Hastings Family

He was born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio c. 1819, the brother of Ephraim Hastings and the youngest of eight sons born to Dr. Waitstill Hastings and Lucinda Wood. The Hastings family fled to Mt. Vernon from their northern Ohio home after the 1812 Hull Surrender to escape the Indians; and they returned to their home in Erie County by 1820.

Lansford wrote "The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California" published in Cincinnati in 1845-- the guidebook used by the disasterous Donner Party Expedition in 1846. Of course I believe that, while Lansford was undoubtably ambitious and egotistical, he was hardly the self-serving, unscrupulous person described by many historians; and I believe he was unfairly blamed for the Donner Party's troubles.

Lansford was also a business partner of John Sutter, a lawyer and judge in Sacramento, and a Major in the Confederate Army (the only one of his family to support the Confederacy).

After the war, he helped found a Confederate refuge in Brazil and his new guidebook, "The Emigrants' Guide to Brazil," was published in 1866. Lansford reportedly died at sea enroute to Brazil in 1870 (possibly of yellow fever at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands). He m. 1) Catherine McCord; 2) Charlotte Toler; 3) Janice "Jennie" Mendenhall.

Hasting Family web page

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1150/hastings.html

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Anthony Spencer
Department of Communication Studies
University of North Texas