Amanda McCutchen, Donner Party

Survived, age 23

Amanda was one of the hardy young women who survived the Forlorn Hope. On December 16, 1846, she left her daughter Harriet with the Graves family and set out for help.

    While living at Sonoma with the Brunners, Eliza Donner Houghton recalled wearing "a dark calico dress and sunbonnet, both made by poor Mrs. McCutchen of the Donner Party, who had to take in sewing for a livelihood."

    Amanda died giving birth to her son Edward. William, left with three other children to tend, could not cope with a newborn, so Edward spent the first several years of his life with the attending physician and his wife, taking their name, "Johnson," as his middle name in gratitude.

Amanda died in 1857 at the age of 35. She died of complications while giving birth to their fourth son, Edward Johnson McCutchen.

http://www.reocities.com/Heartland/Estates/1208/Genealogy/donner.html

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=43924260&ref=wvr