Creating Fiction from History: 10/27/2021

Mary and Jane Donner were born exactly one full minute apart, during a tornado on May 27th, 1896, in St. Louis, Missouri. For their parents, Robert and Miriam, their unique entrance into this life was merely a harbinger of what was to follow!

Though the Donner's property was scarcely affected by the fury of the enormous "dust devil", they quickly decided to join the Westward Expansion and, uprooting from Missouri, took the Frisco from St. Louis to Kansas City. There they boarded the Kansas Pacific to Denver, Colorado. After trying his luck in the big city for a time, Mr. Donner once again moved his little family, this time by stagecoach, to the hills surrounding Butte, Montana.

Butte was to remain home to the Donner twins for the rest of their lives. It was in the late Spring of their 13th year the twins were photographed at Elite Studios, which had changed hands the winter previous. Though Robert had quickly picked up a job at the new smelter for "The Parrot," the Donners did not, by any means, have an easy life. They lived in the environs of the quickly growing city. Their small bungalow, which they built on piece of land south-east of the city proper, still stands as a testament to the fortitude of those early pioneers.

Want to create fiction from history? Stop by the Ledger office and choose a photo from the Jefferson Valley Museum Archives to write a fictional story on.