Wife of John Matthias App
Mother of Leonard Frank, John Quincy, Rebecca Ellen Burrell, and Lucy Eva Heiskell
From the Union Democrat Jan. 12, 2019:
Leanna Donner was 12 when her parents died in 1846 after becoming stranded in a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada. Hers was a story most every American child learned in school. The 87 members of the Donner Party suffered conditions so cruel, some resorted to eating the ones who had died.
Leanna was among those who lived and as a bride of 18 married 31 year old John App in 1852 at Fort Sutter in Sacramento. They came to Tuolumne County to live out the rest of their lives. John bought the property on Highway 108 in Jamestown in 1853,and built a simple farm house that was added onto as the family grew. John and Leanna had four children, one son died when he was a child. In 1856, App bought a gold mine, which proved as dangerous as it was lucrative.
He died in 1898 and Leanna stayed on the home place. Family members described her as reserved, a woman who rarely smiled, which they attributed to the suffering she endured. She and her sister were in the third group rescued and her mother, who chose to stay with her dying husband, told Leanna never to talk about what happened on that mountain. Leanna’s mother died shortly after her father. In the last years of her life, App talked to the author of “History of the Donner Party.”
“The snow came so suddenly we barely had time to pitch our tent, and put up a brush shed, as it were, one side of it was open,” she was quoted as saying.
When she was rescued four months later, she said, she was emaciated and could barely walk. Often, she sat down and cried and waited to die. Twenty-five days later, the group reached Sutter's Fort in Sacramento.
Louise Garrison, who was 8 when her great-grandmother Leanna died, on Saturday remembered visiting her there and often saw her sitting quietly on the front porch watching cars go by.
"We were never allowed to run around in that house, and we were never ever allowed upstairs,” Garrison said. “When we were there with Grandma and Grandpa, there was a long room on the side, where the kitchen was later moved to... that was Leanna's room. She died in that room."
Leanna App was 95 when she died in 1930. She had lived in the App house on Highway 108 in James town for 78 years. The house was passed down to John App, then his son. Leanna App remained in the home with her son John and his family. The house was abandoned for a decade, a well known historical landmark that recently burnt, a total tragedy. The backside and roof sustained most of the damage. The walls on the front and the side that faces the highway are still standing, clothed in faded siding painted white. The posts and tin topped porch roof remain as well,but the fire was so hot it melted a water tank.
Mother of Leonard Frank, John Quincy, Rebecca Ellen Burrell, and Lucy Eva Heiskell
From the Union Democrat Jan. 12, 2019:
Leanna Donner was 12 when her parents died in 1846 after becoming stranded in a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada. Hers was a story most every American child learned in school. The 87 members of the Donner Party suffered conditions so cruel, some resorted to eating the ones who had died.
Leanna was among those who lived and as a bride of 18 married 31 year old John App in 1852 at Fort Sutter in Sacramento. They came to Tuolumne County to live out the rest of their lives. John bought the property on Highway 108 in Jamestown in 1853,and built a simple farm house that was added onto as the family grew. John and Leanna had four children, one son died when he was a child. In 1856, App bought a gold mine, which proved as dangerous as it was lucrative.
He died in 1898 and Leanna stayed on the home place. Family members described her as reserved, a woman who rarely smiled, which they attributed to the suffering she endured. She and her sister were in the third group rescued and her mother, who chose to stay with her dying husband, told Leanna never to talk about what happened on that mountain. Leanna’s mother died shortly after her father. In the last years of her life, App talked to the author of “History of the Donner Party.”
“The snow came so suddenly we barely had time to pitch our tent, and put up a brush shed, as it were, one side of it was open,” she was quoted as saying.
When she was rescued four months later, she said, she was emaciated and could barely walk. Often, she sat down and cried and waited to die. Twenty-five days later, the group reached Sutter's Fort in Sacramento.
Louise Garrison, who was 8 when her great-grandmother Leanna died, on Saturday remembered visiting her there and often saw her sitting quietly on the front porch watching cars go by.
"We were never allowed to run around in that house, and we were never ever allowed upstairs,” Garrison said. “When we were there with Grandma and Grandpa, there was a long room on the side, where the kitchen was later moved to... that was Leanna's room. She died in that room."
Leanna App was 95 when she died in 1930. She had lived in the App house on Highway 108 in James town for 78 years. The house was passed down to John App, then his son. Leanna App remained in the home with her son John and his family. The house was abandoned for a decade, a well known historical landmark that recently burnt, a total tragedy. The backside and roof sustained most of the damage. The walls on the front and the side that faces the highway are still standing, clothed in faded siding painted white. The posts and tin topped porch roof remain as well,but the fire was so hot it melted a water tank.
Wife of John Matthias App
Mother of Leonard Frank, John Quincy, Rebecca Ellen Burrell, and Lucy Eva Heiskell
From the Union Democrat Jan. 12, 2019:
Leanna Donner was 12 when her parents died in 1846 after becoming stranded in a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada. Hers was a story most every American child learned in school. The 87 members of the Donner Party suffered conditions so cruel, some resorted to eating the ones who had died.
Leanna was among those who lived and as a bride of 18 married 31 year old John App in 1852 at Fort Sutter in Sacramento. They came to Tuolumne County to live out the rest of their lives. John bought the property on Highway 108 in Jamestown in 1853,and built a simple farm house that was added onto as the family grew. John and Leanna had four children, one son died when he was a child. In 1856, App bought a gold mine, which proved as dangerous as it was lucrative.
He died in 1898 and Leanna stayed on the home place. Family members described her as reserved, a woman who rarely smiled, which they attributed to the suffering she endured. She and her sister were in the third group rescued and her mother, who chose to stay with her dying husband, told Leanna never to talk about what happened on that mountain. Leanna’s mother died shortly after her father. In the last years of her life, App talked to the author of “History of the Donner Party.”
“The snow came so suddenly we barely had time to pitch our tent, and put up a brush shed, as it were, one side of it was open,” she was quoted as saying.
When she was rescued four months later, she said, she was emaciated and could barely walk. Often, she sat down and cried and waited to die. Twenty-five days later, the group reached Sutter's Fort in Sacramento.
Louise Garrison, who was 8 when her great-grandmother Leanna died, on Saturday remembered visiting her there and often saw her sitting quietly on the front porch watching cars go by.
"We were never allowed to run around in that house, and we were never ever allowed upstairs,” Garrison said. “When we were there with Grandma and Grandpa, there was a long room on the side, where the kitchen was later moved to... that was Leanna's room. She died in that room."
Leanna App was 95 when she died in 1930. She had lived in the App house on Highway 108 in James town for 78 years. The house was passed down to John App, then his son. Leanna App remained in the home with her son John and his family. The house was abandoned for a decade, a well known historical landmark that recently burnt, a total tragedy. The backside and roof sustained most of the damage. The walls on the front and the side that faces the highway are still standing, clothed in faded siding painted white. The posts and tin topped porch roof remain as well,but the fire was so hot it melted a water tank.
Mother of Leonard Frank, John Quincy, Rebecca Ellen Burrell, and Lucy Eva Heiskell
From the Union Democrat Jan. 12, 2019:
Leanna Donner was 12 when her parents died in 1846 after becoming stranded in a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada. Hers was a story most every American child learned in school. The 87 members of the Donner Party suffered conditions so cruel, some resorted to eating the ones who had died.
Leanna was among those who lived and as a bride of 18 married 31 year old John App in 1852 at Fort Sutter in Sacramento. They came to Tuolumne County to live out the rest of their lives. John bought the property on Highway 108 in Jamestown in 1853,and built a simple farm house that was added onto as the family grew. John and Leanna had four children, one son died when he was a child. In 1856, App bought a gold mine, which proved as dangerous as it was lucrative.
He died in 1898 and Leanna stayed on the home place. Family members described her as reserved, a woman who rarely smiled, which they attributed to the suffering she endured. She and her sister were in the third group rescued and her mother, who chose to stay with her dying husband, told Leanna never to talk about what happened on that mountain. Leanna’s mother died shortly after her father. In the last years of her life, App talked to the author of “History of the Donner Party.”
“The snow came so suddenly we barely had time to pitch our tent, and put up a brush shed, as it were, one side of it was open,” she was quoted as saying.
When she was rescued four months later, she said, she was emaciated and could barely walk. Often, she sat down and cried and waited to die. Twenty-five days later, the group reached Sutter's Fort in Sacramento.
Louise Garrison, who was 8 when her great-grandmother Leanna died, on Saturday remembered visiting her there and often saw her sitting quietly on the front porch watching cars go by.
"We were never allowed to run around in that house, and we were never ever allowed upstairs,” Garrison said. “When we were there with Grandma and Grandpa, there was a long room on the side, where the kitchen was later moved to... that was Leanna's room. She died in that room."
Leanna App was 95 when she died in 1930. She had lived in the App house on Highway 108 in James town for 78 years. The house was passed down to John App, then his son. Leanna App remained in the home with her son John and his family. The house was abandoned for a decade, a well known historical landmark that recently burnt, a total tragedy. The backside and roof sustained most of the damage. The walls on the front and the side that faces the highway are still standing, clothed in faded siding painted white. The posts and tin topped porch roof remain as well,but the fire was so hot it melted a water tank.
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