That's the question: Was the story of Capt. Jonathan R. Davis' 1854 battle against 11 murderers really just a hoax? In this series, I'm going to take a look at this story to see if it was just that. And while we're at it, let's answer a question about why this story didn't have legs and was soon forgotten.
Why am I interested in this? Well, there are a couple of reasons why this story interests me.
First, a few years ago, I posted a story that was sent to me by a young man who said he had a story that was a good fit for my website. The story that he sent me was the story about the now-famous epic battle of Jonathan R. Davis, where Davis supposedly took on 11 murderers single-handed in December of 1854 and killed them all in close-combat.
At the time, I had no idea where he got the story -- or if it was just a tall tale that he read somewhere. To me, the story sounded far-fetched at best. Yes, far-fetched on so many levels. But, since I was busy with other things and felt that such a story was probably a work of fiction, I simply published it on my website. And for those who might not know, I hadn't heard of the Davis story before that.
So, I published it on my website. And yes, I even did as the person submitting the story to me had asked and helped him by writing a very short paragraph conclusion to it for him. If I remember right, I think I talked about what the power of one man can do -- that sort of thing.
Well, I can't remember exactly how long it was posted on my website. But I do remember that it received very little interest from my readers. In fact, I think it was only read on my site by a handful of people.
Later, I was contacted by a man who said he was the real author of the story. I posted it thinking it was written by someone else. He said it was his story word for word, and he asked me to take it down from my website. Over the years, I've only had that happen twice. Each time it was when I posted something from someone else. My immediate reaction was to take it down, let the author who said it's his know that I had taken it down, and then try to contact the writer who sent it to me to let him know what happened. In that case, I also wanted to know if the first writer didn't research it -- then where did it come from?
Over the years since that happened, I've had readers write to ask me about the Jonathan Davis 1854 story that sounds too incredible to believe. And yes, I've dug into a lot of newspaper archives looking for anything that mentions Jonathan R. Davis and what became known as the Rocky Canyon Tragedy.
So, while I still have not yet read that author's book, or what he has to say about the validity of Jonathan Davis's supposed epic battle, I've been digging into this ever since I was asked to delete the story from my website years ago. So now, allow me to report to you what I've found.
First, let's make it clear that the Jonathan R. Davis news story about how he single-handedly killed 11 murderers, how he did so by shooting almost all of his attackers in the heart, how they had some sort of criminal by-laws on them, how those killers were able to kill quite a few men in previous days but for some reason they only kept shooting Davis's hat, his hat was shot "17" times or more, was widely distributed by syndication all over the United States and overseas by telegraph in 1854 and 1855. So, yes, without any problem at all, I've been able to find the original news story of what supposedly took place that was reported in several newspapers from 1854 and 1855. In fact, I've found large and small articles about it in newspaper archives online.
Since all of the news stories were syndicated and similar, with only a copy of newspapers questioning the story's validity, here's how the original story was carried by the San Joaquin Republican in its report that it published on December 25, 1854:
Desperate Fight!
Three Miners Attacked By Eleven Robbers
— Confession of the Robbers — Death of the Assassins — Heroic Conduct of Capt. Davis —Destruction of the Gang.
We received the following startling intelligence last night after our paper had been worked off. Rocky Canon, the place of the tragedy in a deep and almost inaccessible canyon, about 40 miles north of this place, [Placerville, California], near Todd’s Valley, and is uninhabited.
Rocky Canon, Dec. 20, 1854.
No officer having been within a convenient distance to attend to a case of emergency that has just happened near our isolated camp in the mountains here, the undersigned constituted themselves a coroner’s jury and held an inquest over the deceased bodies of twelve men that were killed within a mile of our camp, on the 19th inst,, a full account of which we deem it our duty to publish.
Three of the undersigned were eye witnesses to the whole scene, though too far off to give aid in any way, and the rest of us can readily vouch for their veracity.
Mr. McDonald fell dead ere he fired a pistol or was even aware of his danger. He and his party had nothing but their revolvers: Dr. Sparks shot twice at the banditti, and then fell, severely wounded. In the meantime, Capt. Davis, who was the first to commence shooting, in defence of himself and party, in an instant after the first volley from the robbers, being still unhurt, kept up an incessant firing upon them with his revolvers, every ball forcing its victim to bite the dust, until all the loads of both parties seemed to have been discharged.
The only four surviving robbers made a charge upon Capt. Davis, three with Bowie knives and one with a short sword or sabre. Capt. Davis stood firmly on his ground until they rushed up abreast within about four steps of him. He then made a spring upon them with a large Bowie knife, warded off their blows as fast as they were aimed at him, and gave three of them wounds that soon proved fatal!
Having wounded the other one very slightly, and disarmed him by throwing his knife in the air in warding off a blow, as this last man expressed in a tone of gratitude before his death, Capt. D. went to work at once tearing up his own shirt and binding up all the wounds of the living, of both his friends and enemies.
In our examination of the persons of those that commenced the attack on Capt. D. and party, we discovered papers carefully concealed in their pockets, purporting to be a copy of laws and by-laws by which they were governed. The last of this band has just died. His wound he thought himself but slight, and seemed in a fair way to recover, until within the last hour; corroborated all the evidence proven by the papers in their pockets.
If Dr. Sparks is well enough to travel, Capt. Davis speaks of moving down to his friends’ to-morrow. In conclusion, we deem it due to state that from all the evidence before us, Captain Davis and his party acted solely in self-defense. We send this communication to your paper because the bearer, having a very sick family below, will travel post-haste all night to Plarcerville.
(Signed,)
W. C. Thompson, Joseph Hampton,
P. S. Robertson, G. VV. Hendricks,
J. E. Morris, I. A. Hart,
T. S. Gallibus, A. B. Porter,
O. B. Wingate, W. A. Newman,
J. C. Lewis, S. C. Marshall,
T. 0. Wallace, A. Hughes,
J. Webster, O. E. Clark,
S. K. Trist.
Rocky Canon, Dec. 20,1854.
To Win. Henderson, Esq., Placerville.,
Yesterday we had quite an exciting scene to happen within a mile of our tent. Whilst two of my partners and myself were taking a hunt over the hills, we heard the report of guns below us and saw two small parties shooting at each other. Convinced that they were all strangers, we hesitated for a moment before we ventured down to them.
A feeling of duty, however, soon prompted us to hasten down. On approaching, we saw two of a little party of three, whom we had noticed following the trail unmolested some half-hour previous, fall in the fight, and the surviving one, a man somewhat above the medium height, whom we could readily distinguish from all the rest by his white hat, fighting bravely for his life.
Approaching still nearer we were surprised at the sight of eleven men lying stretched upon the ground, seven of them dead, belonging, as they afterwards proved, to a party of robbers, and one only of the party of three so suddenly fired upon from the bushes by robbers.
Three of the wounded robbers having died last night, we had ten of them to bury this morning. The surviving one who seems to be but little hurt, says that their band was composed of two Americans, one Frenchman, five Sydney men, four Mexicans, and that they had just commenced operations, having killed six Chinamen, three days ago, and four Americans the day before yesterday.
Although we counted twenty-eight bullet holes through Capt. Davis’s hat and clothes, (17 through his hat and eleven through his coat and shirt,) he received but two very slight flesh wounds.
[Signed:] Yours truly, JOHN WEBSTER.
To Wm. Henderson, Esq., County Surveyor at Placerville.
Second Dispatch
Placerville, Dec. 23, P. M.
Another Expressman has just arrived; all circumstances confirmed.
-- end of The San Joaquin Republican report Volume 4, Number 234, published on December 25, 1854.
So now, we know what took place according to Davis and his supposed eyewitnesses. But was it true? Was Capt. Jonathan R. Davis' 1854 battle against 11 murderers a hoax? Did it really happen? Did people accept it as readily as people today accept it?
And really, if it was seen as a hoax, as seen as just "humbug," is that the reason the story didn't have legs, faded away, and was forgotten for so long? Could the answer to that question simply be that people back in 1854 and 1855 saw it for what it was -- just the hoax that it was?
Well, I'll talk about that more in Part Two.
Tom Correa
