Virginia Elizabeth Backenstoe was born June 28, 1833 in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, the daughter of Lloyd Backenstoe and Margaret Keyes. She was the sister of Martha J. (Reed) Lewis, James F. Reed Jr, Thomas K. Reed, Charles C. Reed and Willianoski Y. Reed. Virgina's family was part of the ill-fated Donner Party which was trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during a snow storm in 1846 while emigrating to California. They suffered extreme hardship. The survivors resorted to consuming human flesh to stay alive. Virginia's father was banished from the wagon train after killing a teamster in the Wattach Mountains during a dispute. Virginia wrote an extensive account of the trip which was published in Century Magazine. Virginia died February 14, 1921 in Los Angeles County, California. She is buried in Oak Hill Memorial Park, San Jose, Santa Clara County, California, USA The Donner Party (sometimes called the Donner-Reed Party) was a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846. They were delayed by a series of mishaps and mistakes, and spent the winter of 1846-47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada. Some of the pioneers resorted to cannibalism to survive. The journey west usually took between four and six months, but the Donner Party was slowed by following a new route called Hastings Cutoff, which crossed Utah's Wasatch Mountains and Great Salt Lake Desert. The rugged terrain and difficulties encountered while traveling along the Humboldt River in present-day Nevada resulted in the loss of many cattle and wagons and splits within the group. By the beginning of November 1846, the settlers had reached the Sierra Nevada where they became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall near Truckee (now Donner) Lake, high in the mountains. Their food supplies ran extremely low and, in mid-December, some of the group set out on foot to obtain help. Rescuers from California attempted to reach the settlers, but the first relief party did not arrive until the middle of February 1847, almost four months after the wagon train became trapped. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived to reach California, many of them having eaten the dead for survival. Historians have described the episode as one of the most bizarre and spectacular tragedies in Californian history and western-US migration.