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GEORGE DONNER, was born about 1786, in Rowan county, North Carolina, came with his parents to Jessamine county, Kentucky, and from there to Decatur county, Indiana. He was there married and had five children. Mrs. Donner died there, and Mr. D., with his family came to Sangamon county, Illinois, in the autumn of 1828, settling about three miles northeast of Springfield. George Donner was married in Sangamon county to Mary Blue. Mrs. Mary Donner died in Sangamon county. Mr. Donner's five eldest children married in the latter county, and in 1838 he took his two children by the second marriage, and, in company with his son William and family, and his brother Jacob and family, moved to Texas. They raised one crop fifty miles south of Houston. Not liking the country, they all returned in 1839, and George Donner moved on the farm he left. About two years afterwards he married Mrs. Tamsen Dozier, whose maiden name was Eustace. George Donner was a good man. It is said, by his former neighbors in Sangamon county, that it appeared to be a pleasure for him to do a kind act. For an account of the sad fate of himself and wife, see sketch of the Reed and Donner emigrant party.
Jacob Donner, about the year 1790, was born near Salem, Rowan County, N. C., accompanied the family to Jessamine county, Kentucky, thence to Decatur county, Indiana, and from there (in 1828) to Sangamon county, Illinois, where he was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Hook, whose maiden name was Blue, a sister of his brother George's second wife.