(Westward Expansion / Overland Journeys / California History) McGLASHAN, C. F. History of the Donner Party. A Tragedy of the Sierras. [Together with Four Original Documents Signed by Breen Family Members].
Truckee, Cal.: Crowley & McGlashan, [1879], (1879). FIRST EDITION. 8vo - 9-1/16" x 5-3/4". Original blind-stamped brown cloth covered boards with titles stamped in gilt to the spine. Plain endpapers; 193 pp. The volume is accompanied by an exceptional archive of four original twentieth- and nineteenth-century financial and legal documents signed by four of the seven surviving children of the historic Patrick Breen family. The collection includes: (1) A banking check signed by Patrick Breen Jr. (aged nine during the 1846–47 rescue) made out to Maurice Sullivan, dated November 12, 1876; (2) A manuscript land deed transferring property from James F. Breen (aged five during rescue) to his wife Kate, explicitly detailing land "set apart... in the estates of Patrick Breen and Margaret Breen deceased," dated September 27, 1897; (3) A partial printed mortgage document signed by Margaret I. [Breen] McMahon (aged one during rescue and the ultimate final survivor of the Donner Party) and additionally signed as a witness by Peter Breen (aged three during rescue), dated March 22, 1909; (4) A partial printed indenture document signed by Margaret I. [Breen] McMahon, dated April 18, 1912.
The physical condition of the book is graded VERY GOOD (utilizing the standard antiquarian book grading scale for works on paper). The original cloth binding presents minor routine wear to the corners and to the head and tail of the spine, with moderate superficial fading and rubbing to the covers and backstrip. Internally, the front hinge is starting, the first front flyleaf has been historically excised, and the second front flyleaf exhibits a clean 1" closed tear to the top edge; pages otherwise remain clean and securely attached. The accompanying four manuscript and printed documents are structurally intact and range in VERY GOOD + to NEAR FINE condition, showing expected historic folding creases and uniform age-toning.
C. F. McGlashan and the Primary Epistolary Record of the Donner Tragedy
First published in the small mountain town of Truckee, California, Charles Fayette McGlashan’s definitive history remains the foundational, authoritative narrative of the ill-fated 1846–47 overland emigration. As a contemporary and close neighbor to the surviving children of the expedition, McGlashan conducted exhaustive personal interviews and accumulated a primary archive of over one thousand letters to reconstruct the harrowing timeline of starvation, entrapment, and survival in the High Sierra. Crucially, a significant portion of McGlashan's text relies directly upon the historic daily diary kept by Patrick Breen Sr. during the confinement. This exceptional listing bridges McGlashan's landmark publication with the tangible, physical survival of the Breen family themselves, offering a direct lineage to four young children—Patrick Jr., James, Peter, and the infant Margaret—who lived through the catastrophic winter at Truckee Lake.
Bibliography, Provenance, and Primary Association Scarcity
Because of the immense cultural trauma associated with the Donner Party, primary relics and association materials connected to the survivors almost never enter the commercial market, with the vast majority of family papers permanently absorbed by regional institutions like the Bancroft Library at the UC Berkeley. The signatures represented in this archival lot trace the civic and economic integration of the Breen children into early California society, capturing James F. Breen's transition into a prominent San Benito County superior court judge and Margaret Breen McMahon's signature as the historic last remaining survivor of the ordeal. Bibliographically essential, this true Truckee first printing is recognized as a cornerstone of Western Americana collecting, cited extensively across major standard bibliographies including Cowan p. 406, Graff 2610, Howes M102, and the Zamorano Eighty 53.
THIS EXTRAORDINARY FIRST EDITION COMPONENT PACKAGE, PAIRING MCGLASHAN'S CORNERSTONE CHRONICLE WITH AN IMPECCABLE MANUSCRIPT COMPONENT RECORD OF THE BREEN SURVIVORS, REPRESENTS A CRITICAL ACQUISITION FOR INSTITUTIONAL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OR EXTRAORDINARY PRIVATE COLLECTIONS DEVOTED TO THE HISTORY OF OVERLAND JOURNEYS TO THE PACIFIC, CALIFORNIA PIONEER CHRONICLES, OR NINETEENTH-CENTURY WESTWARD EXPANSION.
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