George Hearst

• Born: 3 September 1820
• Birthplace: Franklin County, Missouri
• Died: 28 February 1891
• Best Known As: 19th century American mining and publishing tycoon

Near the end of the 19th century, George Hearst was one of the richest men in the United States, a U.S. Senator from California who had made his fortune in mining. He grew up in Franklin County, Missouri and graduated from the mining school there in 1838. Hearst tried farming, prospecting and shop keeping, and in 1850 went to California to follow the gold rush. Though he didn't make it rich in California, a good business deal after the Comstock Lode in Nevada made him wealthy. He went on to be a major investor in the largest mining operations in the U.S., including the Homestake in South Dakota and the Anaconda in Montana. A resident of San Francisco since 1862, he was a member of the State Assembly from 1865-66 and made an unsuccessful bid for governor of California in 1882. First appointed to the United States Senate in 1886 (he filled a vacancy from March to August), he was elected in his own right in 1887 and served until his death in 1891.

In 1880 George Hearst acquired the newspaper The Daily Examiner (later the San Francisco Examiner) in an arrangement somehow connected to a gambling debt (contrary to lore, he did not win it in a poker game). In 1887 his son, William Randolph Hearst, took over operations of the paper. William went on to become a towering figure in the publishing industry and is said to have been the basis for the film Citizen Kane (1941, by Orson Welles).

Phoebe Apperson Hearst, George's wife, became a philanthropist who contributed greatly to the University of California system, especially the campus at Berkeley. She was also an advocate of early education and saw to the creation of public libraries in Lead, South Dakota and Anaconda, Montana.

George Hearst (1820-1891), American publisher and U.S. senator, began as a prospector and acquired vast claims in gold and copper mines.

George Hearst was born on Sept. 3, 1820, in Franklin County, Mo. His boyhood work in the Missouri lead mines induced him to enroll in the Franklin County Mining School. He graduated in 1838. In 1850 he went to the California goldfields but found little gold.

For a time Hearst operated a general store at Nevada City, Calif., but an attempt to establish a branch in Sacramento proved financially disastrous. Returning to mining, he at last struck a paying prospect - the Lecompton mine - at Nevada City. In 1859 he joined the rush to the Washoe Valley of Nevada. In partnership with James Haggin and Lloyd Tevis, Hearst became owner of several of the most promising mines on the Comstock Lode. Hearst continually expanded his holdings and also acquired mining properties in Utah, Nevada, and California, and also in Peru, Chile, and Mexico.

By the early 1870s the firm of Hearst, Haggin, Tevis and Company was becoming the single largest firm of private mine owners in the nation. However, Hearst suffered severe reversals in the depression of 1873. Yet, at the very moment when his fortune seemed on the wane, he invested in what became the two most profitable mining ventures of his career: the Homestake gold mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Anaconda copper prospect in Montana.

Like other business titans, Hearst made large contributions to political parties and ultimately sought public office. In 1865 California's pro-South element elected him to the state legislature. He served one term and cast the only vote against ratification of the 13th Amendment. He then devoted himself to business activities until 1882, when he sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and was narrowly defeated.

Needing a public forum to further his political ambition, Hearst entered the newspaper business in 1880, acquiring the San Francisco Daily Examiner. When he achieved his political goal 7 years later, he turned the Examiner over to his son, William Randolph Hearst.

In 1885 the Democrats supported Hearst for the Senate, but he was defeated by railroad magnate Leland Stanford. The following year, however, on the death of California's senior senator, Hearst was appointed to fill the vacancy. In 1889 he was elected to a full term. He died on Feb. 28, 1891, while serving in Washington.

Further Reading

Mr. and Mrs. Fremont Older, The Life of George Hearst (1933), is an official biography. Other works containing relevant material include Edith Dobie, The Political Career of Stephen Mallory White (1927), and Oliver Carlson and Ernest Sutherland Bates, Hearst: Lord of San Simeon (1936).

Additional Sources

Older, Fremont, The life of George Hearst, California pioneer, Beverly Hills, Calif.: William Randolph Hearst, 1933 (San Francisco: John Henry Nash).

Hearst, George (hûrst) , 1820–91, American mining magnate, U.S. senator (1886–91), b. Franklin co., Mo. He went to California in 1850 and became a mining prospector and geologist. He successfully selected and invested in numerous mining properties, notably the Ontario in Utah, the Ophir in Nevada, the Homestake in South Dakota, and the Anaconda in Montana. He bought (1880) the San Francisco Examiner, which his son William Randolph Hearst managed after 1887. An unsuccessful Democratic candidate (1885) for U.S. Senator, George Hearst was later appointed (1886) and then elected (1888) to the Senate. His wife, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, 1842–1919, became a prominent philanthropist and donated freely to the Univ. of California for buildings, expeditions, and facilities.

Bibliography

See biography by C. M. B. and F. Older (1933, new ed. 1966).

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