Johanne Ludwig Christian Keseberg (1814 - 1895)

Lewis Keseberg was born May 22, 1814 in Berleburg Stadt, Westfalen, Prussia, the son of Friedrich Ernst Keseberg and Juliane Ludovica von Asmuth.^[1] He was the brother of Ada, Louis, Jr., Amelia, Lillie, Paulina, Julia, Mathilda, Bertha, Ida, Augusta. He was generally called Louis or Lewis, the anglicized version of Ludwig. Lewis married Elisabeth "Philipinne" Zimmermann on July 22, 1842 in Berleburg Stadt, Westfalen ,Prussia^[2]. In 1844 the Kesebergs emigrated to the United States, arriving on Louis's thirtieth birthday. They settled near Cincinnati, where Lewis may have worked as a brewer or distiller. He was known for his beastly behavior and bad temper during the Donner Party's emigration to California. He began by being a nuisance, escalating into beating his wife, and before it was over he resorted to murder both for sustenance and monetary gain.

The Donner Party was an 1846 emigrant expedition to California that made the fatal mistake of taking Hastings Cutoff, a new and unknown trail, on the advice of Lansford Hastings, the Author of "The Emigrants guide to Oregon and California".^[3] This advice that slowed them down to such a rate they were snowed in the Sierra Nevada Mountains before reaching California, causing many deaths and horrific traits from the members. They were trapped for 111 days.

We know the story of Lewis Keseberg from the many trail diaries and letters of the survivors of the expedition. On the trail, Keseberg is reported having taken a buffalo robe from a Sioux burial scaffold.^[4] James F. Reed reportedly took him to task for beating his wife Philippine. J. Quinn Thornton reported that Reed had Keseberg banished from the wagon train temporarily, and that after Reed killed John Snyder, Keseberg retaliated by calling for Reed’s hanging^[5] Almost the same account is reported by Virginia Murphy, Reed's step daughter in her "Across the Plains in the Donner Party".^[6] Lewis Keseberg was criticized for his role in the abandonment and death of Mr. Hardcoop, a Belgian traveling with his family.^[7]

On October 14th Lewis Keseberg was travelling at the rear of the train along with 3 other Germans, Augustus Spitzer, Joseph Reinhardt and Mr Wolfinger. They had stayed behind to help wealthy Mr Wolfinger cache his goods and wagon bed after the loss of his oxen to marauding Indians. Lewis Keseberg was the first to leisurely appear back with the rest of the train followed some time later by Spitzer and Reinhardt, who gave the news that they had been attacked by Indians and Mr Wolfinger had been killed.^[8] Joseph Reinhardt was later to confess as he was dying that he had murdered Mr Wolfinger, and Patrick Breen was to report in his diary^[9] that Lewis Keseberg was carrying Mr Wolfinger's rifle on December 29, in the Truckee Lake Camp.

By October 15th the Donner party had reached Truckee River which they continued following and on the 19th met up with Charles T Stanton. Stanton had gone ahead of the party during the first week of September to Sutters Fort for supplies, which they were running very short of. With him he had two Indian vaqueros called Salvador and Louis, but more importantly mules with provisions. On October 22, the Donner Party crossed the Truckee River and by October 28 reached Truckee Lake where the was a cabin built by the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party of 1844. The next day they began travelling up the 9383 foot high Freemonts Pass of the Sierra Nevada, but on reaching a few miles of the summit encountered snow 5 feet deep, making it impassable. The Donner Party returned to Truckee Lake with George Donner breaking an axle of his wagon at Alder Creek Valley, approximately 6 miles from Truckee Lake. Here the Donners stayed, while the rest continued to the cabin.^[10]

After arriving at Truckee Lake where they would remain trapped by heavy snow, Lewis Keseberg built a lean-to against the Breen cabin as a shelter for his family. With food becoming scarce, on December 16th, members of the Forlorn Hope left to get help. On January 14, 1847, Lewis and family moved into the Murphy cabin where Lewis's infant son Lewis Jr died on January 24. Many members of the Donner Party had died by this time, and in Patrick Breen's diary it is noted that Lewis had taken the money and possessions of at least one of the dead.^[11]

On Thursday 18th, February, seven men led by Aquilla Glover arrived in what is now called the 1st relief, and distributed a small amount of food that they carried from Sutters Fort. The 1st relief did what they could for the survivors and on February 22nd left with 24 Donner Party members including Philipinne Keseberg and daughter Ada.^[12] Before they left, they were told that soon they would start to "Eat The Dead".

The second relief arrived March 1st under the leadership of James F. Reed and 9 men, who immediately set about to give supplies and care for those who remained alive. They entered the snow-covered cabins to see the horror of what the survivors had been eating, with Lewis Keseberg having a half eaten corpse in his cabin. In the two other cabins at Truckee Lake, the relief saw similar sights with bones, hair and limbs of the cannibalized laying around inside. On the way to the Donners at Alder Creek Camp they passed Jean Baptiste Trudeau who had been sent to Elizabeth Donner by George Donner for food. Trudeau was carrying the leg and thigh of Jacob Donner. On entering Elizabeth Donner's shelter they saw to their horror the two surviving children, their faces bloody, eating their fathers half cooked liver and heart.^[13]

Among the cabins lay the fleshless bones and the half-eaten bodies of the victims of the famine. There lay the limbs, the skulls, the hair of the poor beings who had died of want and whose flesh preserved the lives of their surviving comrades, who shivering in their filthy rags and surrounded by the remains of their unholy feast looked more like demons than human beings.

The men of the second relief left on March 2, taking with them 17 survivors, mostly children with them. Only a handful of emigrants remained behind, including Louis Keseberg. He had lived with the Murphys and lately the Breens. At both cabins his coarseness, profanity and actions shocked these families hardened by starvation. Although he had a mishap with an axe and spent most of his time in bed, he could get around better than some of the other Donner Party members. His reluctance to leave with any of the reliefs was because he very likely wished to loot and eat the dead. While he waited for them to die, leave or the opportunity to kill, he himself was nearly killed with an axe when the 3rd relief arrived on March 14th 1847. William Eddy, William Foster and 3 other men arrived at Truckee Lake, Eddy and Foster were told that Lewis Keseberg had eaten both Jeremiah Foster and James Eddy. Jeremiah had been taken to bed with Lewis and was dead by the morning. Lewis had hung Jeremiah on the wall to dry the flesh out. James died of starvation. Lewis admitted to eating both and an enraged William Eddy had to be restrained from attacking Keseberg and vowed that if he ever saw him alive in California he would kill him.^[15] The 3rd relief left March 15th, with survivors and leaving 5 behind, 2 who could travel, 1 stayed to care for her husband and 1 stayed for greed.

The fourth relief arrived April 17th, 1847, 6 men in total under the leadership of Captain William O Fallon. This group was primarily a salvage operation for the valuables of the Donner Party of which half would go to the relief members. Not even the hardest members were prepared for what they saw at Truckee Lake: Bodies with flesh stripped from them, severed arms legs and heads, bodies eviscerated for livers, kidneys, hearts and lungs, skulls smashed open for the brains, a scene that not even Dante's Inferno describes. Every cabin contained such scenes and all were devoid of life, the only proof of life being tracks in the snow leading to the camp of the Donners at Alder Creek. The next day the 4th relief trekked to Alder Creek.

At the mouth of the tent stood a large iron kettle, filled with human flesh, cut up. It was from the body of George Donner. The head had been split open, and the brains extracted therefrom, and, to the appearance, he had not been long dead—not over three or four days, at the most. Near by the kettle stood a chair, and thereupon three legs of a bullock that had been shot down in the early part of the winter, and snowed upon before it could be dressed. The meat was found sound and good, and, with the exception of a small piece out of the shoulder, wholly untouched.

When the 4th relief arrived at Alder Creek Camp they found that the wagons had been emptied of their contents and were strewn around a wide area. Tamsen Donner and Lewis Keseberg were nowhere to be found, only the dead remained. The relief started to gather valuables, and this continued into the next day. Most importantly, they where searching for money which the Donners were known to have had. Tamsen Donner had offered the 3rd relief 500 dollars to come back and rescue her and her husband and in the hearing of "Lewis Keseberg". On April 19th, three men headed back to Truckee Lake and left other members to continue gathering valuables and to search for the money. They entered the old Breen cabin and there Lewis Keseberg was.

Upon entering, discovered Kiesburg lying down amidst the human bones, and beside him a large pan full of fresh liver and lights*^[17]. They asked him what had become of his companions; whether they were alive; and what had become of Mrs. Donner. He answered them by stating that they were all dead. Mrs. Donner, he said, had, in attempting to cross from one cabin to another, missed the trail, and slept out one night; that she came to his camp the next night, very much fatigued; he made her a cup of coffee, placed her in bed, and rolled her well in the blankets; but the next morning found her dead. He ate her body, and found her flesh the best he had ever tasted. He further stated, that he obtained from her body at least four pounds of fat. No traces of her person could be found, nor the body of Mrs. Murphy either.

Lewis Keseberg was found to have items from the Donners camp at Alder Creek, silks, jewellery, and on his person, pistols belonging to George Donner, plus 225 dollars in gold. The relief, knowing from a statement of Philipinne Kesseberg prior to leaving Sutters Fort that Lewis had little money, pressed Lewis for the whereabouts of the Donners' money and what happened to Tamsen Donner, which he denied knowing about. The three men of the relief returned to Alder Creek camp with news of who they had found and what had transpired, and on April 20th all members returned to Truckee Lake where Lewis Keseberg was.

the unsatiable appetite of the cannibal displayed itself on frequent occasions, even after animal meat have been placed before him. This fondness for human flesh he had suffered himself to acquire in preference to the beef or horse meat of which he had an abundance. And it is to be feared that his conduct in the mountains was far from justifiable, and a hidden transaction of guilt remains yet to be brought to light.

With supplies running low and the need to return to Sutter Fort, William O. Farrell once again questioned Lewis Keseberg on the whereabouts of the Donners' money. He resorted to putting a noose around Keseberg's neck for emphasis, which was sucessful in gaining a total of 517 dollars in gold and silver. The relief then left shortly after this with Lewis Keseberg in company. The Fourth Relief brought Keseberg to Sutter's Fort on the 29th of April; the last member of the Donner Party to be rescued. Some of the observations and suspicions of the group would later be confirmed by the other first hand accounts and diaries of the survivors, particularly Patrick Breen's Diary. Rumors and reports circulated. Keseberg sued Ned Coffeemeyer of the 4th relief for telling slanderous stories about his deeds at the camps. He won his case, but was awarded only $1.00 damage -- evidently all his contemporaries thought his reputation was worth and he was made to pay both parties costs.

Life After the Tragedy

John Sutter hired Keseberg as the supercargo of his launch in 1847-1848.

Finally Sutter decided to replace Mr. Keseberg, captain of his schooner, because so many passengers complained that the boat traveled so slowly down the river that when they ran out of food the captain, who was accustomed to human flesh, might kill passengers who were asleep and eat them. My own feeling is that Sutter invented this story himself.

In 1851 Keseberg bought the Lady Adams Hotel (giving rise to the story that he ran a restaurant) but it was destroyed by fire the following year.

Between 1853 and 1861 he operated the Phoenix Brewery near Sutter's Fort, but once again disaster struck and his business was destroyed, this time by flood.

Keseberg worked in San Francisco for a few years in the 1860s, moving about 1866 to Calistoga, where he was a partner in Sam Brannan's distillery. He returned to Sacramento about 1872 and lived out his unhappy life in the area, dying as a charity case in a local hospital in 1895. His grave is an unknown and unmarked grave.

Keseberg's descendants changed the family name when they settled in the Napa area. It's a rare occasion when a Keseberg descendant visits the Donner Monument, and there is only one person--a Seal Beach woman--claiming to be related to Keseberg on file at the park. Ranger Warren Beers, Donner Memorial Park.^[18]

Sources

1. ↑ Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 index, FamilySearch, Johann Ludwig Keseberg, 01 Jun 1814; citing ; FHL microfilm 923182.
2. ↑ Germany Marriages, 1558-1929 index, FamilySearch, Johann Ludwig Keseberg and Elisabeth Pilippine Zimmermann, 22 Jul 1842; citing Evangelisch, Berleburg Stadt, Westfalen, Prussia; FHL microfilm 591331.
3. ↑ The Emigrants guide to Oregon and California Author: Hastings, Lansford Warren. Publisher: G. Conclin, Cincinnati, 1845.
4. ↑ Stewart, George R. (1936). Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party: supplemented edition (1988), Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-61159-8. NOTE; George Stewart's account is taken from; An Overland Emigrant of 1846 by Antonio B. Rabbeson, who calls Keseberg "Boonhelm" who was Boon Helm and a Kentuckian and not Dutch or German as he says.
5. ↑ .Oregon and California in 1848 'Author: Thornton, J. Quinn (Jessy Quinn). Publisher: New York, Arno Press 1864. Page 112.
6. ↑ Across the Plains in the Donner Party Author: Murphy, Virginia Reed. Published in; The Century; a popular quarterly Volume 0042 Issue 3 (July 1891). Pages 418 and 419.
7. ↑ Oregon and California in 1848 'Author: Thornton, J. Quinn (Jessy Quinn). Publisher: New York, Arno Press 1864. Page 113.
8. ↑ History of the Donner Party a tragedy of the Sierras. Author: C.F. McGlashan. Publisher; Crowley and McGlashan, Truckee, California, 1879. Pages 42 and 43.
9. ↑ Online Archive of California The Diary of Patrick Breen.
10. ↑ Oregon and California in 1848 'Author: Thornton, J. Quinn (Jessy Quinn). Publisher: New York, Arno Press 1864. Pages 119 to 121.
11. ↑ The Diary of Patrick Breen. Keseburg looting the dead.
12. ↑ The Diary of Patrick Breen. 1st relief arrives and leaves with 24 members.
13. ↑ Oregon and California in 1848 'Author: Thornton, J. Quinn (Jessy Quinn). Publisher: New York, Arno Press 1864. Pages 195 to 200.
14. ↑ Second Relief Diary.
15. ↑ Oregon and California in 1848 'Author: Thornton, J. Quinn (Jessy Quinn). Publisher: New York, Arno Press 1864. Pages 224 to 225.
16. ↑ California Star Newspaper Printing of Statement of Captain Fallon, 4th Relief. June 5, 1847. 3rd Column 2nd Page to 3rd Page
17. ↑ the lungs
18. ↑ LA Times Tracking Down the Truth about the Donner Party.

See also:

• Clippings and Anecdotes of Keseberg
• Dixon, Kelly, Shannon Novak, Gwen Robbins, Julie Schablitsky, Richard Scott , and Guy Tasa (2010), "Men, Women, and Children are Starving: Archaeology of the Donner Family Camp". American Antiquity 75(3):627-656
• McGlashan, Charles (1879). History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra Nevada: 11th edition (1918), A Carlisle & Company, San Francisco
• McNeese, Tim (2009). The Donner Party: A Doomed Journey, Chelsea House Publications. ISBN 978-1-60413-025-6
• Rarick, Ethan (2008). Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-530502-7
• Rehart, Catherine Morison (2000), The Valley's Legends & Legacies III, Word Dancer Press, ISBN 978-1-884995-18-7
• Unruh, John (1993). The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840–60, University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06360-0
• Louis Keseberg on Find A Grave: Memorial #102847312 retrieved 17 Nov 2018