William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst

George Hearst, William's father was born in 1820 on a frontier plantation in Franklin, Missouri. George's father died when he was 26. George was a very hard worker and loved his family very much. He worked odd jobs and in mines to pay off his fathers debt and to take care of his mother, sister and little brother. Mining fascinated young George and even though he could barely read he dwelled into geology books to learn more.

In 1848 word started to spread like wildfire about Sutter's mill and the very precious metal that was found nearby. In 1849 George, now in his early thirties, and fifteen other anxious miners packed up their things and made the long trek towards California via the California-Oregon trail. This trek was more than 2,000 miles and took them more than 6 months in a wagon train. George became very ill not long after departing Missouri with cholera. A lesser, undetermined man would have died. George was bound and determined to start his new life with a huge fortune. George was very unsuccessful for nine whole years until he joined some friends and they all went in on the Comstock Lode. This cost them 450 dollars between them and made all of them extremely wealthy. By now George was a seasoned miner and by "reputation had a uncanny sixth sense about mines--some miners and prospectors called him the best judge of a mine in the country(p.14 W.R.H). Everything was going so well for George until he heard his mother was ill and was needed back home. George headed back home to Missouri at the age of forty. While tending to his family he met a young woman named Phoebe Apperson. She was only eighteen years old. They married in 1862 just after the civil war broke out. George and Phoebe made their way back to California by way of boat through the Panama Canal and on April 29, 1863 they gave birth to William Randolph Hearst. Williams's mother was very loving and attentive. She never left his side. George, willies father, was not. He was very preoccupied with his mining interest and his new business adventures. He owned property all over the western states and was a senator too. Meanwhile, when Williams mother wasn't taking care of him at home in California, they were traveling the world. Phoebe loved to see Europe. Willie, even though he was a trouble maker, was brought along and despite his tendency to cause mischief began to become interested in all these different cultures. They toured all the castles, museums, and countryside they came across. William and his mother toured Europe on several different occasions each time Willie becoming more and more interested in art and European culture.

As a young man of 19 William enrolled at Harvard. He was still a trouble maker. In between his ridiculous pranks and parties he got involved with the school paper, The Harvard Lampoon. This was great for William because it allowed him to vent all his energy into a humorous magazine publication. Eventually he ran the whole paper with many of his colleagues working under him and even funded much of the cost the paper required to keep it printing. But this didn't last long as Williams pranks and parties got him suspended multiple times and finally expelled then expunged from Harvard. As far as Harvard is concerned, William Hearst never exited. William took with him the invaluable experience of running the Lampoon and headed west in hopes of running the San Francisco Examiner, the paper his father owned. By the time Willie returned home his father was considering taking a job in the Washington. This required George to spend most of his time in Washington D.C... George did not want to sell the paper to his son, but William begged and begged until his father gave in. This was only the beginning to the most influential