Patty reed donner party santa cruz

The exhibit tells the stories of self-reliant women who lived in this area during the first decades of statehood.

The stalwart pioneers are represented in the museum exhibit through photographs, books, period dresses, shoes, hats, poems, and, of course, a pincushion.

Pincushions to Politics: Women in Nineteenth Century Santa Cruz County
by Carolyn Swift - former Director, Capitola Historical Museum

Mrs.

Frank Lewis had good reason to despise snow, or at least want to live as far away from it as possible.

Patty reed donner party santa cruz ca

As little girls, Martha Jane "Patty" Reed and her sister Virginia filled dainty porcelain tea cups with the freshly fallen powder and dipped it out with small spoons, pretending it was custard.

The winter scene of 1846-7 might have made a fond childhood memory had there not been the reality of starvation and death.

Grisly scenes of horror and agony were a part of everyday life for Patty and her famil