ate it, averting their faces from each other, and weeping" (pg. 40).  Thornton is a very rational person and that shines through in his writings.  He recognizes the constant threat of starvation and shows how that was manifest in real ways, whereas Breen's transcendent worldview caused him to divert his attention to his hopes for another world. 

An interesting thing I found was that on this trip the men found strength in the women.  Thornton says that "the difficulties, dangers, and misfortunes seems to prostrate the men, called forth the energies of the gentler sex, and gave them a sublime elevation of character, which enabled them to abide the most withering blasts of adversity with unshaken firmness" (pg. 42).  I think this confirms that women and men generally hold different perspectives because they were created differently and because they have different experiences.  It is important to analyze the writings of the "gentler sex" to add another dimension to the Donner Party. 

Virginia Reed Murphy, whose father was the originator of the trip, provides a distinctly different perspective.  She wrote a book about her experiences forty-four years later, to reflect on her tragic experience in the Donner Party as a twelve-year-old girl.  She experienced much of the same adversity as the men: the hunger, cold, exhaustion, and death, but she saw it all from radically different eyes.  Her written word is filled with rich description and interpersonal detail, which is a typical woman's perspective.  Ms. Murphy's entries are very different from the other two because she mentions facts that women tend to remember: dialogue, personal milestones, and essential details about important relationships.  

Children remember things that are important to them, especially the relationship with their own mothers.  She remembers that one October night she and the other children and their mother slept out "on a cold bed of snow" and that every few minutes her mother would shake the shawl which was the only thing keeping them "from being buried alive" (pg. 39).  She comments, "poor little children were crying with hunger, and mothers were crying because they has so little to give their children" (pg. 42).  While the men seemed to focus on the tangible (provision of food, charting routes through the wilderness) as a means of survival, this female author focused on the love of mothers and self-sacrifice as the key to living.  A great example of how influential this connection was for Virginia was the story of her family's Christmas. 

The misery endured during those four months at Donner Lake in our little dark cabins under the snow would fill pages and make the coldest heart ache.  Christmas was near, but to the starving its memory gave no comfort.  It came and passed without observance, but my mother had determined weeks before that her children should have a treat on this one day.  She had laid away a few dried apples, some beans, a bit of tripe, and a small piece of bacon.  When this hoarded store was brought out, the delight of the little ones knew no bounds.  So bitter was that misery relieved by that one bright day, that I have never since sat down to a Christmas dinner without my thoughts going back to Donner Lake (pg. 41). 

            Virginia Reed Murphy provides the often forgotten woman's perspective to our historical understanding of the Donner Party.  Typically a woman's view and experiences differ from the males and if we are to get a real view of history then both views are essentials components of the whole picture.   

Through looking at these three individual's stories we gain an important knowledge of history.  Primary sources documents are a valuable way to learn about the people who shaped our country.  Yet, there are advantages and disadvantages in using primary source documents.  Some of the advantages are that it helps one to realize that written history "reflects the author's interpretation of past events," therefore the writing is naturally biased.  It also allows people to realize that history is not just facts, but real events that happened to real people.  Some disadvantages are that only the literate and the educated can write down their experiences' and as a result a large group is left out of history.  Writing is also a luxury that only a select few have due to literacy, class, and convenience (especially in times of desperation).  Also, there is no outsider to analyze and confirm what the person is writing from a neutral perspective.  In my three examples there was also the issue that Murphy wrote much later than Breen and Thornton.  Therefore she had more time to reflect and consequent later-life experiences that influenced her viewpoint.  When she wrote her book she had the knowledge that she survived, and ones perspective is always different in hindsight.  

Each of these three people had legitimate ways of dealing with their sufferings.  Breen's transcendent approach was focused on a benevolent and omnipotent God and the promise of a heavenly life after death.  Thornton , on the other hand, has another healthy way of dealing with the experience.  He was honest about the struggles and because of this, readers a hundred years later can learn about the fight for life that the Donner Party had to experience.  Murphy dealt with the pain through relationships especially with her mother.  Only by understanding the foundational differences in each person's perspective and the limitations of primary sources can historians begin to construct historically accurate portrayals of past events.           

Bibliography

Special Collections:

-Breen, P. (1910) Diary of Patrick Breen One of the Donner Party. pg. 273-284

-Murphy, V. R. (1879) Across the Plains on the Donner Party. pg. 9-

-Thornton, J. Q. (1945) The California Tragedy pg. 29-35