Carver County's cannibal commissioner

First published Aug. 10, 2006

By Mark W. Olson

It’s a political opponent’s election season dream: a Carver County’s commissioner who killed humans for food.

But this event happened over 150 years ago.

Territorial Gov. Willis Gorman appointed William Foster as one of the county’s first county commissioners. Foster served a few months, until the county held its first elections.

At the time, Foster was a land speculator, trying to develop San Francisco, a townsite just north of Carver on the Minnesota River. William Foster

However, about 10 years earlier, Foster and his family were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, members of the now-legendary Donner Party.

The Donner Party was among the hordes of settlers heading to California during the country’s westward expansion. Unable to find food, and in the depths of starvation, the settlers began to eat fellow dead settlers.

Among the bodies cannibalized was William and Sarah Foster’s 1-year-old son Jeremiah.

William Foster played an infamous role in the affair when he killed two Indians, Luis and Salvador, for food, although it was said he wasn’t in his right mind. “I think a modern jury would probably find Foster not guilty by reason of (temporary) insanity,” said Kristin Johnson, editor of “Unfortunate Emigrants: Narratives of the Conner Party,” and Webmaster of a comprehensive Donner Party site.

According to Johnson’s statistics, about half of the Donner Party survivors resorted to cannibalism. Of the 89 settlers, 41 died, but William and Sarah made it to San Francisco, Calif. Foster prospected for gold before the Fosters moved to Minnesota.

He attempted to develop San Francisco with his business partner, Louis Robert, according to research by former Carver County Historical Society Director Paul Maravelas.

The town served as the first county seat, in 1855 and 1856, and the commissioners met in Foster’s warehouse. The San Francisco townsite never panned out and the Fosters moved back to California in 1860.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now owns the land where the San Francisco townsite was located. This prairie is located off of County Road 45, near the site.

For more information, visit www.utahcrossroads.org/DonnerParty. The site is immaculately researched and sourced.