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The Keseberg Plot
Lewis Keseberg, b. 1823. d. 1877, was the Donner Party's most infamous
member. In Ordeal By Hunger, the most influential
chronicle of the Donner Party, George R. Stewart related
an incident in which Keseberg “...was heard boasting,
publicly in a bar-room, that human liver was the best
meat he ever ate."
In
1891, Virginia Reed Murphy, another Donner Party
survivor, recalled that Keseberg was in the habit of
beating (his wife) until she was black and blue. She
wrote that, “ . . .this aroused all the manhood and my
father took Keseberg to task, telling him it must stop
or measures would be taken." She continued, "Keseberg
did not dare beat his wife again, but he hated my father
and nursed his wrath until papa was so unfortunate as to
have to take the life of a fellow-creature in
self-defense.
Keseberg's true role in the tragedy that befell the
Donner Party still remains under some speculation,
though one thing is clear. Louis Keseberg died in a
Sacramento hospital, with out fanfare, and was buried in
an unmarked grave somewhere around the hospital grounds.
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By contrast, Keseberg's wife's descendants have
given her and her children, a proper marker atop
their final resting place in Sacramento's Old City
Cemetery. |
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