Donner Party belongings to be in Bay Area museum exhibit
By Samie Hartley, Discovery Bay Press
Two porcelain dolls that belonged to Francis Eustis Donner Wilder, one of the surviving members of the doomed Donner Party, will grace the East Contra Costa Historical Society Museum’s collection of treasures when it opens for the 2010 season.
Frances moved to Byron in 1866 after she married William Wilder, and she remained in East County until she died in 1921. Her granddaughter, Doris Wilder Shera, recently donated the dolls to the museum, along with a few antique clocks from the 1920s.