Person

Eliza Donner Houghton

Historical portrait of a woman. — From "The expedition of the Donner party and its tragic fate by Houghton" by Eliza P. Donner.
Image/Pubic Domain

On 14 April 1846, three-year-old Eliza Donner left Springfield, Illinois, and set out for California in a covered wagon with fifteen members of her extended family. The family name would soon go down in history for the tragedy that overtook them on the long trail to California.

Eliza’s parents, George and Tamsen (Tamzene) Donner, left behind in Illinois a 240-acre farm and orchard, evidence of their relative affluence and their ability to undertake the expensive overland journey to the Pacific Coast. The party, consisting of the Donners and some Springfield neighbors, “jumped off” onto the California Trail from Independence, Missouri, on 12 May 1846. It was a bit of a late start, but their nine wagons soon caught up and joined a train of thirty-five wagons captained by William Henry Russell.

The group’s problems began in mid-July. Members of the larger wagon company had different ideas about where to go and how to get there. One faction, including the Donners, decided to try the Hastings Cutoff, a new route that would take them south of the Great Salt Lake and supposedly cut several hundred miles from the journey. That group elected Eliza’s father, George, as its captain and turned onto the Hastings track on July 19. The “cutoff” took them much longer than expected. Tensions within the company rose to a boiling point. The lateness of the season, plus the party’s dwindling provisions and the loss of draft animals, weighed heavy on Eliza and her traveling companions.

An impeding storm, which struck on 30 October as they attempted to forge on through the snowy passes, would be the party’s undoing. By then, the wagons had become strung out and separated. About three-quarters of the Donner Party sought refuge in cabins and shelters at the “lake camp,” while Eliza and her family huddled in a crudely constructed lean-to six miles away at Alder Creek. The miserable weather hampered relief efforts. Many died of starvation and exposure. Eliza’s father had suffered a hand injury while repairing a wagon, and his wound grew gangrenous. He spent the winter bedridden, lovingly tended by Tamsen.

The first team of rescuers came east over the Sierra Nevada from the California settlements to help the stranded travelers, reaching the Lake Camp on 18 February 1847. Members of the “third relief” arrived on 13 March to take Eliza and her sisters to Johnson’s Ranch (north of present-day Sacramento). Eliza, being so tiny and weak, had to be carried every step of the way. She would never see her parents again.

At Johnson’s, Eliza and her sisters reconnected with other survivors. The next day they arrived at Sutter’s Fort (Sacramento), where they reunited with their half-sisters Elitha and Leanna. The girls continued to wait for their parents to return, but in May a messenger delivered the awful news of George and Tamsen’s death. A kind Swiss couple took Eliza and her sister Georgia into their home for seven years; in 1854, though, the sisters moved to Sacramento to be with Elitha and her family. Eliza remained there for six years, and in 1861 she married a veteran of the Mexican American War named Sherman Houghton who went on to serve two terms in Congress.

In 1911, when Eliza was in her sixties, she published her memoir, The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate. Interestingly, while some survivors of the Donner Party went out of their way to shun their maiden names (or anything else that would attach them to such a tragic and sensationalized event), Eliza did no such thing. The title and cover page of her book read ‘Eliza P. Donner Houghton.’ After a popular 1879 account downplayed accusations of cannibalism at the Alder Creek camp, popular sentiment about the Donner Party began to change; in fact, the Native Sons of the Golden West erected a monument to the expedition. At the monument’s dedication in 1918, Eliza occupied a prominent position just to the right of the speaker’s podium. During a reception the day before, however, she became overcome with emotion while trying to give a short speech. Though she did not hide her connections to the events of 1846-47, they would stay with her forever. She passed away on 19 February 1922 – seventy-five years to the day after the arrival of the First Relief.

(Special thanks to UNM PhD candidate Angela Reiniche for compiling this information.)

Learn More