Jacob Donner (1790 - 1846)

Born 1790 in Salem, Rowan, North Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Blue) Donner — married 21 Nov 1835 in Sangamon, Illinois, United States

Descendants

Died 20 Dec 1846 at about age 56 in Alder Creek camp, Nevada Territory

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

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

Biography

Jacob Donner was a member of the Donner Party. See Donner Party.

Jacob Donner was born 1790 in Salem, Rowan County, North Carolina, the son of George Donner and Mary Margaret Huff Donner. He was the brother of Lydia Donner, George A. Donner, Elizabeth Donner, John Donner, Susannah Donner and Tobias Donner. Jacob and his brother George married sisters.

Jacob married Elizabeth Blue on November 21, 1835 in Sangamon, Illinois. George married her sister, Mary. George and Mary were divorced and he married two more times.^[1]

Jacob and Elizabeth were parents of George Donner, Mary M. (Donner) Houghton, Mary Martha Donner, Isaac Donner and Samuel Donner.

George and his brother Jacob along with their families were member of the ill fated Donner Party that was trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains while attempting to emigrate to California.^[2]

Jacob Donner was 56 at the time and Elizabeth was 45. Traveling with them were Elizabeth's two children from a previous marriage, Solomon Hook age 14, and William Hook age 12 along with Jacob's and Elizabeth's children, George Donner, Jr. age 9 and Mary Donner age 7.

Jacob died on December 20, 1846 in Alder Creek camp, Nevada, California. His brother, George and many others of their party also died. It is reported that when the Second Relief arrived, Jacob's children were eating his organs and his wife was boiling his tongue. ^[3][4]

Jean Baptiste Trudeau was seen carrying the leg and thigh of Jacob.

Sources

1. ↑ History of the early settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois Authors: Power, John Carroll, 1819-1894; Power, S. A. (Sarah A.), b. 1824. Publisher: Edwin A. Wilson & Co, Springfield, Illinois. Page 259.
2. ↑ McGlashan's History of the Donner Party.
3. ↑ What I Saw in California.
4. ↑ Second Relief Diary.

• https://www.academia.edu/365977/Men_Women_and_Children_are_Starving_Archaeology_of_the_Donner_Family_Camp

• https://archive.archaeology.org/1205/letter/donner_party_alder_creek_washoe.html

• https://user.xmission.com/~octa/DonnerParty/Bulletin15.htm

• https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-donner-party

• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/donner-party-cannibalism-nation-west

• https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/What-happened-to-Donner-Party-survivors-16714121.php

• http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/donnerparty.htm

• 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

• State of California Park and Recreation Commission (2003), Donner Memorial State Park General Plan and Environmental Report, Volume I. Retrieved March 24, 2010.

• 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.

• Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
  Find A Grave: Memorial #233002163 (accessed 24 February 2023)
  Memorial page for Jacob Donner (1790-Dec 1846), citing Donner Party Camp at Alder Creek Valley, Truckee, Nevada County, California, USA (plot: Unmarked); Maintained by CMWJR (contributor 50059520).