Henry Ernest Boyes (1844–1919) was an American entrepreneur and

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

captain. Boyes founded

Boyes Hot Springs Boyes Hot Springs (also called Boyes Springs or The Springs)is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 6,656 people at the 2010 census. Resorts in Boyes Hot Springs, El Verano ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

after discovering

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

on his property.

Early life

Henry Boyes was born into a wealthy family in 1844 in

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. His father was Faulkner Boyes and mother, Margaret Mathilda Saner. of He had two brothers. Both died as children. He attended Queen Mary's Grammar School in

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...

Mid-life and career

Boyes served in the

British Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

from 1858 to 1872. During that time, he served in the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

for four years in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. After leaving the Navy, he managed an

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

plantation. He returned to Europe and visited

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, where he met Antoinette Charlotte Edwards. The two married in 1883 in England. Boyes sold his family estate for $250,000 and the couple moved to

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Founding of Boyes Hot Springs

In 1883 the Boyes' moved to

Sonoma Valley Sonoma Valley is a valley located in southeastern Sonoma County, California, in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Known as the birthplace of the California wine industry, the valley is home to some of the earliest vineyards an ...

, where they bought 75 acres of land after hearing about the area from

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (4 July 1807 – 18 January 1890) was a Californio general, statesman, and public figure. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of the Republic of Mexico, and shaped the trans ...

. The couple lived on a house that was built in 1849 by T.M. Leavenworth. Eventually, another house was built on a 15-acre part of the property, which the couple named "El Mirador." Vallejo had told Boyes about natural

in the area and in 1888, Boyes dug two 200 feet deep

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

s on the property. They pumped the hot water into pools and promoted the therapeutic benefits of the water to the public. They started with one pool, eventually expanding to multiple pools as the site grew in popularity with tourists from San Francisco. The property eventually served as a resort with overnight accommodations. Boyes incorporated the resort as the Boyes' Hot Mineral Springs Co. in 1902. In 1923, the resort was destroyed by a fire. Today, the

Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, in Sonoma, California, originally known as the Boyes Hot Springs Hotel, is a hotel dating from 1927, now part of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. It is a Sonoma County historic landmark and a member of Historic Hotel ...

is located on the site of the former Boyes resort.

Later life and legacy

Boyes is buried in Mountain Cemetery in Sonoma. His grave is next to the tomb of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo.

Gallery

H.E. Boyes discovers spring - Sonoma Index Tribune.png, Newspaper clipping from November 1885 when Boyes discovered a spring

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyes, Henry Ernest 1844 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century Royal Navy personnel Businesspeople from Kingston upon Hull Indian Navy personnel Military personnel from Kingston upon Hull People from Sonoma, California