Donner Party Survivor. "Tommy" was 3 years old when his parents, James Frazier Reed and Margret Wilson Keyes left Springfield, Illinois as members of the ill-fated Donner Party. His father was banished from the train on October 5, 1846, and his mother left him behind at Donner lake with his sister Martha Jane "Patty", on February 21, 1847 when she, his half-sister Virginia and Jimmy departed with the First Relief. Patty took care of him. After their food was gone, they ate rawhide, leather scraps, bones, whatever else they could find but by the time the Second Relief, led by his father arrived, they had already started eating the dead. When James Reed arrived, Tommy didn't recognize him and asked Patty if that was really his father. As his father was leading them and the refugees down to the California settlements, a blizzard set in. When the storm eased two days later, most of the emigrants had become too weak to continue. Reed took three with him, but had to leave the rest behind at what was to become known as Starved Camp. After their rescue, the survivors put on a lot of weight. Patty later wrote that Tommy became "as stout as a little alderman." Reed never married. He lived in San Jose most of his life, and in his later years he made his home with Patty.
Donner Party Survivor. "Tommy" was 3 years old when his parents, James Frazier Reed and Margret Wilson Keyes left Springfield, Illinois as members of the ill-fated Donner Party. His father was banished from the train on October 5, 1846, and his mother left him behind at Donner lake with his sister Martha Jane "Patty", on February 21, 1847 when she, his half-sister Virginia and Jimmy departed with the First Relief. Patty took care of him. After their food was gone, they ate rawhide, leather scraps, bones, whatever else they could find but by the time the Second Relief, led by his father arrived, they had already started eating the dead. When James Reed arrived, Tommy didn't recognize him and asked Patty if that was really his father. As his father was leading them and the refugees down to the California settlements, a blizzard set in. When the storm eased two days later, most of the emigrants had become too weak to continue. Reed took three with him, but had to leave the rest behind at what was to become known as Starved Camp. After their rescue, the survivors put on a lot of weight. Patty later wrote that Tommy became "as stout as a little alderman." Reed never married. He lived in San Jose most of his life, and in his later years he made his home with Patty.
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