Donner Party Survivor, Businesswoman. Virginia Backenstoe Reed, as she was known, was 13 when her step-father James Frazier Reed and mother Margret Wilson Keyes left Springfield, Illinois as members of the ill-fated Donner Party. At Donner Lake, impressed with the Breen family, Virginia vowed that if God would spare her family's lives, she would become a Catholic. All the Reeds survived, and Virginia kept her promise. She was rescued with her mother and half-brother James Jr. by the First Relief on February 21, 1847. In May of 1847, Virginia wrote a first-hand account of the Donner Party in a letter that was published by the Illinois Journal in December of 1847 and in 1891 she wrote "Across the Plains in the Donner Party" for Century Magazine. Virginia was a noted equestrian who won prizes for horsemanship. She married John Murphy on January 26, 1850 in San Jose, California and they had nine children; Mary M., Lloyd M., Mattie H., John Marion Jr., Virginia B., Julia Ada, Daniel James, Annie Mabel, and Thaddeus Stanley. After he became ill, Virginia assisted him in his business and continued it after his death in 1892 becoming the first woman on the Pacific Coast to engage in the fire insurance business. Virginia Street in downtown San Jose is named after her. She was the daughter of Lloyd Carter Backenstoe.
Donner Party Survivor, Businesswoman. Virginia Backenstoe Reed, as she was known, was 13 when her step-father James Frazier Reed and mother Margret Wilson Keyes left Springfield, Illinois as members of the ill-fated Donner Party. At Donner Lake, impressed with the Breen family, Virginia vowed that if God would spare her family's lives, she would become a Catholic. All the Reeds survived, and Virginia kept her promise. She was rescued with her mother and half-brother James Jr. by the First Relief on February 21, 1847. In May of 1847, Virginia wrote a first-hand account of the Donner Party in a letter that was published by the Illinois Journal in December of 1847 and in 1891 she wrote "Across the Plains in the Donner Party" for Century Magazine. Virginia was a noted equestrian who won prizes for horsemanship. She married John Murphy on January 26, 1850 in San Jose, California and they had nine children; Mary M., Lloyd M., Mattie H., John Marion Jr., Virginia B., Julia Ada, Daniel James, Annie Mabel, and Thaddeus Stanley. After he became ill, Virginia assisted him in his business and continued it after his death in 1892 becoming the first woman on the Pacific Coast to engage in the fire insurance business. Virginia Street in downtown San Jose is named after her. She was the daughter of Lloyd Carter Backenstoe.
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See more Murphy or Backenstoe memorials in:
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- Find a Grave Murphy or Backenstoe
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