[1] On December 19, 1854, he single-handedly killed eleven armed outlaws at Rocky Canyon near Sacramento, California, using two Colt revolvers and a Bowie knife.

[3] On December 19, 1854, while trekking on a miner's trail along the North Fork of the American River, Dr. Bolivar Sparks, James McDonald, and Captain Jonathan Davis were bushwhacked by an international band of bandits.

The people of Sonora had seen enough of due process by that point, ignored Sheriff Solomon's plea for law and order, and hanged Griffiths the next day on the outskirts of town after he had been allowed to write two letters to his wife asking for her forgiveness.

The name and occupation are accurate, the locale is in the gold country which is fitting, but his age is off by about six years (he should be 44) and his birth state is southern but not South Carolina.

Davis is listed as a miner, age 60, in the 1875 Great Register of voters in for Scott Valley, Siskiyou County (this is the earliest extant document with his complete middle name Rutledge).

The Great Register of 19 Feb. 1886 uses his full middle name at Ophir Township, Butte County, age 70, also South Carolina birth, and he again is a miner (page 15).

For 1888, his name appears as "Janathan Rutledge Davis" for the register in Yount, Napa County with an age of 72 and occupation lawyer.

His complete name is also used in the 1890 Great Register for "Homestead" in San Joaquin County with a somewhat inaccurate age of 77 but correct birth state and still a lawyer occupation (page 19).