Napa County CA Archives Obituaries.....Davis, Jonathan August 5, 1865
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Regina Gualco rmgualco@yahoo.com August 2, 2006, 12:15 am

Source: [Lyman L. Palmer], History of Napa and Lake Counties, California (San Francisco: Slocum, Bowen & Co., 1881), pages 148-149.

The JONATHAN DAVIS Murder and Suicide.---On Saturday evening, August 5, 1865, a
most tragic affair occurred near the western limits of Napa County, and almost
due west from Napa City. A man by the name of Jonathan Davis lived with his wife
on a farm in this locality. Both of them were addicted to the vice of
drunkenness, and when under the influence of liquor they were very quarrelsome.
On the night in question Davis returned home from Napa City at a very late hour,
and began at once to quarrel with his wife, who, it is stated, had also been
drinking. The noise awakened a servant girl and two men who were sleeping in the
house, but nothing was thought to occur of a serious nature, as it seemed to be
the old story over again of a rabid war of words. The noise increased, however,
and it became evident that a struggle between them was in progress. At length
the woman screamed for help, which so frightened the servant girl that she
escaped from her room through an open window. Davis then went to the barn and
awakened a young man, and told him to go to the neighbors and tell them that he
had killed his wife, and would himself be dead within five minutes. On his way
from the barn he discharged a revolver twice, one ball passing through his hand,
and another entering his head. It was found that he had thrown the woman upon
the floor, and stamped upon her breast with his heavy book, crushing in her
whole chest, breaking seven of her ribs, the fragments of which entered her
heart and lungs, and caused instant death. He lingered along for a few days and
finally died. He left a note, stating that he had killed his wife, but asked his
neighbors and friends to lay it to the charge of liquor. They were both natives
of Wales, and had been married for some years.

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