James F. Reed

Life before the Donner Party

James Frazier Reed was born on the 14th of November in 1800 in Country Aramagh, Ireland. When he was a young man he emigrated to the United States and settled down in Virginia. He than later moved to Springfield, Illinois. When he was there he became involved in furniture trade. In 1835, James married Margaret Backenstone and had four children. James was a fairly wealthy man, considering he established his own furniture company. James decided that he wanted to move to California, in April 1846, James, his wife, his four children, and his mother-in-law joined and party led by George Donner.

Donner Party

In Independence, Missouri on May 1846 a wagon train of twenty wagons and a hundred people arrived. Later on …show more content…
Hastings claimed that the route would cutoff 300 miles. The Hastings Cutoff involved the Wasatch Mountains, go around the Great Salt Lake to the south, and west to Humboldt River in Nevada before returning to the main trail from Fort Hall. Hastings said that the desert was only 40 miles across, and they would find water within 24 hours. The desert actually took 48 hours and was 82 miles across. The Donner Party was worried that they would reach Sierra Nevada during the snowfall, so they decided to take the Hastings cutoff. On July 31st they left Fort Bridger and didn't make it out of the Echo Canyon tile August 6th. They expected the journey from Fort Bridger through the Echo Canyon to take four days took seven days. On there way they would find letters from Hastings telling them to go a certain way. The Donner Party set up camp at Weber River, and sent Reed and Charles T. Stanton went to clear the new route. Reed and Charles T. Stanton found Hastings and asked him to come back as their guide, but he refused. Instead, Hastings drew a rough map of the new route. On August 12th the Donner Party entered the Wasatch Mountains. Once they entered they had to chop down aspen, which