When you think about California history, what comes to mind? Gold panning, sailing ships, cattle ranches, hunting, Spanish settlers, native Indians are a few of the things that might pop into your head. The land was raw, beautiful and ripe for development. Few people saw the potential of early California as clearly as William Heath Davis. He was an adventurer, a man with great vision, and very important in relation to the history of California. So how come no one has ever heard of him?

Well, for one thing, he was not a very lucky man, and was considered unsuccessful in his attempt to begin a new town near San Diego Bay, so most people have forgotten about him and his contributions to California history. If he was unsuccessful, why is he important?

To understand the answer, you need to learn a little about the man. William Heath Davis was born in 1822 in Hawaii of impressive lineage. His grandfather on his mother's side was Governor of Oahu under King Kamehameha I and his grandmother was a native Hawaiian princess. In addition, his great-grandfather, William Heath, was a general in the Revolutionary war, and his other grandfather was a Revolutionary war soldier from Boston. Shortly after his birth, his father died. His mother married John Coffin Jones, the owner of ships that plied the trade between China, the Islands and around the Horn to ports along the eastern seaboard. As a very young boy Davis often traveled on the ships with his stepfather working as a crewmember. Because of this traveling experience, William Heath Davis became an adventurer and by the time he was a teenager he was very familiar with the coastline from Alaska to Baja California.

When he was 17 years old, Davis left Hawaii to live in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) with an uncle, Nathan Spear, the best-known trader on San Francisco Bay, and builder of the first gristmill (flourmill) in California. Davis helped manage his uncle's store and warehouse on the waterfront, and took supplies by boat up the inland waterways to ranchers and to the Russians at Fort Ross who used his uncle's gristmill. Because of his Hawaiian heritage, Davis was often referred to as Kanaka Davis. In his spare time, Davis explored the California outback, and became known as a respected wilderness guide. Davis was chosen to be the guide for John Sutter and his party, and took the Sutter party to the site that later became Sutter's Fort in Sacramento. The building of this fort in what was then wild and unexplored wilderness lead to the eventual discovery of gold in California and to the subsequent "Gold Rush". In later years, Davis was always proud to tell of his part in this historic event.

In the 1840's, Davis left his uncle's employment and became prosperous in the shipping business between California and Hawaii. He was among the first to recognize that the Americans would win out in the battle over California and was quick to make money supplying to the military, often a greatly inflated prices. Davis was also very creative in his efforts to sell his goods. He realized that his customers did not enjoy visiting the cargo hold of his ships to view the various goods, as they were often very unpleasant places after a long and soggy journey. Instead, Davis placed a table of his wares in the office of the Port Commissioner so that his customers could see sample goods without having to go into the dark and rank cargo holds, and sales boomed. A simple, but revolutionary idea for the times.

Davis also made it his business to be friendly with the Port Commissioners, whose job it was to charge duty fees based on the value of merchandise in the holds. At one particular port, Davis learned that the man in charge was deathly afraid of insects. Upon approaching this port, Davis told his crew to talk amongst themselves about the infestation of scorpions that they had endured during their long journey, and how the hold was overrun with the despised creatures. As expected, the duty officer refused to enter the hold to count the merchandise, and took Davis' word for the value of the contents. This was a particularly profitable port for Davis!

Through these efforts, Davis acquired much money and began buying land in San Francisco. Then, the gold rush hit, and Davis added to his wealth by supplying equipment to the hordes of miners who came seeking their fortunes in the gold fields, and be selling his now very valuable lands for huge profits. He became a member of the San Francisco Town Council, was the owner of the very first four story office building in San Francisco, and by the time he was 28, was known as one of California's wealthiest men.

In the late 1840's, Davis met a woman who would eventually become his wife. William and Maria met in 1842 in Santa Barbara while Davis was selling merchandise to a storekeeper, but it took 5 long years before the couple was finally married in 1847 at the Mission San Francisco de Assisi. Maria Jesus Estudillo was from a well-known "Californio" family. Her father owned a large land grant in San Leandro, California and her uncle owned much of Southern California. (The Estudillo Hacienda, owned by her uncle, Jose Antonio Estudillo, in Old Town San Diego, has been splendidly restored and refurbished.) The wedding of the wealthy American businessman to the daughter of a traditional Spanish family was the blending of cultural traditions that foretold of events to come in California.

With all this good fortune, the future looked very bright for Davis and his new bride, but times were harsh and fortunes quickly made were sometimes quickly lost. After the marriage, William became interested in a plan to create a new city by the bay in San Diego. At that time, there were only a few hundred people living in what is now Old Town, and William and his partners thought it made more sense to place the city near the water so that people could to their shopping directly from the ships that docked in San Diego bay. William spent over $60,000 (in 1850!) to found a city that he called "New Town". New Town consisted of a wharf, a store, a hotel, a park, military barracks and several houses. There were no trees in San Diego at that time, so William had to buy a load of pre-fabricated houses from a ship called the Cybelle in order to set up his town. Unfortunately, there was also no water nearby, and not many people wanted to move to New Town. After a huge fire in San Francisco that destroyed most of William's businesses (he lost over $700,000 in the fire), William finally gave up and abandoned his plans to begin a great city near San Diego bay. Most of the buildings were moved to Old Town, and the William Heath Davis House is all that remains of Davis' New Town.

William spent the remaining years of his life trying to recapture past glories. He ran the Estudillo Family Ranch in San Leandro for many years, raising cattle, and was an important figure in the building of the city of San Leandro. He was a respected authority on land titles, and testified in court for the older established families whose lands were being encroached upon by squatters. At one point Davis tried to buy the land that later became Oakland, California on San Francisco Bay, but was turned down because the owner didn't think William was correct in his belief that the land would someday be very desired! William Heath Davis was blessed with the ability to recognize the great potential of the barren but beautiful land that was 1800's California, but was unlucky in his attempts to capitalize on his vision for the future.

William Heath Davis died in 1909 a very poor man, and would have been long forgotten except for one thing. At the end of his life, Davis decided to become a historian and began to document his many experiences and the changes he had observed during his long life in California. His book, 75 Years in California, is filled with colorful recollections of the lives of California's most important historical figures. Thanks to his careful and thorough writings, Davis finally achieved what he wanted most, the recognition of his importance as a true California pioneer.

Perhaps Davis' greatest contribution to history is one that is as yet unexplored. When reading his historical writings, it's clear to see that Davis was integral not only to the historic development of early California, but to its cultural development as well. His status as a descendent from Hawaiian royalty and distinguished lineage from Boston, and as a wealthy man who married a woman from a very notable "Californio" family, helped him gain acceptance from many cultures. His gregarious nature, impressive stature, and creative, outgoing personality during his early, more successful years certainly helped him, and subsequently those who followed, gain acceptance among the many different cultural identities developing in California. This wide-ranging acceptance of cultural diversity continues to be enjoyed in present day California, thanks perhaps in small part to the life and times of William Heath Davis, Jr.