35 year old Patrick Dolan was born in Dublin, Ireland act 1811. He became A bachelor farmer where he met and became a friend of the Breen family.

We do not know of Patrick’s youth. He had a farm near Keokuk, Iowa, which he sold in exchange for a wagon and team in order to emigrate to California. He was remembered as a cheerful, funloving, goodnatured man.

Dolan left with the Forlorn Hope on December 16th, 1846. He along with Charles Stanton, and young men Antonio, Lemuel Murphy, Luis and Salvador were the bachelors of the party. After Stanton was dropped and the party became disoriented and lost and provisions had run out and starvation began, it was Dolan who broke the silence and suggested the group draw lots to determine which of them should be sacrificed to supply food for the rest; and Patrick Dolan was the loser. His companions, however, could not bring themselves to kill him, however, so they decided to go on until someone died.

Two days later, Dolan died at “Camp of Death.”[A]bout 10 o’clock, a.m., of the 26th, when Patrick Dolan, becoming deranged, broke away from them, and getting out into the snow, it was with great difficulty that Mr. Eddy again got him under. They held him there by force until about 4 o’clock, p.m., when he quietly and silently sunk into the arms of death.

J. Quinn Thornton

Like the others who died there, Dolan was cannibalized by his companions. Dolan perished on December 26th, 1846.