Naomi Pike, Donner Party

Her sister Catherine died the day after the relief arrived, but Naomi was still alive. Rhoads carried her slung on his back in a blanket to her mother.

http://user.xmission.com/~octa/DonnerParty/Murphy.htm#Simon%20Peter...

b. 13 Nov 1843 in St. Louis, MO m1. 8 Sep 1864 in Marysville, Yuba Co., CA to Benjamin W. Mitchell m2. abt 1877 to John L. Schenck d. 3 Apr 1934 in The Dalles, Wasco Co., OR

      John Rhoads of the First Relief met Harriet Murphy Pike at Johnson’s Ranch, and, moved by her plight, determined to rescue her children. He may have been influenced by the fact that he, like Harriet, was or had been a Mormon. Catherine died the day after the relief arrived, but Naomi was still alive. Rhoads carried her slung on his back in a blanket to her mother. Decades later, Naomi wrote of him with gratitude.

      Harriet’s marriage to Michael C. Nye gave Naomi a kind stepfather. Mary Murphy wrote, "he loves Naomi as well as if she war his own child." She was often called "Naomi Nye."

      Naomi married Benjamin Mitchell, a physician, in Marysville and moved to Oregon; the Nyes later moved there as well. After Mitchell’s death she married John L. Schenck, an agent for a steamship company who later went into banking. When he died in 1913 he left Naomi a wealthy widow, but she was impoverished by the stock market crash of 1929. She had no children by either of her husbands.

      When Naomi died in 1934, the passing of the next to the last survivor of the Donner Party was widely reported in the press.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=38442394&ref=wvr