Statewide County CA Archives Biographies.....Hearst, Senator George September 3, 1820 - March 1, 1891
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 3, 2006, 12:20 am

Author: Eric Howard

California and Californians, Pages 38-39

	SENATOR GEORGE HEARST was one of those rare individuals, a man of 
achievement and public prominence, who was at the same time a natural 
Democrat.  His vast wealth, the result of hard work and business acumen, left 
him utterly unchanged in his relations with his fellows.  He was “Uncle 
George” to hundreds of oldtimers and pioneers, even after he became senator 
and took his place among the most prominent men of his day.  A whole battalion 
of unsuccessful pioneers was pensioned by Uncle George and many a time he was 
seen to leave a party of important men in broadcloth and high hats to cross 
the street and shake hands with some ragged wreck of a pioneer whom he had 
known in the early days.
	Quite devoid of affection, he was unimpressed by the shams and 
pretenses of society.  He preferred the friendship of his mining camp 
acquaintances, regardless of their financial or social status, to that of 
snobs and pretenders in high places.  Utterly independent, his long gray beard 
gave him the appearance of a patriarch; he talked slowly, walked slowly and 
never allowed himself to be hurried.
	George Hearst was born in Franklin County, Missouri, September 3, 
1820, when that locality was the principal mining district of the United 
States.  Missouri was then a frontier state, and consequently deficient in 
schools.  He received only a common school education and when quite young 
became a miner.  He operated lead and copper mines with some success near his 
home, and in 1850, interested in the discovery of gold in California, he came 
West.
	He worked at Placerville until December, 1851, when he made use of his 
knowledge of mining for ore and discovered a ledge of rich gold quartz.  The 
stamp mill erected on this claim was one of the first quartz mills in the 
state.  Having made a small fortune, in 1852, he went to Sacramento and 
engaged in business.  But he was primarily a mining man and soon returned to 
quartz mining.
	He opened and developed a number of mines in Nevada County; he became 
known as one of the best mining men in the state, and won the respect of his 
associates; he was one of the first on the Comstock lode, where he bought an 
interest in the famous Ophir mine.
	In 1860 he returned to Missouri, via Panama, to visit his mother who 
was ill.  During his stay he met and married Phoebe Apperson.  They returned 
to California in 1862, and in April, 1863, their son, William Randolph Hearst, 
was born.
	In a few years George Hearst amassed a fortune of about $1,000,000, 
but the business failure of some associates caused him to lose most of it.  By 
wise investments in San Francisco real estate he made up his losses and again 
returned to mining.  From then on he was very successful, and as his interests 
grew he controlled mines in Utah, California, Nevada and the Black Hills gold 
district of Dakota.  He bought thousands of acres of California land and 
developed a very large ranch in Mexico.
	He loved thoroughbred horses and raced them for pleasure and not for 
gain.  In politics a democrat, he served ably in the California Legislature 
and in 1887 was elected United States senator from California.  Although he 
did not live to complete his term of office, during his four years in the 
Senate he achieved national prominence as a statesman and a public character.  
He worked wisely and devotedly for the good of the West.  By reason of his 
knowledge of Mexico he was able to persuade President Cleveland against 
declaring war upon that country at a time when war seemed inevitable.
	He purchased the San Francisco Examiner when it was supposedly on its 
last legs and in 1886 presented it to his son.  That was the beginning of 
William Randolph Hearst’s career as a publisher.
	George Hearst died in his Washington home on March 1, 1891, sincerely 
mourned by everyone who knew him. – By Eric Howard.


Additional Comments:
California and Californians, Volume IV, Edited by Rockwell D. Hunt, A.M., 
Ph.D., Assisted By An Advisory Board, The Spanish Period, By Nellie Van de 
Grift Sanchez, The American Period, By Rockwell D. Hunt, California Biography, 
By a Special Staff of Writers, Issued in Four Volumes, The Lewis Publishing 
Company, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, 1932.

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