Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1891 — SENATOR HEARST DEAD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SENATOR HEARST DEAD.

CALIFORNIA’S MINING KINO PASSES AWAY. Story of th« Millionaire Statesman's Rapid Rise from Obscurity to It ealtli and Fame —He xfncleared Himself to Rich and Poor Alike. Senator George Hearst, of California, died at his residence on New Hampshire avenue ? in tbjs city, says a Washington, D. C., special. JJe had boon ill for a long time, and in December last, went to New York City to consult with Dr. Charles Ward, in regard to his condition. The physic*an found that he was afflicted with a , complication of diseases, and resulting primarily from a serious derangement of the bowels. Acting upon the physicjap’iS advice he returned to his family in this city, and yielded himself entirely to medical treatment. Absolute quiet and rest was strictly enjoined, and **js pfßcial duties were lightened as, much as possible. Notwithstanding the fact that he, revived the benefit of the most careful .nursing and the .most skillful

medical attention, a steady and uninterrupted decline was observed, and it was seen several weeks ago that his case was & hopeless one. The remains will be taken to San Francisco for interment. George Ilearst was born in Franklin County, Mo., Sept. 3, 1820. His father had gone to that State from North Carolina in 1819. Tho son received only such a limited education as the common schools afforded in that day. He worked on his father’s larm until 1850, when he caught tho gold fever and went to California. For several years he was a miner and prospector, and subsequently by location and purchase, he became the owner of valuable mining interests and a large employer, having at one time as many as 2,C00 men at work in his mines alone and operating quartz mills that crushed 1,000 tons of ore per day. The increase of his wealth was steady and rapid, and for some years past his income has been something like §I,OOO per day. Ho has been for a long time chief partner in tho extensive mining -firm of Hearst, Haggin, Lewis & Co. He owned above 40,000 acres of land in San,.Luis Obispo County, California, a ranch of 160,000 acres of grazing land in Old Mexico, stocked with a very large herd and a fine stable of thoroughbred horses. He was also interested in a large tract of land near Vera Cruz, and in railroad/ building in Mexico. His fortune at the time of his death was estimated at $26,000,000. Senator Hearst leaves a widow and but one child, William R. Hearst, proprietor of the San Francisco Examiner. The following tribute to the late Senator is from the pou of a well-known Californian; “For thirty years or more George Hea - st has been one of the vital men of the West, one of the individual forces which have inspired and given direction to that quick and vast development of its resources which is one‘of the material miracles of the century. Hut it is not as the mining expert, the organizer of gigantic enterprises, or the possessor of a great fortune that he will be mourned. It is not an obituary commonplace, but the simple truth to say that his death will bring sorrow to thousands of hearts. Change of fortune mado no change in the inan. As a Senator of the United States he was the same simple, unaffected, clear-headed, warm-hearted George Hearst, who mined on the Feather and Yuba Rivers in the fifties, and took his share of tho rough, free life of the claims and cabins To tho thousands of the comrades who knew him he remained always as a comrade. Ostentation was abhorrent to a man formed on his rugged lines, and it will never be known how many successful men owe their beginnings to him or how many broken lives were made easier to live because of his hidden, helping hand. To hundreds upon hundred of the associates and even the acquaintances of pioneer times he was a good providence. “Because he was so thorough a Californian Mr. Hearst was hold in affection by all Californians whose experience reached back to the days when railroads and the sharp competition of commercial life were unknown on the coast His years of hard work and intimate mingling with men of every social and intellectual grade gave him a knowledge of human nature and a sympathy with its defects and weaknesses which kept him free from the pride of pur-e and hadness of feeling that sometimes go with the riches of the self-made man, and while he had a singularly keen perception of character, and a shrewdness that baffled all pretenders, his heart was tender, his charity great, and his capacity for forgiveness inexhaustible. “His death is a serious public loss not only to California but to the entire Pacific coast, and peculiarly to the miners, whose special friehd and advocate he was. In tho death of George Hearst a strong man, an able man, a good, and very humble man has been taken away. He had a manly, a gentli l , and a loving heart. There will bo moist eyes in thousands of Western homes, grand and humble, at tho news of his death, and the sorrow will not be least in the cabins dotting the canyons and streams of the Sierras. ”