April 17, 1847 On this day in 1847, the Fourth Relief Party, sent to rescue any remaining survivors of the Donner Party and scavenge any of their belongings arrived at the camps at Truckee Lake (now known as Donner Lake). The only survivor left was Lewis Keseberg, who was found in a cabin reported to be in the middle of cooking human flesh. He arrived at Sutter’s Fort on April 29th and filed a defamation suit against Ned Coffeemeyer for spreading rumors that he murdered Tamsen Donner and stole her money. The court found in favor of Keseberg and he was awarded one dollar. On May 27, 1847, John Sutter hired Keseberg to be in charge of one of Sutter’s schooners that travelled regularly between Sutter’s Fort, Hock Farm (just south of Yuba City), and Monterey. According to William Grimshaw, the bookkeeper for Sam Brannan’s trade store just east of Sutter’s Fort, Keseberg was hired as a cook in the spring of 1848 by Brannan and “came to our rescue in a dietetic sense.” In 1851, he was the ...