Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-28
WI BONNER PARTY.

THE BONNER PAh1S.
A correspondent of the Sacramento
rr,,;o, has written a very interesting and
deeply affecting account Of the fate OF the
"Donner Party" which persisted just
twenty years ago the coming winter, in
the vicinity of wha, has since been known
as Bonner Lake, on the western border of
the State. The letter will be found In
Yesterdays Union, and we would advise
such Of our readers who wish to read q sad
story Of the trials and hardships Of the
early pioneers to this western wilderness.
to obtain q copy. The world perhaps
never produced a sadder and a truer story
nor one which will be so long remem-
bered BY many whose fortunes were cast
on the Pacific slope in the early days Of
its settlement by the Americans. We per-
sonally knew one Of the families that per-
ished among the Bonner party, and on
reading the interesting letter in the Union,
it awakened in our memory a little incl
dent in connection with this sad calamity,
which happened in the State Of Illinois
twenty years ago last April. At that
time we were the publisher Of q newspa-
per in Putnam County, Illinois. Oregon
and California were beginning to attract
the attention Of the western people; and
in the Spring of 1916, a party Of about
fifty persons, farmers with their families,
and young men, was made up in that
County destined for Oregon. When the
day Of departure arrived, the whole party
assembled in a village called Magnolia, to
agree upon camp regulations, appointment
Of officers, etc. As a journalist we at
tended tina, meeting and published a full
account Of its proceedings. Among the
party was "Uncle Billy Graves and his
family, consisting OF the father, mother,
two daughters and a son., the ages of the
children ranging from fifteen to twenty
years. Uncle Billy Graves was a we'll
,o-do farmer, with everything comfortable
about him /; and having already reached
the age Of three-score, it was a matter Of
surprise to many that he should sell his farm
and start off to make a new home in such q
far-of and wild country as Oregon then
was. But the country in Illinois was get
ting toe thickly settled for the old man, and
he longed for the wild adventures Of the
Far West. He pleaded and persuaded US
to 90 rih him, and TO bring our printing
Office along, as Oregon would some day be
a srea, country, and we would have the
credi, Of having been the frs, to publish
a newspaper in it. But circumstances
over which we had no control prevented
US, although we certainly had the will
and the wish to do just as Uncle Billy
Graves advised. We remained in Illinois,
and the Graves family joined with the
overland party for Oregon. Letters writ
ten by the party during the summer were
published in our paper. The last one
written by any of the Graves family was
dated at Fort Laramie. and this was the
las. heard Of the old farmer. He Joined
the Bonner party, which separated from
the emigration to Oregon at Fort Hall,
near the headwa,ers Of the Columbia, and
vending his way westward toward Cali
fornia, before its gold fields were known
to the world, he persisted in the noun
tains, and his good old wife persisted with
him. The son and daughters Of the
Graves family were among the persons
who were rescued by the relief party Of
sailors and others who were sent out by
the benevolent Americans at Suffers Fort
and at San Francisco. A long letter
written by one Of the Graves girls was
published in u paper in the year
lS47, and which contained a full and a
sad account Of the awful sufferings Of the
party. We shall never forget the manu-
script OF that letter. 1t was blotted all
over with the tears which the poor girl
shed while describing the sufferings Of
her furnishing parents, their death, and
the flesh Of their dead bodies furnishing
food for their starving children Horri-
bic, horrible! Let the bleached bones
and skulls of the Bonner party be gath.
cred together and decently buried, for
they once belonged to good Christian
people.
Nyu p.y,po.D pprnop At Ior,syyr,y