Edward Joseph Breen (1833 - 1890)

Born 4 Sep 1833 in Ontario, Canada

Died 30 Aug 1890 at age 56 in San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, California, United States

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Edward Breen was involved in the westward expansion of the USA. Westward Ho! Join: Trails and Wagon Trains Project Discuss: wagon_trains_and_trails

Edward Breen was one of 81 pioneers in the Donner Party wagon train to California that became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in 1846.

Biography

Edward Breen was a member of the Donner Party. See Donner Party.

Edward Breen lived in Ontario, Canada.

Edward Breen migrated from Canada to United States of America.

Edward Joseph Breen was born on 4 Sep 1833 in Ontario, Canada, the son of Patrick Breen and Margaret (Bulger) Breen, immigrants from Ireland. Religous intolerance was most likely a factor in his decision to relocate to California, that and the promise of free land. Patrick sold their property in Iowa and outfitted the family for the journey, and set out in three wagons to rendezvous with other emigrants in the spring of 1846. They were accompanied by their friend and neighbor, Patrick Dolan. Like most of the other eventual members of the Donner Party, they started out in the company captained by William H. Russell. Edward was 14 when his family headed west, the second of seven surviving children.^[1]

Not long after leaving Fort Bridger, Edward was out riding with one of the Reed girls when his horse fell. Edward was knocked out and his leg was broken. His parents sent back to the fort for assistance, but when the "surgeon" arrived, he recommended amputation. Edward refused, the leg was set, and by the time the emigrants reached the Humboldt, Edward was riding again. Edward, like Simon, was rescued by the First Relief. He became a prominent rancher and farmer in San Benito County, owning huge amounts of land in that county and elsewhere. He stood over 6' 1", was "well-proportioned,"and a noted horseman. Owned Ranches in San Benito, Monterey and Humboldt Counties with the largest being "El Topo near King County of 24,000 acres.

Sources

1. ↑ PBS The American Experience Patrick Breen’s Diary.

• Find A Grave Edward Joseph Breen.

• Dixon, Kelly, Shannon Novak, Gwen Robbins, Julie Schablitsky, Richard Scott , and Guy Tasa (2010), "Men, Women, and Children are Starving: Archaeology of the Donner Family Camp". American Antiquity 75(3):627-656

• McGlashan, Charles (1879). History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra Nevada: 11th edition (1918), A Carlisle & Company, San Francisco

• McNeese, Tim (2009). The Donner Party: A Doomed Journey, Chelsea House Publications. ISBN 978-1-60413-025-6

• Rarick, Ethan (2008). Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-530502-7

• Rehart, Catherine Morison (2000), The Valley's Legends & Legacies III, Word Dancer Press, ISBN 978-1-884995-18-7

• Stewart, George R. (1936). Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party: supplemented edition (1988), Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-61159-8

• Unruh, John (1993). The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840–60, University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06360-0

• "California Great Registers, 1850-1920," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VNNZ-T6H : 25 July 2019), Edward Joseph Breen, 28 Jul 1882; citing Voter Registration, San Juan, San Benito, California, United States, county clerk offices, California; FHL microfilm 977,091.

• Patrick Breen Diary Original at OAC