Roundup: February 14, 2018

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speaker: Jeanette Davis
Her Subject: The Donner Party Incident: A Family Perspective

Anyone hungry?  Perhaps you would care for some finger sandwiches or some tasty ribs (Whose?). Comments and jokes such as these have dogged the Donner Party members and their descendants ever since the party’s plight became public.  What has been lost among the notoriety is the hardship endured by its members during the winter of 1846-47.  Trapped in the mountains, the party members were pushed to the brink of human strength, resolve and endurance.  While some questions will never be answered, what is known is that a group of people bound together by circumstance faced cold, starvation and death.

Our February speaker, Jeanette Davis, herself a descendant of the Donner Family, will concentrate her talk on brothers George and Jacob Donner and their families. Stopped by the heavy snow, they were not camped at the namesake lake, but at Alder Creek, where they struggled to survive.  Perhaps more than any other family, they paid the price for their winter in the snow.

Jeanette is a California native, almost.  With her parents, she traveled Route 66 from Illinois and arrived in the state in time to celebrate her third birthday.  She grew up in the Mojave Desert town of Ridgecrest and moved to this area to attend college.   She has lived here ever since.

 Jeanette is a graduate of Cal Poly, Pomona with a B. A. in History and an M. A. in Reading. She is retired from the Chino Valley Unified School District after 32 years of teaching.  She also taught for eight years at Citrus College in the Evening Division.

 Anyone acquainted with Jeanette knows she is an avid student and collector of Native American Culture.  She is a charter member of the San Dimas Corral and its Past Sheriff in 1987. Jeanette was the first female member to attend this Corral and, with Dr. Gloria Lothrop, to reach active status.

She is a docent for the Historical Society of Pomona Valley, a trustee for the Chaffey Museum of Art, and a literacy tutor at the Upland Library. Jeanette is a talented story teller with a sense of humor!

Posted by Jim Macklin, Deputy Sheriff.