Across the Plains in the Donner Party: A Personal Narrative of the Overland Trip to California

by Virginia Reed Murphy

The Donner-Reed Party set out from Independence, Missouri, in May 1846 aiming for California.

Of the eighty-seven members who set out only forty-survived to reach their destination.

Lack of supplies and brutal weather forced the group of migrants to their extremes, even leading some of the group to cannibalism.

Much has been written by historians of the Donner Party since the tragic events occurred, but it is rare that we get the opportunity to hear of the events from someone who was there.

Virginia Reed Murphy was thirteen years old when she joined her family in the expedition to California.

Her step-father, James Frazier Reed, was one of the leading figures of the emigrants and so Virginia was able to witness major decisions of the group at close hand.

“Lively, unpretentious, and full of human interest, it tells the story of the Donner party as seen by a young girl, and has the additional virtues of being comprehensive yet relatively brief.” Kristen Johnson, Unfortunate Emigrants

“The only narrative published by a survivor of the ill-fated party.” Southwestern Journal of Education

“An important contribution to Western history.” University of Chicago School Review

“Well written, and pleasant reading.” The Literary World

After Virginia had survived her ordeal she settled with her family in California. She became the first woman to engage in the fire insurance business. Virginia Street in downtown San Jose is named after her. She published her account of the expedition in Century Magazine in 1891 and passed away in 1921.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography, Survival, Memoir, Historical

55 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1995

Reviews

[Jason Koivu]

Memoir from one of the survivors of the Donner Party catastrophe. Virginia Reed Murphy was a feisty girl at the time of the incident. She recalls the journey and gives her version of the story in which her father kills a man, supposedly in self-defense, and details the horrible wintering at the lake. She claims her family took no part in the infamous cannibalism associated with the Donner Party and does not go into any detail about that subject, aside from a brief mention that it happened. Regardless, this remains a valuable account of the trials western migrants endured when crossing the country in the mid-19th century.

[Lois]

Interesting if edited and dated: views, language, blatant racism. Otherwise somewhat limited first hand account written long after the events.
Of historical value

[Margaret Gipson]

This is a short but remarkable first-hand account of the Donner Reed Party. Virginia Reed was a child on the journey, and her perspective as a young girl, along with the details of how her mother worked to keep her many small children alive and sane, was fascinating. It reads like a darker Little House on the Prairie, complete with a father who might not be as good as his daughter believes and a mother who quietly keeps the family together. I loved this!

[Pete]

Interesting facts- Virginia Street off of 280 in downtown San Jose is named for the author. On the other side of 280 is Reed Street. I use to drive by these often when I went to SJSU. And Murphys in the Sierra Nevada foothills is named after her husband- John Murphy.

[Madeline]

3.5 stars

The brief story was very interesting, but I would have liked more detail and information.

[Matthew Spence]

This was my first audiobook so my review may be somewhat biased as I have never experienced a book this way. Virginia Reed Murphy's account of the Donner Party incident is less a retelling of an iconic real life tragedy and more an accounting of the danger travelling across America in the mid 19th century entailed. As a book I found the plot somewhat disjointed, which could both be due to the fact that I listened to the audiobook and that it was based on the memoirs of a teenage girl. Still, the book is harrowing in terms of the expansive story it tells in truncated fashion about a family caught up in a larger drama as they encounter all biting nature of the open terrain teaming with enemies within and outside their party. I enjoyed the book, and want to listen to more audiobooks, though I hope that other stories are easier to follow as this one was a bit challenging to understand at times as the plot weaved about. Some of the prose though was striking in terms of its beauty and the clear love of family that can comes through the words of Virginia Reed Murphy.

[Jose Martinez]

Anybody reading this should keep in mind that the survivors of the Donner party who went on to recount their ordeal, purposely omitted a lot of what went on. Whether they found it too gruesome to share or were embarrassed by what they had to do, this omission does take away from the struggle they experienced. Nevertheless Virginia telling does give the reader a really good look at the struggles of what emigrants went through during the expansion to the west and a basic retelling of the ill fated Donner party.

[Elizabeth Ricks]

Despite all that the party went through, I love how positive and optimistic Virginia Reed Murphy is about the harrowing experience.

I read this in preparation for my PowerPoint presentation on the Donner party for our family reunion at Donner Lake later this week.

[Janet]

Virginia Reed was 12 when she set out with her family and a large group set off from Illinois headed west. This book is comprised of her journals and other primary sources about the trip and the hardships that they faced.

[Brandon]

Depressing read when you get to the end. Very simple read, got it done in a day.

The book has accounts 46 years later of Virginia Reed who was 12 at the time of the travel, and diary entries and letters from others in the party.

[Rosa Cline]

This was very interesting and educational. Based from a survivor of the Donner party. She writes most of the book from her memory. Then the editor also includes writing from two men who kept diaries and includes some of their posts. Really intresting read.

[Kelsey]

**3.5 stars rounded up**
This is Virginia's story of the Donner Party. It is very short and supplemented with letters from her dad and people's short diaries. It is not very detailed but interesting and heartbreaking

[Kathie]

Was looking for a book on this event and read this one. It is short and glosses over details because it is for a very young adult.

[Scholastic Squid]

Interesting to hear about the party traveling during some of the worst months.

[Mandy | books, tea, and owls]

This is a very general account of the journey west. It’s about a 2.5 stars. I was expecting more details.

[Serenity]

Sad story. Nothing gory though. Fast read.

[Robert Pettit]

Great story

A first hand account of the trials and tribulations of the Donner party. For history buffs I recommend it highly.

[Joni]

Audiobook. An essay with few details about Virginia Reed's journey across the West. If you are interested in reading more I recommend All We Left Behind by Nancy Herman.

[Kaitlin Lafreniere]

A great additional perspective and view of moving across the plains from a family adjacent to the Donner Party.

[Rakie Keig]

The language and attitudes are very much of its time, so brace yourself, but still a very interesting first person account from the Donner Party

[Samuel]

It was very good. It had lots of information. And it was written by someone who went on the 'Donner Party'!

[Erishia Woods]

This book was very interesting. It gave a very personal perspective on the tragedy that took place from the letters of Mr. Reed

[Eileen Carter]

Interesting short story about the trails of the crossing of the Donner party

[Karen]

This was written as a diary. Very well done.

[Lisa Dawn]

So sad what they endured.

[Jenny Maloney]

Virginia Reed Murphy was twelve/thirteen years old when her family became one of the central groups of the Donner Party. This recollection was written decades later, with lots of hindsight to inform the story. So, while her opinion and stance has been colored, and the references to cannibalism are reduced to about one sentence(and, considering the time period and her own personal experiences, who can really fault that edit?), it's still a very good introduction to the Donner Party's experience.

The story is more of a broad outline than a blow-by-blow account. Interspersed with Virginia's memories are contemporary diaries and letters kept by Patrick Breen and Virginia's father, James Frazier Reed.

But there's real emotion in here as well. The voyeuristic outside world may want to hear more about cannibalism, but there is far more to the story than gruesome bits and pieces. It was an epic struggle to travel west under the best of circumstances...and there were plenty of NOT best of circumstances facing this crew.

Virginia watched her father murder a man. She and her family abandoned everything they owned. She watched her mother struggle to keep them all alive. She herself almost died -- saved only by the charity of others in the group. She had to leave behind her brother and sister. Basically, as a middle schooler, she'd already seen and felt more danger than most of us will confront in a whole lifetime.

That's worth reading about.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Across the Plains in the Donner Party, by Virginia Reed Murphy, narrated by Colleen Delan, produced by Listen and Live Audio and downloaded from audible.com.

This was a very short book, probably originally an article, only an hour in length, which told the story of one family in the Donner party. The author quickly explains that her family did not have to eat human flesh, as most of the rest of that ill-fated party did. But she tells the story of leaving in a wagon train, traveling fairly luxuriously in a wagon. As time goes on, they must leave more and more things behind on the trail. She tells about months and months in which they were trying to make their way across what we now know as Death Valley literally starving to death, boiling the leather from their belts and shoes and eating it. This is a very interesting book for many reasons. I actually will look for more things written about that ill-fated expedition.

[Y]

Worth more as a look at what mentalities of white settlers were to Native Americans at the time than much info on the Donner Party. (Reed Murphy even mentions near the beginning that "the eventual events of the trip were far more horrifying than anything they were told about Indians doing to settlers". Then proceeds to mainly talk negatively about the Native Americans.)

[Erin]

1st hand account of pioneer life in the mid-nineteenth century; but unfortunately lacks the details of how truly maddening the experience must have been like, to live on the trails, without much shelter, and with people dying all around (and cannibals!!) Good read for middle school students, includes many primary documents.

[Prudence]

3.5 stars. I only ever knew about the Donner Party what everyone knows about the Donner Party, the fact that some of the survivors had resorted to the cannibalism of those who had died for survival. It was interesting to learn from one of the survivors the tragedies that plagued this group of pioneers.