Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1891 — Hardships at Donner Lake. [ARTICLE]

Hardships at Donner Lake.

The July Century. The misery endured, during those! four mouths at Donner Lake in our little dark cabins under the snow would fill pages and make the coldest heart ache. Christmas was near,, but to the starving its memory gave) no comfort. It came and passed) without observance, but my mother; had determined weeks before that) her children should have a treat on; this one day. She had laid away a; few dried apples, some beans ana a 1 bit of tripe and a small piece of ba-‘ con. When this hoarded store was; brought out the delight of the little! ones knew no bounds. The cooking was watched carefully t and when we sat down to our Christmas dinner j mother said, ‘ ‘Children eat slowly,! for this one day you can have all you wish." So bitter was the misery re lieved by that one bright day that I have never since sat down to a Christmas dinner without my thoughts going back to Donner Lake. The storms often would last ten! days at a time and we would have toi cut chips from the logs inside which 1 formed our cabins in order to start a fire. We could scan el y walk, and. the men had hardly strength enough 1 to procure wood. We would drag! ourselves through the snow from one cabin to another, and some mornings' snow would have to be shoveled out, of the fireplace before a fire could be : made. Poor little children wereerying with hunger and mothers were! crying because they had so little to 1 .give their children. We seldom /thought of bread, we had been without it so long. Pour months of such 1 suffering would fill the bravest hearts [with despair.