When the Ghost Screams(39)

Instead of continuing with the large group on the known route, a new party was formed, with George Donner pronounced the leader. The Donner Party branched off from the others as they continued west.

Jeremiah and his family were among those in the unfortunate assembly that did not foresee the suffering they would endure as they crossed the rugged terrain of mountains and seemingly endless deserts.

By the time they rejoined the California trail, their “shortcut” had cost them three precious weeks. In the Sierra Nevada, they were blanketed by a blinding snow, which stung their faces, froze their fingers, and blocked their path. Eighty-one people found themselves trapped in the mountains.

The group split up, with one cluster camping by a lakeside, and the other, six miles away by Alder Creek. The oxen were killed for food, but it was not enough to ward off starvation. People began to die. Faced with either death or survival, some turned to cannibalism.

While a few had forged ahead to look for help, others stayed behind. Jeremiah and his grandmother huddled in the Murphy Cabin beside the lake as they anxiously waited for Sarah and William’s return.

The child’s ribs were sharply outlined beneath his pale flesh, and he stared pleadingly at the adults. When Levina watched her grandson crying with hunger, it broke her heart. But there was nothing she could do to help him or the other little ones.

Among those at the Murphy Cabin was a man who has become a controversial figure. Survivors painted him as an abusive man, cruel to his wife and concerned only with himself.

Some of his descendants, however, are angry with this description and insist that their ancestor has been unfairly portrayed. They reject accusations that Lewis Keseberg developed a taste for human flesh.

Yet, many believe the alleged account of little Jeremiah’s last night alive in March 1847. It was another bleak evening with no hope in sight when Lewis Keseberg insisted that the toddler sleep in his bed.

When Levina awoke in the morning, she was horrified to see her grandchild’s limp body hanging on a hook on the wall. He had died during the night, Lewis Keseberg told her. Now, his flesh would sustain the others.

In shock, Levina accused him of murdering her grandson.

Perhaps Lewis Keseberg was innocent. He cannot, after all, defend himself, because he is no longer here.

And neither is little Jeremiah.

Or is he?

The small boy who appears in Jason Sweeton’s photograph looks to be between two and four years old. Jeremiah was two and a half when he died. Other children perished, including three-year-old James Eddy, who succumbed after Jeremiah.

The little ghost could be any of the small ones, but if one believes that Jeremiah was murdered, then the spirit is probably his.

Jason Sweeton was walking toward the boulder that once served as a Murphy Cabin wall when he raised his camera and caught the ethereal image. His artistic eye was framing the snaking trail, flanked by sun-dappled trees. It is a calendar-quality photograph with an unexpected bonus.

Why did the little boy appear in Jason’s photo? Could it be that the toddler is still waiting for his daddy and recognized the paternal energy in Jason?

It is sad to imagine hungry little ghosts still waiting for help. Jeremiah’s devoted grandmother died weeks after he did. If he is still there, she, too, may be there, looking after him. It is a comforting thought.

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DONNER MEMORIAL STATE PARK AND EMIGRANT TRAIL MUSEUM

12593 Donner Pass at Highway 80

Truckee, CA 96161

(530) 582-7892





Donner Party Ghosts


Jeremiah George Foster is not the only Donner Party victim to materialize in places where the pioneers camped. Inside the Emigrant Trail Museum, artifacts from the wagon trail days are on display.

A couple dressed in period clothing has been seen beside a wagon there. Visitors usually assume that they are actors, hired to add authenticity to the exhibit—until they suddenly vanish.

Apparitions are also seen outside of the museum.

“A ghost we believe to be Tamsin Donner has been seen by many people,” said author and historian Janice Oberding, elaborating on the devoted mother’s tragic ending.

Tamsin Donner was torn. While her children stayed at the Alder Creek camp, her ailing husband, sixty-two-year-old George, was six miles away at Murphy Cabin.

The determined woman trudged through the snow between the two areas, desperately trying to care for both her husband and children.

Tamsin, 45, died after George, and there was just one witness to her death.

Lewis Keseberg, the questionable character who some have accused of murder, claimed that Tamsin showed up at the Murphy Cabin in an unfortunate state.

She had fallen into the creek, he said. Soaking wet and disoriented, Tamsin babbled incoherently about how she needed to get back to her children.