George Hearst: The Best Business and Politics Combined

George Hearst was an American businessman and politician. He was of Scottish descent and was born in Missouri to newspaperman William Randolph Hearst and Elizabeth Collins.

Following his father’s death in 1846, Hearst took care of his mother and siblings. He supported hi family through his mining and general store businesses. In 1849, Hearst first heard of gold discoveries in California. He read about the discovery to be sure it was true. In 1850, Hearst became a part of a party of 16 people who moved to California. The group tried placer mining within the area of Sutter’s Mill by the American River. Meagre finds led them to Grass Valley. Hearst had a background in mining education and he used it to switch to prospecting and dealing in quartz mining. He made a good fortune as a prospector. He was also involved in general store, faming, and livestock raising in Nevada County.

In 1859, silver became very rich in the Nevada County, which eventually became the Comstock Lode. Hearst went to the Washoe district, a part of the territory of western Utah to purchase one-sixth of the interests of Ophir Mine. Later that year, Hearst and his partners were able to mine about 38 tons of high-grade silver ore. They packed those ore on muleback and smelted it in a foundry in San Francisco. In that deal, Hearst earned a profit of $91,000 (or about $4.5 million in 2011 dollar). Ophir silver became the beginning of the silver in Washoe.

Hearst had many other interests in Utah, New Mexico. At that time, his private mining company became the largest in the US. He even earned the reputation as an expert prospector and the most experienced judge of mining property along the Pacific coast. Hearst had a very significant contribution to the development of quartz processing.

When US Senator John F. Miller died in 1886, the Democrats appointed Hearst to fill in his position. He served Miller’s unexpired term from March 23, 1886 until a successor was elected on August 4, 1886. Hearst was elected as Democrat US Senator on March 4, 1887 until his death on February 28, 1891.