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John Baptiste Trudeau III, also "Truvido." FroraThe Expe dition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate, by Eliza P. Donner Houghton, Grafton Publishing Corporation, 1920.

162 CALIFORNIA HISTORY

John Baptiste Trudeau

of the Donner Party:

Rascal or Hero?

by Joseph A. King and Jack Steed

The saga of the Donner Party was not a major historical event. It has proved to be, however, the most popular story of a western wagon

train, about people faced with a physical and moral test at the extremes of human experience. John Bap tiste Trudeau, hired as a teamster by George Don ner at Fort Bridger in present-day Wyoming, was not

by any means a major character in the drama, but he has become one of the most important witnesses.

Only recently some papers have surfaced in which Trudeau tells at great length his own story of the last

days at the Alder Creek camp of entrapment. In its

place, his testimony will play an important part in this paper.

Age sixteen at the time, Trudeau was among

eighty-one persons entrapped in the Sierra Nevada

during the terrible winter of 1846-47, and one of the

forty-five who survived.1 After over four months of

entrapment, he said goodbye to the dying George Donner and made his way to the Sacramento Val

ley with Nicholas Clark (who had been left behind by the second relief party) and members of the third relief. Trudeau and Clark were the last survivors to see George Donner alive.

The Trudeau story reveals some of the great prob lems scholars have in writing history fairly and

accurately. Until quite recently, what students of the Donner Party have known about Trudeau?and about the Donner Party in general?has come

mainly from George R. Stewart's classic Ordeal by Hunger, first published in 1936, revised in I960.2 Stewart introduced him as "a little frontier mongrel from New Mexico who claimed a French trapper for a father and a Mexican for a mother and probably

had a strain of Indian from both."3 Concerning the arrival and departure of the first relief party in Feb

ruary 1847, Stewart commented: "The only man left to do the work of the camp was the little mongrel Jean Baptiste. He had wanted to come away with the

rescuers, and had been sullen and ugly when they told him that he must remain and take care of the

women and children."4 Writing about the arrival of the second relief party, Stewart asserted that

"Jean Baptiste, now that the danger was over.. .was

willing enough to remain" [to take care of the Don

ners].5 Regarding the departure of the third relief, Stewart notes: "These two men [Nicholas Clark and

John Baptiste] had deserted the dying George Don ner and Sammie, and fled to save themselves."6

Finally, in his closing chapter, Stewart continued his vilification of Trudeau: "The reader may have noticed that throughout the book I have been at dif

ficulty in restraining a dislike for this character [John

Baptiste]; I introduced him under the term 'mongrel/ and by so doing I intended not only to refer to his

mixed blood, but also to indicate that he possessed the qualities conventionally ascribed to dogs of that sort."7

On the authority of Stewart, a number of histori ans and fiction writers have also denigrated Trudeau. For example, in the opinion of Bernard DeVoto he was "the worthless Trubode."8 In the eyes of Homer

Croy in the novel Wheels West, he was "the beady eyed little Mexican."9

Just who was Trudeau? Until recently, next to

nothing was known of his background prior to his

joining the Donner Party at Fort Bridger in the last week of July 1846.

SUMMER 1995 163

John Baptiste Trudeau was almost certainly the

grandson of Jean Baptiste Trudeau (1748-1827), Montreal-born pioneer schoolmaster, trader, and

explorer from St. Louis, and Madeline LeRoy, also Montreal-born.10 The schoolmaster had a son, also named Jean Baptiste Trudeau, who was among the

hardy band of trappers and traders who traveled from Missouri southward to Santa Fe and Taos, or

westward along the Arkansas River to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah, where the historic rendezvous of the trappers and the fur company agents took place in the 1820s and 1830s. With the decline of the beaver trade, many of these men

applied to the Mexican government for land in New Mexico. Juan Bautista Trudeau of Taos, New

Mexico, whose birthplace was given as St. Louis,

applied for Mexican citizenship and petitioned for land in 1830, the year Trudeau of the Donner Party

was born. We know nothing of the identity of the wife of Trudeau of Taos. Their son, John Baptiste III of the Donner Party, wrote that his father was killed

by Indians.11 When and where he was killed we do not know,12 but we now know a great deal about his son.

John Baptiste III spoke for himself publicly only once in his lifetime. That was in an 1891 interview for a St. Louis newspaper, reprinted in a San Fran cisco newspaper.13 The article is headed "One of the Dormers?A Chat with a Survivor of the Ill-Fated

Expedition to California":

v * ̂* ,*?& ^^l^g^SiHHPKIiw^v * ̂ -

?'i^^ ^^^SrWB^s- * * *""

This placid later-nineteenth-century drawing of an industrious Donner Party camp at the east end of present

day Donner Lake, with women roasting game, children playing or carrying water, and men building the snug

long cabins that would see them through the winter, had little resemblance to the reality of the scene of 1846. From the start, livestock strayed or perished, food was rationed, fatigue and hunger took their deadly toll, and

snowstorms rolled in upon each other, almost daily burying the compound deeper and dashing hopes of escape, rescue, or survival. The Donner family, separated from the main party at this camp, was trapped several miles

to the northeast along Alder Creek. Courtesy Bancroft Library.

164 CALIFORNIA HISTORY

Up at Santa Rosa the other day I discovered another survivor of the famous Donner party who crossed the

plains in 1849 [sic], writes a correspondent to the St. Louis Republic. The old gentleman was Juan Baptiste Truvido, one of the survivors of the ill-fated Donner

party, whose heroism saved the lives of many mem bers of his party, but who has been almost entirely ignored by the hands that have guided the lines of

history. It is true I am one of the few left of the unfortu nate band, he said, and I might give you columns of facts concerning it, but it would be too much, perhaps. When

urged to repeat some [facts] of the ill-starred com

pany, he brightened up and related the following:

My name is Juan Baptiste Truxido [sic], and I am 60

years old. My parents were of French birth and I was born east of the Rockies, not far from the Arkansas River. I spent my young days in the mountains and the plains and became, like most boys in those circumstances, an expert hunter and horseman. When Fremont and Kit Carson came along on their way to California I joined them and was with them until they reached the head-waters of the Green River. It was about that time I fell in with Jim" Hedgepath, who lives in this country.14 After leaving Fre mont's party I went to Fort Bridger, Utah [Wyoming], and remained there until July, 1846. The famous Donner

party that had started from Springfield, III, in the spring of 1846, was at the fort and preparing to strike out to Cal

ifornia. A new route had been laid out, or opened up rather,

by L.W. Hastings, called the 'Hastings cut-off and as it was said to shorten up the distance the party were anx ious to go that way.

Everybody familiar with the history of the expedition knows that if the company had followed the old Fort Hall road all would have been well, but owing to the advice of

friends they took what they thought was the shortest way. I was sent along by the people at the fort as a guide and

guard, and was with the Donners until rescued at Don ner Lake.

It was while struggling through the cut-off that the

party was joined by W.F. Graves and wife and their eight children, Jay Fosdick, and John Snyder. Snyder was the man who was afterward killed in a quarrel with James Reed, who was one of the originators of the Donner Party.

Well, we struggled along through the mountains and

after we had left Salt Lake a long ways in the rear things went fairly well until we got to Truckee. The party became divided by a terrible storm and never came together again until the rescue came at Donner Lake. The Reeds and Graves people were in the advance party, while the Don ners, George and Jacob, and their families, were in the

party left behind. Our little band worked bravely on until we came to Alder Creek Valley, where we had to stop, it

being impossible to go further. The snow came on with

blinding fury and being unable to build cabins we put up brush sheds, covering them with limbs from the pine trees.

It was about the first of November, I think, that we went

into that camp of snow and suffering, and we remained there until the latter part of February, when the Sutter

party rescued us.

The old gentleman's story of the sufferings at his

camp was graphic, indeed. At one time he was the

only one in the party who was able to do anything. George Donner had an injured hand and had been laid up for some time. Death stared them in the face, and it was only by the most heroic efforts on the part of Baptiste that all did not freeze to death.

He kept the fires going through the long weary hours of the night and worked with might and main to keep the little colony warm. Starvation they were face to face with, and Baptiste secured the meat that

kept them alive with the greatest difficulty. One day he had to kill a cub, and his escape from

the infuriated bear mother was almost miraculous. In the number that lay huddled in the miserable

camp were George Donner, wife and five children; Jacob Donner, wife and three children; a man named Shoemaker, Jim Smith, Mrs. Wolfinger, one Rhein hart, a Dutchman whom he called Charley, himself and two or three others whose names he could not remember. Sickness, the pitiless storms and starva tion relieved Jacob Donner and wife and Child, Rheinhart, Shoemaker, Smith and the Dutchman of their sufferings, and when the relief party?which Baptiste says consisted of two Indians and a white man, Rhodes, poorly mounted?reached them there was a mere handful of wretched, almost starved peo ple left.15 George Donner's five children and two of

Jacob Donner's children were among the saved.

Baptiste lives at Tomales Bay and is a widower. He has three sons and they make their living by fish

ing. He says that he never recovered from the effects of that four months' experience and that half of the

story has never been told. No human flesh was eaten in the camp where he was; that occurred in the

camp of the other party, which was about eight miles away, but which, of course, they knew noth

ing about. Not even a reference has been made to the noble part the old Frenchman took in saving the lives of his fellow-sufferers in anything that has been published, and it fills one with sadness to hear him speak of it. [end]

Eight years previously (in November 1884), Trudeau had told his story privately during two vis its to Eliza P. Donner Houghton. Eliza, just a week

shy of four years old at the time she was rescued in March 1847, was the daughter of George and Tarn sen Donner. She drew on Trudeau's recollections for her own book, published in 1911.16

The actual notes of the two visits of John Bap tiste?on which Mrs. Houghton relied?consist of

twenty-three pages in her handwriting. The notes

SUMMER 1995 165

were inaccessible and even unknown, so it seems, to Donner party scholars until the authors inspected them in October 1994 at the home of a grand daughter of Mrs. Houghton in Arroyo Grande, Cal ifornia. However, two unidentified newspaper

clippings in the granddaughter's collection indicate that Mrs. Houghton read her notes to an audience of friends gathered at her Los Angeles home on

South Pearl Street on May 12, 1896, to commemo rate the fiftieth anniversary of the Donner brothers'

leaving Independence, Missouri, the last point of civ ilization before the long trek to California.17

Also among the granddaughter's papers, carefully preserved, are these items: the testimony Mrs.

Houghton recorded of her sisters Frances and Geor

gia, and her half-sister Elitha; much of the original manuscript of The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate; seven letters of Tamsen Donner to her sister Elizabeth, written from 1824 to 1842; and

much more.18 This collection may contain the most important

Donner documents to surface since the Miller-Reed

diary and other papers from the estate of a grand daughter of James F. Reed appeared for the first time in 1946. The authors are in the process of transcrib

ing the documents. This paper will limit itself to two documents?the notes of Trudeau's testimony and the notes of half-sister Elitha's testimony They throw new light on the Donner Party, especially the last

days at Alder Creek, since they contain considerable detail that Houghton did not include in her 1911 book. The following are the notes of Eliza P. Donner

Houghton:

San Jose, Nov. 11,1884

My Children

John Baptiste Tribodo was born in Santa Fe, New

Mexico, in the year 1830. His father was a French man, his mother a native of New Mexico of Spanish descent.

He joined the Donner Party at Fort Bridger and became an inmate of George Dormer's Camp. His

duty in the Mts. was to provide wood for the camp fires & search for the bodies of the cattle that were burried under the snow.

(He was anxious to go out of the Mts. with the 1st Relief Parties but, was not permitted to do so. When the 3rd Relief Party was expected, [Nicholas] Clark told him he would not remain at the Lake any longer, as he was afraid of starving to death. John told Clark that it was his own turn to go for he had been there all winter and he too was afraid to stay longer.)

John tells many incidents relating to 'the little Donner girls/ to whom he claims to have given a

brotherly care. It seemed so wonderful to hear him

speak of me as a little child. He says,

You and Georgia used to catch the corners of my Navajo blanket and each would turn toward the center until you would meet and be entirely rolled in its warm

folds then you would sit and watch me work. That old blanket was a great comfort to you little girls. Some times I would stretch it on poles above your heads to keep the rain off, and at other times I would hang it as a shelter to

keep the wind from piercing through you. Yes we ought always to be friends for with out me you could not have lived to reach the valley.

He took my hand to bid me good-bye, but he

stopped and gave a little start, as he caught sight of the tears in my eyes. I wonder if they looked like fathers for his tones were full of feeling as he said

Oh, how your poor father died, when I left him[.] It hurts me yet to think of it.

He turned quickly from the door so that I should not see him wipe the mist from his own eyes. I know that life is full of surprises but meeting John Baptiste Tribodo this afternoon has left me in a nummed, and

dreamy mood. I have asked myself more than once, Is it true, have I talked with him who can tell me what

my father and mother said and did in that Mt. cabin? What brought him here? He says he went from his home in Marin Co. to San Francisco some days ago for the purpose of joining the Association of Cali fornia Pioneers. Upon his arrival in that city he learned that he would not be accepted by that Asso ciation unless he was identified by two of its mem bers. He was a stranger so he came to San Jose last

night to get McCutchen to furnish the required proof.19 He was very anxious to see me, so

McCutchen took him to my husband's law office. He had carried our address in his pocket two years. He said, Little George's wife gave it to me (Meaning Mrs.

George Donner, Jr. He cannot think of any of us as

grown.) My husband brought him home with him at 4.30 p.m. today. He only staid about a half an hour. He was so glad that I remembered him. He was par ticularly pleased when I spoke of a visit he paid Georgia and me while we lived with Grandma Brunner in Sonoma. He too remembered how we

enjoyed the raisins he brought us, and says,

[continued in same hand with this introductory note:]

The following interview took place 38 years after the disaster to the 'Donner Party' which was snow bound in the Sierra Nevada Mts.

166 CALIFORNIA HISTORY

Eliza P. Donner Houghton, from the frontispiece in |& ̂SKII^S^^B^^m^^^M^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K her 1911 edition of the history of the Donner Party. ̂̂ K^BBK^^^KBK^^^U^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m Courtesy of the Houghton family. ^^^^^B^^KKSE^S^^^m^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K

San Jose, Nov. 12,1884 John Baptiste Tribodo called again this afternoon.

I saw him coming up the garden walk and hastened to addmitt him. He seemed excited, and strangely

moved for, as he took my extended hand, he leaned

against the open door as if to gain courage or con ceal his emotion while he said,

Eliza I have come to get you to do something for me, and I'll tell you what it is. I want you to read the History of the Donner Party tome Yes all of it. I cannot read with out my glasses. I have never seen the book, but from what I hear there are things in it that are not true.

I did not tell him how many pages the History contained, or let him see that I thought his request too great to be fulfilled. I took him into the sitting room gave him (a seat-in) the arm chair, put his overcoat and hat away then took a brief survey of

my guest whose eyes had watched my movements

very closely. He is small not much over five feet in height. His

eyes are black, bright, and soft in expression. His

once black hair, mustache and beard are well mixed with grey?his voice is gentle but, he speakes rapidly and with a strong Spanish accent. His complexion is also like that of a Spaniard. He is about 54 years old, and is a fisherman by occupation. His clothing is very cheap, and, badly worn, but it is clean and neat. I believe he is temperate in his habits for, there is no odor of liquor or tobacco about him, or his cloth

ing. I brought the book and seated myself so that we

could see each other. I asked him where I should commence. He replied, / dont know?I want to hear the roughest part?/ want to see how they put that in. I then said, you care to hear only that relating to the

camps in which you spent your time. I want to hear

of old man Donner's Camp. I want to know who they say provided food for his little children. I read all that Clark had to say of his killing the bear, of Mrs Elizabeth Donner's illness, helplessness, and death. He said

It is true what you have read?Clark killed the bear

just as he says?but he was not there when Mrs Eliza

SUMMER 1995 167

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The Houghton residence in San Jose, where Eliza Donner Houghton and John Trudeau met in 1884 to reminisce and document their experiences of the ordeal they had survived. This

photograph is one of many Eliza collected before the turn of the century for a scrapbook and to illustrate the book she would later write. Courtesy of the Houghton family.

beth Donner died. He learned all that from your mother or her papers. He does not talk like that. That is the way she talked and wrote.

I next turned to the childrens going away from

camp?of Tamsen Dormer's grief, and fears for thier

safety?of Clarks promising to go and learn some

thing of them?John said again It is true, but Clark did not return to report to your

mother. She went over to Keseberg's Camp and, found you there. I staid with your father while she was gone. She was

away two days. The book is true what there is of it but, it does not tell who got the food, and kept the fires for the two camps that winter. I was the man, I did it.

Then he told how he had joined the Party at Ft.

Bridger and continued with it until the arrival of the 3rd Relief Party. John said,

I belonged to old Mr. Donner's Camp. I liked, him from the start and he took to me, and always kept me near him

while we traveled. You see my father was a trapper, my mother died when I was very small. Father used to take me with him, I lived in the Mts. so long that I was tough

and strong. I could talk a little with a number of the dif ferent Indian tribes and knew many of thier signs. So your father always sent me ahead to talk to the Indians when we met any of them. We thought it would help us along, and I think it did make it easier for us to get through thier

country. Your father's hand was very sore?The cut extended

from the wrist above the thumb diagonally across the hand to the little finger. He was like a one armed man when we reached camp in the Mts. He could not do much although he was willing.

It was snowing when we stopped, and I told him best to build a hut like the Indians Wigwam with an opening at the top for the smoke to escape. We all helped with the hut. Short posts were driven in the ground on the insides across which sticks were laid, and on them pine boughs were thickly spread. This arrangement served as com

fortable beds when they could be kept dry. I shot the horses and oxen early in Nov. cut them open

(removed the offal took out the entrails) and located the

spot, where they froze and were afterwards covered with

168 CALIFORNIA HISTORY

snow. The snow fell so heavily and fast that I often had hard work to find a burried carcas?I often had to dig from 14 to 18 feet deep to reach it. I used a pole with a hook, or nail fastened to the end, then I pushed into the snow. Hair would catch on the hook, and I would then be sure I had

found the right place. I cut the wood above the snow, I used to climb the trees

to saw off the limbs, and to gather the pine cones to start the fire with. The wood was green, wet and hard to start

when it went out. When it rained hard or at night we used to cover the

coals and knots, first with ashes, and then put a large camp kettle over them to keep them dry and alive.

I remember well how you little children used to stand close to that old kettle your fingers and hands stretched around its sides to 'get first a little warm before going to bed.' You often were put to bed in the day time to keep from freezing.

How the wind did blow. I dont believe any one else knows as well as we what hurricanes are!

We were often without fires for days, and meat was

beyond reach at times, then we ate the hides, and strings or went hungry; but at no time did the people in the Don ner Camps eat human flesh. This I know for I was there all the time and provided all the meat that was used in the camp, [Eliza's emphasis]20

The simply clad fisherman looked almost sublime as with outstretched arms, tightly closed hands, and upturned eyes he cried, in tones of love, and

agony, Oh, little Eliza sister mine, how we suffered and how I worked to keep you alive. (John gives the impres sion to those who hear him, That the Donner's were

people who had always been influential and that

they carried that home atmosphere with them into thier Mt. cabin.) He says,

When the 1st relief party came you dont know how I

felt. I was up in a tree cutting wood and watching for some one to come. I saw some little black specks moving on the snow. I jumped down and run halloing to the cabin door?'Mrs. Donner I Mrs. Donner 11 see something.' She asked 'John what do you see'? I said T dont know. It may be relief, it may be Indians, or it may be wolves.' She said

'go back and look again,' I ran back to her again saying, 'Mrs. Donner, it is people, but it may be Indians to kill us.' Mr Donner said, 'John come in and get your gun, then go out a little ways from camp and make signs to them if they are Indians let them see that you are armed but do not shoot unless you have to'?All got thier guns, Your mother was a good shot with a pistol, your halfsis ter[s] armed themselves too, and a shot gun was laid on the bed by your father, but he you know was worse off than a one armed man. I went out. They had come so near I saw they were not Indians. One put a white rag on a stick and one held it over his head. When they saw me they fired a shot in the air. I ran to meet them. They embraced me and, picked me up in thier arms. We were so happy in camp that night, but they had only a very little flour and dried

meat to leave us.

Your sisters were among those who were taken away.21 I wanted to go too, but they would not take me. They said I was strong and well and must stay to care for the help less. So I had to stay. Old man Donner used to say, 'John,

when we reach California your troubles will be over. You will always live with me, and you shall have plenty of everything.'

And I would have done it too for I know he told the truth. I passed the most trying part of my life there with them but I never got a harsh or unkind word from either

after the relief Party left us. Your father, mother, and me used to plan how we would

get through perhaps alone. I'd say, 'well, I'll dry the beef and, make the snow shoes for all of us and, I am sure you

Mr. Donner will soon be well enough to start?' I thought we grown persons could carry what was

necessary on our backs and you little children could keep up with us, for we would have to go slowly on your fathers account. He never improved and I often got dis

couraged. I used to talk of going out alone. And the poor old man would cover his face with his hand and the tears would start down his cheeks?He would say 'John you are the only man we have; the children cannot live if you go. We do not care for ourselves but those little ones must be cared for,'Then I'd think how good that old man had been, how he had cheered the discouraged and

helped the needy, how his cattle had been fewer than those of the others, when we reached the Mts. because he had 'loaned' and sent his back so often to those who could never have come on with father without his help. Dont you remember only Buck and Bright were left to

yoke with the dry milch cows that hauled his wagons into thier last Camp. When I would think how patient he had always been. No matter how angry others of the

Party became he always listened and settlejd] the trou ble in a quiet way. There never lived a better man than

your father. At last you little children were sent to the other camp. Oh how they missed you, Your mother would walk the floor, wring her hands and cry for you. That would make your father feel bad for her too, so I said I'd sacrifice myself as usual. I'd dry some beef and, follow the children and look after them. Your father said no I could not overtake the children, if they had been taken on by the Relief, and my life might be lost in the trial and nothing could be gained?

Clark who was left by the second Relief Party to help me get the wood and meet staid but a few days. He lived in Jacob Donner's tent?but he did not do much. He did kill the bear, for I remember he and me followed it for a

long way, then I went back to cut wood and he went on alone. When he thought the 3rd relief was expected he took me out of hearing of the others and told me he was going out of the Mts. for he was afraid to stay longer. I said, 'Clark old boy if you go I'll follow it is my turn if any body's. I have been here four months and you have only been here a few days.' He said he would promise your mother to come back and tell her about you children,? but that he would not keep the promise.

SUMMER 1995 169

He (Clark) started off and I went to old man Donner and told him I was going through. I could not stay longer. Your father did not ask me to stay longer. He turned his

eyes upward then covered them and so I left him crying, alone, and helpless. I did not see your mother then. I think she had started to Kesebergs camp. I had been sent a num ber of times with messages from your mother to persons at the other camp22; once, I bought her a letter. She wrote

every day and kept account of every thing that happened. Sometimes she used to read to me at night what she had written. If her papers had been saved they would be very valuable to you and you would see too that every thing I tell you is true. You children were very fond of me. I used to have to take you with me very often. I did not let your

mother help out of doors. She was a little lady and not

strong enough to fight against the drifting snow, or walk in the slush when the warm sun would come out for a day or two. I kept the fires in Mrs Elizabeth Donners camp

after the large children went away. Your mother, and me,

fed her after she was helpless. What you read to me is true about her!

I'll tell you Eliza what was the worst and what looked so bad in us was. We came away and left your mother there alone with your father. Yes, strong able men marched away when they might have saved them both. I know she turned back willingly and would not leave him. I often sit and

fish and after cry when I think of her. I am poor, but offer me half the State of California to pass another such a win ter as that was and I would say no.'

(John loved old man Donner and his wife, and still loves thier children. They live in his memory just as

they were and a pleasant smile brightens his face whenever he speaks of them.)

George R. Stewart could not forgive Trudeau

for denying the well-documented cannibal ism at Alder Creek. Stewart resorted to an

account of an alleged interview by Lieutenant Henry A. Wise of the United States Navy in Yerba Buena

(San Francisco) in March 1847. Wise was writing a

book about his travels at a time when lurid stories

of the Donner Party were appearing in the newspa

per California Star and being circulated worldwide.23

Inspired by Wise, Stewart wrote that Trudeau "with a perverted pride...called attention to himself by

wallowing loathsomely in the details." Stewart then

quoted Trudeau's words as reported by Wise: "eat

baby raw, stewed some of Jake [Donner] and roasted

his head, not good meat, taste like sheep with the

rot."24 After accepting Wise's report at face value, Stewart then commented with dark humor on

Trudeau's later denial of the cannibalism: "when I

consider such hypocrisy I feel the longing for the

society of an honest cannibal!"25 Stewart's harsh caricature ignores evidence that

the sixteen-year-old boy behaved quite admirably and that he was solicitous of the welfare of the

adults and children at Alder Creek.26 Even after the

ordeal, he was thoughtful and continued to care for

the Donner children. In an April 1, 1847, report of

his role as a relief party organizer, Selim E. Wood

worth said he had thought little Mary Donner 's foot needed amputation, so he took her to the naval hos

pital in San Francisco with her half-brother, Solomon

Hook, who also needed medical attention. Accom

panying him and acting as "nurses" were, "the Span ish boy John Baptiste and Howard Oakly" [Oakley].27

The following year, Eliza and her sister Georgia were living in Sonoma with Swiss immigrants Chris

tian and Mary Brunner, whom the orphaned Don ner girls called "Grandma" and "Grandpa." As

reported by Eliza in The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate, one day she and her sister received a surprise visit from John Baptiste. He rode up and

greeted the sisters with these words: "I heard at

Napa that you lived here, and my pony has made a

hard run to give me this sight of you." Sixty years later, Eliza wrote of the visit as follows:

We were surprised and delighted, for the speaker was John Baptiste who had wintered with us in the Sierras. We asked him to dismount, take a seat under the tree, and let us bring him a glass of milk. He declined graciously, then with a pleased expression, drew a small brown-paper parcel from his trousers

pocket and handed it to us, leaned forward, clasped his arms about his pony, rested his head on its neck, and smilingly watched Georgia unwrap it, and two beautiful bunches of raisins come to view,?one for each. He would not touch a single berry, nor let us save any. He asked us to eat them then and there so that he could witness our enjoyment of the luxury he had provided for this, our first meeting in the set tlement.

Never had we seen raisins so large, translucent, and delicious. They seemed far too choice for us to

have, and John was so poorly dressed and pinched in features that we hesitated about eating them. But he would have his way, and in simple language told us that he wanted them to soften the recollection of the hungry time when he came into camp empty handed and discouraged. Also to fulfil his assurance to our mother that he would try to keep us in sight, and give us the best that he could procure. His last

injunctions were, 'Be good little girls; always remem ber your mother and father; and don't forget John

Baptiste.'28

The testimony of witnesses often tends to be self

serving, and John Baptiste was not immune to that

tendency. One cannot expect a boy of sixteen to be

170 CALIFORNIA HISTORY

an unalloyed hero who served the Dormers with total selflessness. In fact, Elitha Donner, age fourteen at the time of entrapment, had negative things to say of John Baptiste. Among the documents preserved by the granddaughter of Eliza P. Donner Houghton is a notebook of over twenty pages in Houghton's handwriting on poor, now deteriorating, paper. Included in this notebook is the testimony of

Houghton's half-sister Elitha Wilder,29 as recorded

by Houghton?probably around 1884?but which was curiously excluded from her 1911 book:

In regard to John Baptiste, I [Elitha C. Donner

Wilder] have not much confidence in his statement. Father had a good deal of trouble with him in order

to get him to help get wood which was a big chore. He cost me several dollars in early days, always beg ging. He has been here twice since I have lived on this place and was just as able to work as I was.

In speaking of father's hand, it was cut across the back but not as badly as John says, although it was useless to him. He got it cut while repairing the

wagon. We were 12 to 15 miles from the place where we

camped for the winter coming down a long sliding hill, father was driving, you and Georgia were in the

wagon, your mother and Frances were walking ahead when near the bottom the axel of the fore wheel broke and the wagon tipped down tumbling everything over you two children. Father and Uncle

Jake rushed to get you out Georgia was soon

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This image depicts a relief party arriving at the Donner Party cabins at the lake. Adapted from the drawing that appears earlier in this article, and that also appeared in Eliza

Houghton's 1911 edition of The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate, it shows exactly the same landmarks, now buried in snow up to the cabins7 chimneytops. According to

Trudeau's recollection of the arrival of the first relief party, he had alerted Mrs. George Don ner (Tamsen) that someone was approaching. Armed with his gun, he went outside again to

discover that the strangers were a rescue team. Eliza, Frances, and Georgia Donner left their

parents and were taken out on that rescue mission. Courtesy Bancroft Library.

SUMMER 1995 171

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drawn through the opening at the back, but you were out of sight and father feard that you were smothered for you did not answer his anxious call. Uncle kept right on pulling things out until he came to you. You would not have stood it much longer as

they said. While father and uncle were having a new

axeltree, here came two men from our old company ahead of us told of the snow. It was a sad bit of news, and our folks concluded to look for a place to camp. They fixed up and started on until we came to a place that suited for a camp. Father was all around he

always went out to help get the wood, he would

carry it in his left hand. The snow covered the Mts. but Alder Creek Valley was free. Your mother spoke of making carts but I do not remember about their

being made. She wanted to start at once but father and uncle told her it was impossible. In a few days the snow was four feet deep. Uncle and his two men cut logs and cousin Solomon and Will hauled them.30

Father and I notched them and laid them four logs high, then came the snow. We camped by a tall pine tree, we cut poles and stood them up around the tree and cut brush laid brush around the tree to serve until we could build a house. But the snow came and that was all we had with our tents. Father could not

get John to shovel snow from the tent. Yes father was Captain of the co. at one time but

as the teams failed on the long journey we camped apart from the rest for the purpose of selecting bet ter feed for our stock. Sometimes we would be ahead sometimes behind. When the two men came back to us we were 3 or 4 days behind but we had been stopped (by the accident) the distance was about 20 miles, they said...

Should much be made of a teenager rebelling against work assigned to him by adults? In his favor: until February 22, when Noah James was

172 CALIFORNIA HISTORY

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taken out by the first relief team, John Baptiste was not the only healthy "adult" at the Alder Creek camp. If John Baptiste had not been helpful, why was he forced to remain behind while Noah James was allowed to leave? Elitha, who left with the first relief, could know nothing of John Baptiste's behav ior after February 22.

Trudeau of the Donner Party had a long life, mar

rying Lupe DeMassano, settling in Tomales Bay in Marin County, working as a fisherman and hop picker in season, and raising four sons. He died on October 9,1910, age eighty, of "senile debility" and was buried at Marshall on Tomales Bay. His obitu

ary reads, quaintly, "Truvido years ago settled

among the Indians in Tomales and there among the half breeds he found congenial company. He mar ried there and several dark skinned children bear his name."31

In our view, Trudeau had no reason to be ashamed of his behavior with the Donner Party. The charge that this young man was a "deserter," that he should have further risked his life and died with Tamsen and George Donner, is an extravagant moralism.[cHs]

The Sherman O. and Eliza P. Donner Houghton fam

ily, ca. 1893. Seated in the front row, left to right, are

Elizabeth, Charles, and Stanley; second row, Sher

man, Jr., Clara, Sherman, Sr., and Eliza; and stand

ing in the top row are Frank and Molly. Courtesy of the Houghton family.

See notes beginning on page 217.

Jack Steed, a resident of Sacramento, is the author of The Don ner Party Rescue Site: Johnson's Ranch on Bear River (1988, third edition 1993). In 1985, Jack and his son, Richard, rediscovered the long lost Johnson Ranch adobe, which was inti

mately connected with the Donner Party rescue teams. Jack reg ularly conducts tours of the site, and lectures widely throughout northern California.

Joseph A. King, a resident of Walnut Creek, California, and a retired community college English teacher, is the author of a number of books, including Winter of Entrapment: A New Look at the Donner Party (1992, revised 1994), which received the 1994 Award of Merit from the California Histor ical Society. Mr. King has served as consultant and appeared in two films for TV about the Donner Party on ''The Ameri can Experience" and"The Real West" series.

SUMMER 1995 173