Scientists have made an unexpected discovery among the items Donner Party member is stored in the bag from the ill-fated trip group in California: military document with handwriting of Abraham Lincoln on it.Donner Party member James Reid and his family are being collected rolls called Lincoln on them among their most cherished relics, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum said in a statement issued Monday.
Group of librarians, historians and experts on hand combined forces to confirm that the letter Lincoln was one of the documents, which list of Lincoln and volunteer soldiers who fought in the 1832 Black Hawk War.
"We often find documents that detail the fascinating stories about the life of Abraham Lincoln's time, but is rather rare for this document so intriguing stories after it was written," said Daniel Stowell, director of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. "This part of the documents in detail the military service of Lincoln, and that they were accompanied by Donner Party in California, makes them doubly important."
All four collect rolls include "Private Abraham Lincoln among the list of soldiers. One of them, according to experts, two and a half lines clear handwriting Lincoln. And documents show that Lincoln had a horse at $ 85 and equipment worth $ 15, noting that Lincoln was one tent, which was the property of the United States must be returned at the end of his service.
Lines Lincoln wrote to say: "Master-Roll of Captain James M. Earlys Company Mounted Volunteers collected from United States officials on the orders of Brigadier General Atkinson the United States Army at the White Water River Rock River at the 10 th day of July 1832."
The documents are part of James Fraser Reed Collection at the California State Library.
Reed name appears just below the Lincoln in the list. He was one of the members of the organization Donner Party, a group of pioneers known to resort to cannibalism is experiencing a severe winter in the Sierra Nevada.
He probably inherited the papers from the military commander of the company and took them with him when he left Springfield, Illinois, in April 1846, because they were part of his personal history, said the Lincoln Presidential Library.
Although historians believe that the documents are accompanied by Donner Party throughout its path, Reed did not. He was expelled from the team after fighting with the driver and stab him to death, the library statement on Monday said.
He left his papers to his wife after expelled from the party, and she brought them safely to his chest, to California, where assisted in the first batch of aid, which went to help the daughter of Martha Jane "Patty" Reed recalled.
