Talk:Donner Party

message: I notice that Johnson's Unfortunate Emigrants is currently missing from the Further Reading section, though it's quoted extensively throughout the article and is clearly essential reading, collecting all the first-hand accounts of the events. Therefore I propose adding it there – or are they objections? Gawaon (talk) 18:28, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: The general practice is to list a book only once. Johnson's book is in the bibliography with all the best soures. The "further reading" section contains sources which have not been cited for various reasons. It's kind of the  section. Binksternet (talk) 23:56, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I see, that makes sense. But the "Bibliography" current appears as the less prominent section, being nested under  "References" and printed in a smaller font. Maybe it would be better to promote it to a == section and remove the refbegin template to make it clear that it's no less important than the "Further reading"? Gawaon (talk) 10:41, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Since there were no objections, I have now changed the Bibliography formatting accordingly. Gawaon (talk) 11:06, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Add Johnson to "Further Reading" section 

message: Charles T. Stanton is first mentioned in the section "Wasatch Range": Reed, Charles T. Stanton and William Pike rode ahead to get Hastings. He is not among those listed in the article as members of the Donner Party and there is no explanation as who he is. Sansgloire (talk) 12:13, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Who is Charles T. Stanton? 

message: I tabled out the people mentioned as being part of the various groups and ran into some issues. (I got very lost in the names and thought a table would help me understand better.)
1. "Also traveling with the Donner brothers were teamsters Hiram O. Miller (29)" this particular teamster is never mentioned again.
2. Charles Stanton, who gets a portrait on the page, and Antonio both appear without any indication of how or where; the Donner Party timeline page mentions both as being members of the Donner group.
3. "Two young single men named Spitzer and Reinhardt traveled with another German couple, the Wolfingers, who were rumored to be wealthy; they also had a hired driver, "Dutch Charley" Burger." Although Joseph Reinhardt is mentioned again, Dutch Charley is not, and the only Spitzer mentioned is Augustus Spitzer, which implies them both to be duplicates of Augustus Spitzer and Charles Burger. Both of them were earlier classed as Donner group teamsters rather than Wolfinger's, and are classed as such on the Donner Party timeline page again.
4. "the Donner families hastily constructed tents to house 21 people, including Mrs. Wolfinger, [and] her child" this is the only mention of Mrs. Wolfinger's child in the entire article, and the 12 children mentioned are already filled by the various Donner children. 
Related to 1 and 2 possibly: there's an offhand mention on leaving from Blacks Fork of "Donner hired a replacement driver". No reason is given for why he needed to hire a replacement, nor who the replacement is. It seems plausible that Hiram Miller left and was replaced with Charles Stanton or Antonio, but I don't have any idea of where to look in the references to check for the reality of the situation. If nothing else, that one sentence needs clarification.
Because of these inconsistencies, there are a minimum of 88 people mentioned, and if you include Sarah Keyes, Luis and Salvador, and the Wolfinger child, that number goes up to 92. This is two more than Stephen McCurdy's number. It seems likely that the Wolfinger child is not particularly historically attested, but the other extra person is unclear. I assume it's Hiram Miller, but, again, that's my supposition rather than a researched answer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.77.121.239 (talk • contribs) 03:37, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Inconsistencies in the party members