Oh That Family Tree!!

[RAT900]

So I have been researching my next real story....semi-Bio on my g-g-grandfather....

a real morally-ambivalent gem of a monster born around 1830 or so and died in 1921

Spent most of his adult years in the old Gold Rush hills of California...

the introduction of his DNA into the family bloodline is what I believe really derailed the ensuing generations...but it also added a gift for writing

So every now and then I do an open search of his name to see what has been added to the internet

A lot of newspapers are now up on line and the image translation of the text that is now available has added immensely to the information supporting the story of his insane newspaper man/outlaw/criminal/swindler/gold-miner ricochet through an undeserved long life in the Old West

Here are some gems I found last night:

Dec 7, 1868 The Sonoma Democrat says: We are informed that J.P.W. Davis of Healdsburg who was shot through the head a few weeks ago by John Fitch, has so far recovered from his wounds as to be able to walk around his room. This is a remarkable case of recovery, as he was shot with a derringer pistol, the ball entering just below the eye and lodging at the back of his head.



And here is the follow-up of the trial of g-g-grandpa's shooter and would be killer....also his partner in the newspaper business...g-g-grandpa orchestrated the Great Railroad Swindle of Sonoma County back then using the newspaper to achieve his goals




The Fitch Case.â€" Sonoma Democrat of January 22d 1869 says that John B. Fitch, formerly of the Healdsburg Standard, some time since shot J. P. W. Davis-, who had been connected with the same paper, through the head, with a derringer, inflicting a frightful wound. To the surprise of all, Davis recovered, and soon after left the county. Fitch was indicted by the Grand Jury for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. The case came on for trial last week in the County Court, and the defendant was permitted to plead guilty to assault and battery. Judge Langdon, after addressing the defendant in eloquent and touching terms on the importance of maintaining a good character, as exhibited in his case, ordered the clerk to enter up against him the nominal fine of five dollars, which he cheerfully paid.


(I think the fine was only imposed for failing to kill g-g-grandpa)



Having been run out of Healdsburg he headed up to the old gold slopes area....here we read of his finely honed parenting skills....


Sacramento Daily Record Jan. 25, 1887:

J.P.W. Davis, the former head of the Anderson Enterprise, met with very severe treatment at the hands of the citizens of Millville Friday. They tied a rope around his neck and dragged him over a rough and rocky road and then ordered him  to leave town. He is accused of maltreating his children to such an extent that the citizens denounce him as inhuman and unworthy of the name of father.


G-G-grandfather also got an invite to San Quentin for 10 years in 1901 for selling a barn that he did not own to several people and then burning it to the ground in an attempt to destroy the evidence


more on that later....today I am going to try to contact the prison to see if their archives have any information on how much, if any of the sentence he served.....

[MendoDave]

Interesting. I don't have much info on my peeps but I just got done reading a book, partly about Ranald McDonald born in 1824 before Oregon was a territory, and how the NW came to be settled. The book was evidently a second hand account/biography published in 1906 just after McDonald's death in 1894.

[RAT900]

Interesting. I don't have much info on my peeps but I just got done reading a book, partly about Ranald McDonald born in 1824 before Oregon was a territory, and how the NW came to be settled. The book was evidently a second hand account/biography published in 1906 just after McDonald's death in 1894.

If you have the time the research can be fun

and with so many public records, newspapers and documents coming up on the Web and improved search tools

you would be surprised at what you can find....even horrified 

One cautionary I would offer is that the distance/safety that a century or so of time seems to offer, that separates us from the past,,,collapses considerably when you start thinking in the context of family members rather than years...you realize how damn close the impact of those ancestors' lives is to you

for instance the character I am working on "helped raise" my grandfather (after his father was shot and killed...)

that evil reach of someone born around 1830 continued long after the old devil died in 1923...it isn't always "just DNA" that gets passed along... it is also  attitudes and behaviors etc

and you find yourself bumping up against some things you wish were further away than they now are....there's a bit of "conjuring ghosts" ...so to speak