Patty Reed’s doll while formerly on display at Sutter Fort State Historic Site, California (Sutter Fort SHS)
Like the Donner Party itself, the best-known relic of that pioneer tragedy hails from Sangamon County.
The Donner Party, of course, is remembered primarily because some of the emigrants, snowbound in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains in 1846-47, reportedly resorted to cannibalism. About 40 of the 80-some people who entered the mountains died before the rest were rescued. Among the dead were a dozen former Sangamon County residents.
Remarkably, however, James and Margaret Reed and their three young children all survived the winter ordeal. (Margaret Reed’s mother, Sarah Keyes, had died earlier on the trail in Kansas.)
By the time the survivors were rescued, they had abandoned or consumed virtually all their possessions. However, eight-year-old Martha “Patty” Reed (1838-1923) somehow hung on to a tiny wooden doll. It today is owned by Sutter’s Fort State Historic Site in California, although it was removed from public display in 2020 and remained out of view in 2024. From the park’s website:
The 4” tall hand-carved wooden doll was secretly carried by 8-year-old Patty Reed when she and others were rescued from their winter camp at Donner Lake in March 1847. The prized doll – which Patty called “Dolly” – is the most well-known artifact of the ill-fated Donner Party incident.
More than 70 years of nearly continuous display at Sutter’s Fort has taken its toll on “Dolly.” The painted features of its face are faded, wooden limbs are splitting, and the fragile dress is disintegrating. According to preservation experts, a pattern of extensive rests and limited exhibition is the best way to preserve the doll far into the future.
Martha “Patty” Reed Lewis, undated (findagrave.com)
The Reeds belonged to what today is Springfield’s First Methodist Episcopal Church, as the church verified when queried in 1946.
An announcement in the Jan. 5, 1947, Sunday bulletin of the Springfield church alerted the congregation to an article that had appeared in the Illinois State Register on Dec. 30, 1946. The announcement read: “California Methodists … wrote our church to find if the Reed family were members here before leaving for California in the Reed-Donner Party. Among those who made the long journey to the Pacific Coast was Martha (Patty) Reed, who took along with her a tiny wooden doll, which is now in the museum in Sutter’s Fort, Sacramento.”
According to the Register article, First Methodist pastor Dr. A. Ray Grummon and church historian Dr. W. G. Piersel were able to find James and Margaret Reed, as well as Margaret’s mother Sarah Keyes, in the church’s membership roll. The records included notations of their removal to California.
A bronze plaque on the south Old State Capitol Plaza in downtown Springfield commemorates the April 15, 1846, departure of the Donner Party from near that very location.
Contributor: Steve Beilstein, historian, Springfield First Methodist Church
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