#lewis keseberg

[zydratenote]

I want to give lewis keseberg a nice set of Tupperware

[knellennui]

Pacing the cabin like

sorry for the delay in responding to your message. I was walking around the house with unclear intentions

[yours-truly-henry-jekyll]

Ok, but we have "Ravenous", which was kinda inspired by the story of Alferd Packer but, y'know, with a supernatural twist. And we also have "The Terror", which is just the actual Franklin expedition, again with a supernatural twist.

So now I absolutely need the secret third part of "supernatural-esque horror based on real mid 19th century events with a canniballistic villain serving as a metaphor for colonialism" trifecta. And the most logical answer is Donner party. Especially given there's a book like this already ("The Hunger" by Alma Katsu ftw)

SERIOUSLY WHERE'S MY GAY RATTY BASTARD LEWIS KESEBERG?

[swiftzeldas]

Do you guys know if you go on the wiki page for the Donner party it has a list of every person in the group along with whether or not they survived and their cause of death if they didn’t? Anyway next to tamsen donner’s name it says “murdered or froze” because there’s no way to know whether she froze to death or was killed by Lewis Keseberg and I just think that’s cool as hell I want to die mysteriously next to a mountain lake too

[knellennui]

THIS LOOKS EXACTLY HOW IT DID IN MY DREAM HOW THE FUCK HOW DID I KNOW THERE IS LITERALLY NO WAY I COULD HAVE KNOWN I AM FROM MASSACHUSETTS

The first group of rescuers reached the Donner Party on February 19, 1847.

[annecoulmanross]

I would love to hear about your cannibalism story if you would like to share : )

Happily! So, I take it you’re fairly familiar with the Donner Party? (LOVE your username, by the way.)

[For those who aren’t familiar – the Donner Party was a group of 87 American settlers who, during the middle of the 19th century, tried to follow the Oregon Trail out to the west coast. Unfortunately, they (1) chose an ill-advised short-cut called Hastings Cutoff, (2) left too late in the season in 1846, and – (3) if you know the dates of the Franklin Expedition you already know what went wrong – that was a particularly cold year. So, the Donner Party ended up stuck in the mountains on the eastern border of California, trapped under 30 feet of snow, with very few supplies and only dwindling hopes of rescue. Unsurprisingly, a large number of them ended up resorting to cannibalism and only about half ultimately survived.]

Now, most of the reports of cannibalism on the Donner Party were either (a) deeply tragic and, though full of excruciatingly gory detail, not ultimately sensational (e.g. the death and subsequent devouring of Mr. Franklin Graves), or (b) sensational to the point of ridiculousness (e.g. Lewis Keseberg’s confession of having eaten Tamsen Donner, which led to him being branded as her murderer as well, in the popular press.)

My own connection to the Donner Party is through an act of cannibalism that splits the difference – deeply tragic, and yet something that OUGHT to have been sensational, but wasn’t, thanks to 19th century racism.

Although it’s unclear whether, for instance, Keseberg actually murdered anyone in order to eat them, there was one documented and undeniable incident of murder with the goal of cannibalism on the Donner Party. That’s where this story comes in.

The one real hope that the Donner Party had was the possibility of rescue from Sutter’s Fort over the mountains, and the first wave of that rescue came in the autumn of 1846, when a member of the Donner party, who had been sent on ahead, brought back two Native American guides from Sutter’s Fort, Luis and Salvador. Those guides tried to lead a small party back through the mountain-pass during the dead of winter – a group later named the “Forlorn Hope.”

I’m sure you can see where this is going.

At a certain point, one of the men of the Forlorn Hope, William Foster (who had previously “accidentally shot” his brother-in-law, William Pike, though Pike wasn’t consumed) decided that he ought to kill and eat Luis and Salvador. The guides, hearing this, fled, but Foster caught up with them and killed them both.

Now, did Foster ever face justice for what was clearly cold-blooded murder?

Of course not, because Luis and Salvador were Native Americans, and California law in the 1840s didn’t consider them people.

California law in the 2000s, however, was willing to reconsider. Basically, a group of lawyers and judges decided to posthumously put William Foster on trial for murder. In a real federal courtroom (in a California city where many of the Donner Party survivors settled – one of whom even became chief of police.) With a real federal judge (who happened to be a descendent of one of those Donner Party survivors.) So, the court was all set up – the judges, the defense and prosecution attorneys, and a man willing to stand in for William Foster.

So what was missing? Witnesses.

Now, only one person saw Foster kill Luis and Salvador – a young woman named Mary Ann Graves (whose father had died in her arms on Christmas night a few weeks previous, and then been eaten, though not by Mary Ann.)

But where would a bunch of middle-aged legal professionals be able to find a nineteen(ish)-year-old girl(ish) willing to stand up in a real courtroom in front of a real judge and confess to having committed cannibalism (not technically a crime) in order to get some long-overdue justice for the murder of these two men? Luckily one of the lawyers had a daughter…

And that’s how I ended up on a witness stand, dressed up in 1840s pioneer clothes on a hot summer day about ten years ago, telling a judge I’d eaten people.

(We did, in fact, sentence William Foster to serve time in prison. I do think it makes for a good story, but after the Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar fiasco, I’ve learned not to lead with “Once, I confessed to cannibalism before an actual judge in federal court,” because I’d just finished saying those words when the house lights at the theater went down, and my poor advisor – to whom I’d been talking – had to sit through the entire second act of the play, apparently imagining increasingly worrisome scenarios, until the production was over and I could finally tell him that the cannibalism was, tragically, just a mock trial. Hence, my “anticlimactic” cannibalism story.)

[forthegothicheroine]

6. 11

6. have you discovered a new favorite genre this year?

Not exactly new, but I’ve decided that fuck it, ethical issues and all, I’m a true crime reader.  Bring it on, be it good or be it trashy!

11. what have you read this year that you would love to see turned into a movie/show?

I need The Indifferent Stars Above to be made into a presitge miniseries, ala a non-supernatural The Terror.  It has heroes (Tamsen Donner and William Eddy), villains (Lewis Keseberg and Lansford Hastings) and people who were both (James Reed.)  I even have the perfect ending for episode one- after lots and lots of foreshadowing and little mistakes building up, the characters look out the window in horror to see snow in early autumn.

[topworldhistory]

Explore 10 key facts about one of the most gruesome episodes from the era of westward expansion.

James F. and Margaret (Keyes) Reed, who were members of the Donner Party.

The Donner Party started its trip dangerously late in the pioneer season.

Travel on the California Trail followed a tight schedule. Emigrants needed to head west late enough in the spring for there to be grass available for their pack animals, but also early enough so they could cross the treacherous western mountain passes before winter. The sweet spot for a departure was usually sometime in mid to late-April, yet for unknown reasons, the core of what became the Donner Party didn’t leave their jumping-off point at Independence, Missouri until May 12. They were the last major pioneer train of 1846, and their late start left them with very little margin for error. “I am beginning to feel alarmed at the tardiness of our movements,” one of the emigrants wrote, “and fearful that winter will find us in the snowy mountains of California.”

They fell behind schedule after taking an untested shortcut.

After reaching Wyoming, most California-bound pioneers followed a route that swooped north through Idaho before turning south and moving across Nevada. In 1846, however, a dishonest guidebook author named Lansford Hastings was promoting a straighter and supposedly quicker path that cut through the Wasatch Mountains and across the Salt Lake Desert. There was just one problem: no one had ever traveled this “Hastings Cutoff” with wagons, not even Hastings himself. Despite the obvious risks—and against the warnings of James Clyman, an experienced mountain man—the 20 Donner Party wagons elected to break off from the usual route and gamble on Hastings’ back road. The decision proved disastrous. The emigrants were forced to blaze much of the trail themselves by cutting down trees, and they nearly died of thirst during a five-day crossing of the salt desert. Rather than saving them time, Hasting’s “shortcut” ended up adding nearly a month to the Donner Party’s journey.

The emigrants lost a race against the weather by just a few days.

Despite the Hastings Cutoff debacle, most of the Donner Party still managed to reach the slopes of the Sierra Nevada by early November 1846. Only a scant hundred miles remained in their trek, but before the pioneers had a chance to drive their wagons through the mountains, an early blizzard blanketed the Sierras in several feet of snow. Mountain passes that were navigable just a day earlier soon transformed into icy roadblocks, forcing the Donner Party to retreat to nearby Truckee Lake and wait out the winter in ramshackle tents and cabins. Much of the group’s supplies and livestock had already been lost on the trail, and it wasn’t long before the first settlers began to perish from starvation.

The majority of the Donner Party emigrants were children.

Like most pioneer trains, the Donner Party was largely made up of family wagons packed with young children and adolescents. Of the 81 people who became stranded at Truckee Lake, more than half were younger than 18 years old, and six were infants. Children also made up the vast majority of the Donner’s Party’s eventual survivors. One of them, one-year-old Isabella Breen, would go on to live until 1935.

Map showing route of the Donner Party.

A few pioneers managed to hike to safety.

On December 16, 1846, more than a month after they became snowbound, 15 of the strongest members of the Donner Party strapped on makeshift snowshoes and tried to walk out of the mountains to find help. After wandering the frozen landscape for several days, they were left starving and on the verge of collapse. The hikers resigned themselves to cannibalism and considered drawing lots for a human sacrifice or even having two of the men square off in a duel. Several members of the party soon died naturally, however, so the survivors roasted and consumed their corpses. The gruesome meat gave them the energy they required, and following a month of walking, seven of the original 15 made it to a ranch in California and helped organize rescue efforts. Historians would later dub their desperate hike “The Forlorn Hope.”

A Donner Party member murdered two people for use as food.

During the “Forlorn Hope” expedition, the hiking party included a pair of Indians named Salvador and Luis, both of whom had joined up with the Donner emigrants shortly before they became snowbound. The natives refused to engage in cannibalism, and Salvador and Luis later ran off out of fear that they might be murdered once the others ran out of meat. Indeed, when the duo was found days later, exhausted and lying in the snow, a hiking party member named William Foster shot both of them in the head. The Indians were then butchered and eaten by the hikers. It was the only time during the entire winter that people were murdered for use as food.

Not all of the emigrants engaged in cannibalism.

As their supplies dwindled, the Donner emigrants stranded at Truckee Lake resorted to eating increasingly grotesque meals. They slaughtered their pack animals, cooked their dogs, gnawed on leftover bones and even boiled the animal hide roofs of their cabins into a foul paste. Several people died from malnutrition, but the rest managed to subsist on morsels of boiled leather and tree bark until rescue parties arrived in February and March 1847. Not all of the settlers were strong enough to escape, however, and those left behind were forced to cannibalize the frozen corpses of their comrades while waiting for further help. All told, roughly half of the Donner Party’s survivors eventually resorted to eating human flesh.

Sierra Nevada mountains.

The rescue process took over two months.

Of the five months the Donner Party spent trapped in the mountains, nearly half of it took place after they had already been located by rescuers. The first relief parties reached the settlers in February 1846, but since pack animals were unable to navigate the deep snowdrifts, they only brought whatever food and supplies they could carry. By then, many of the emigrants were too weak to travel, and several died while trying to walk out of the mountains. Four relief teams and more than two-and-a-half months were eventually required to shepherd all the Donner Party survivors back to civilization. The last to be rescued was Lewis Keseberg, a Prussian pioneer who was found in April 1847, supposedly half-mad and surrounded by the cannibalized bodies of his former companions. Keseberg was later accused of having murdered the other emigrants for use as food, but the charges were never proven.

One rescuer singlehandedly led nine survivors out of the mountains.

Perhaps the most famous of the Donner Party’s saviors was John Stark, a burly California settler who took part in the third relief party. In early March 1847, he and two other rescuers stumbled upon 11 emigrants, mostly kids, who been left in the mountains by an earlier relief group. The two other rescuers each grabbed a single child and started hoofing it back down the slope, but Stark was unwilling to leave anyone behind. Instead, he rallied the weary adults, gathered the rest of the children and began guiding the group singlehandedly. Most of the kids were too weak to walk, so Stark took to carrying two of them at a time for a few yards, then setting them down in the snow and going back for others. He continued the grueling process all the way down the mountain, and eventually led all nine of his charges to safety. Speaking of the incident years later, one of the survivors credited her rescue to “nobody but God and Stark and the Virgin Mary.”

Only two families made it through the ordeal intact.

Of the 81 pioneers who began the Donner Party’s horrific winter in the Sierra Nevada, only 45 managed to walk out alive. The ordeal proved particularly costly for the group’s 15 solo travelers, all but two of whom died, but it also took a tragic toll on the families. George and Jacob Donner, both of their wives and four of their children all perished. Pioneer William Eddy, meanwhile, lost his wife and his two kids. Nearly a dozen families had made up Donner wagon train, but only two—the Reeds and the Breens—managed to arrive in California without suffering a single death.

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/36zohmU January 31, 2020 at 01:16AM

[knellennui]

He did not sue ORPHAN CHILDREN but instead a profiteering "rescuer", Edward Coffeemeyer. It is incredibly unlikely he murdered Tamsen. There was plenty of corpse already so he was fine and he knew it.

"I have often been accused of taking her life. Before my God, I swear this is untrue! Do you think a man would be such a miscreant, such a damnable fiend, such a caricature on humanity, as to kill this lone woman? There were plenty of corpses lying around. He would only add one more corpse to the many!"

The records of him beating his wife MAY, and that's a loose may, have been lies after by other survivors to use him as a scapegoat to make themselves look better in comparison and avoid persecution. But he also may have just. done that. Which is absolutely horrendous. Monstrously evil, and probably true.

Either way he did not sue orphan children.

the asshole victim himself.

👀 hit us with the Keseberg opinions pls

Oh boy I have so many conflicting opinions on him thank you for asking.

Massive trigger warning for discussions of cannibalism

Keseberg is so complicated because it’s a matter of truth and sensationalism that paint his character throughout the Donner-Reed party and there after. Some of the first sources I read on the party really vilify him as the ultimate cannibal and murderer. But since I’ve expanded my readings, I see he’s more complex than just the great cannibal-baby murderer.

So we know several things about him that aren’t great characteristics:

A) We have several accounts of him beating and abusing his wife throughout the route from survivors and it was noted that at the time this was a bit extreme even for 1840 standards. We also have accounts his cruelty towards other members of the party, particularly to James Reed after killing the teamster John Snyder.

B) He admitted to cannibalizing the dead after the second rescue party left. The details can be found here in an interview he gave. One of the only ones he gave too about his time after surviving the winter of 1846-47. The number of people he consumed was never confirmed and he claims Tamsen Donner died on her own due to heart break. But we also know from James Reeds final return that Keseberg had the Donner family fortune on his person when questioned about Tamsen’s disappearance and was defensive of what happened to a seemingly healthy woman.

C) He later sued the other survivors for defamation of his character and won the case. However it was a huge dick move to do that to the orphans of the party but that’s just my opinion.

So what I think things boil down to for Lewis Keseberg is that he was a dick head and not really easy to get along with. So he provided a good scapegoat for deflection of others behavior during times of survival. It was easy in 1800s America to point the blame on the German Imigrant than it was to look at other survivors like Mary and Sarah Breen, American born girls who also participated in brutal cannibalistic acts and murderous behavior. He could be the baby killer and murderer of good wife Tamsen just because he was an eccentric outsider with a history of violence. I personally don’t think the accounts of him saying human flesh was better than beef are true, I think they were taken out of context or fabricated to further vilify him.

Did he eat people? Yes. Did he eat babies and string them from meat hooks and kill all the party members for their flesh like a crazed cannibal? No. Did he brag about the taste? Most likely no but if so factiously. Could he have murdered Tamsen Donner? Yes there’s the possibility. We have no witnesses and only his account to the act.

But also side note while I’m here: he deffo murdered Tamsen in my opinion. It’s just my personal opinion and loosely based off the historic facts we know. It doesn’t make him better or worse than anyone else, especially William Eddy or James Reed.

Tldr; Lewis Keseberg wasn’t a nice or good person but the reputation he left behind was a creation of anti-immigrant sentiment and half truths. Still a dick tho. May have murdered Tamsen Donner

[thedonnerparty1846-1847]

19 July 1846

Today we have reached Little Sandy River and have found four companies, some of which are our Oregon friends. We are all resting our cattle in preparation for a long, dry drive of forty miles known as Greenwood’s Cut-off. We have also been introduced to a potential shortcut of two hundred miles to California by Lansford Hastings. He claims that he discovered the route to California near Fort Bridger via the South end of Salt Lake and will remain at Fort Bridger to give us further instructions. We are forming a new party, The Donner Party, that my father will be the head of. Together we are taking Hastings up on his offer. Those joining us are Patrick Breen, his wife, and seven children; Lewis Keseberg, wife, and two children; Mrs. Lavina Murphy (a widow) and five children; William Eddy, wife, and two children; William Pike, wife, and two children; William Foster, wife, and child; William McCutchen, wife, and child; Mr. Wolfinger and wife; Patrick Donlan; Charles Stanton; Samual Shoemaker; X Hardcoop; X Spitzer; Joseph Rhinehart; James Smith; Walter Herron; and Luke Halloran. We also took on a man ill with consumption as he could not make it back home and his family could no longer accommodate him.

[henrylevesconte]

Tamsen Donner after the second rescue party has left and she’s one of the last of her family still within the remaining winter camp, traveled from Truckee Lake to the camp above for help: Ah-

Lewis Keseberg:

[alabasterstoned]

.

[knellennui]

YOU'RE DOING A DONNER PARTY MAP??????? I HAVE WANTED TO SEE A GUD MAP OF THEIR PATH OR SOMETH FOR SO SO SO SO SO LONG I AM SO EXCITED PLEASSSSSSSE UPDATE ME ON THIS I AM A FERAL HISTORIAN MY DMS DO NOT WORK DO YOU HAVE DISCORD OR INSTAGRAM?

YOU ARE DOING THE GOOD WORK OP AND I CHERISH YOU

more map images

[swiftzeldas]

moodboards: the hunger by alma katsu

For an instant, Lewis Keseberg was eleven years old again and standing next to his father in the smokehouse. A huge carcass hung from a meat hook, swaying gently. He could still hear the drip, drip, drip of blood hitting the muddy puddle under the body, still smell the iron tang in the air. The shape of the carcass was not like an animal at all, but like a human. 

[knellennui]

me im hungey

Guy who thinks Donner Party is a fun quirky way of saying dinner party

[henrylevesconte]

👀 hit us with the Keseberg opinions pls

Oh boy I have so many conflicting opinions on him thank you for asking.

Massive trigger warning for discussions of cannibalism

Keseberg is so complicated because it’s a matter of truth and sensationalism that paint his character throughout the Donner-Reed party and there after. Some of the first sources I read on the party really vilify him as the ultimate cannibal and murderer. But since I’ve expanded my readings, I see he’s more complex than just the great cannibal-baby murderer.

So we know several things about him that aren’t great characteristics:

A) We have several accounts of him beating and abusing his wife throughout the route from survivors and it was noted that at the time this was a bit extreme even for 1840 standards. We also have accounts his cruelty towards other members of the party, particularly to James Reed after killing the teamster John Snyder.

B) He admitted to cannibalizing the dead after the second rescue party left. The details can be found here in an interview he gave. One of the only ones he gave too about his time after surviving the winter of 1846-47. The number of people he consumed was never confirmed and he claims Tamsen Donner died on her own due to heart break. But we also know from James Reeds final return that Keseberg had the Donner family fortune on his person when questioned about Tamsen’s disappearance and was defensive of what happened to a seemingly healthy woman.

C) He later sued the other survivors for defamation of his character and won the case. However it was a huge dick move to do that to the orphans of the party but that’s just my opinion.

So what I think things boil down to for Lewis Keseberg is that he was a dick head and not really easy to get along with. So he provided a good scapegoat for deflection of others behavior during times of survival. It was easy in 1800s America to point the blame on the German Imigrant than it was to look at other survivors like Mary and Sarah Breen, American born girls who also participated in brutal cannibalistic acts and murderous behavior. He could be the baby killer and murderer of good wife Tamsen just because he was an eccentric outsider with a history of violence. I personally don’t think the accounts of him saying human flesh was better than beef are true, I think they were taken out of context or fabricated to further vilify him.

Did he eat people? Yes. Did he eat babies and string them from meat hooks and kill all the party members for their flesh like a crazed cannibal? No. Did he brag about the taste? Most likely no but if so factiously. Could he have murdered Tamsen Donner? Yes there’s the possibility. We have no witnesses and only his account to the act.

But also side note while I’m here: he deffo murdered Tamsen in my opinion. It’s just my personal opinion and loosely based off the historic facts we know. It doesn’t make him better or worse than anyone else, especially William Eddy or James Reed.

Tldr; Lewis Keseberg wasn’t a nice or good person but the reputation he left behind was a creation of anti-immigrant sentiment and half truths. Still a dick tho. May have murdered Tamsen Donner