She couldn’t vote and she couldn’t have her own bank account, but this didn’t matter to Phoebe Hearst because she was a multi-millionaire. And in the late 1800s the wife of mining magnate, George Hearst shared her wealth with the city of Lead because it was home to one of her husband’s mines – Homestake.
In this Take A Moment, local historian and tour guide, Phyllis Fleming reflects on Phoebe Hearst’s generosity and its impact on early Lead.
“Lead has a fascinating history. I am a part-time tour guide and I got into that mainly because of the history of this area.
Lead was a mine. George Hearst came in and founded this mine, so this was always a company town. The history here, there is so much. Phoebe Hearst has to be one of my absolute favorite characters in the world.
The woman, she married George Hearst when she was 19, George might have been 40, he was not really sure. She wrote a prenuptial agreement. Yes Mam that is a true story.
She wrote this prenuptial agreement because she said she had friends who married older men, the men died and the women were left destitute and that was not going to happen to Phoebe!
When George Hearst died, Phoebe Hearst inherited $20 million dollars. Thank you very much.
Phoebe could not vote, she could not own land - she had $20 million dollars – who cared?
There were newspaper articles about Mrs. Hearst coming and they were having a tea or a reception for Mrs. Hearst. She came numerous times.
Now, Phoebe started the work on the Opera House. She started the free Kindergarten here too. She started the free Hearst Library. It had over 10,000 volumes. She picked out a lot of those. It also had foreign language newspapers and magazines because we are made up of a melting pot of people from Europe. That was free. The Plunge, the swimming pool was free, the billiard rooms, the card rooms, the social rooms - the theater was a nickel, ok.
Phoebe said, and I paraphrase this, but Phoebe said, “if you don’t have recreation, education, and socialization, you don’t have a town. You can have a mine George, and he had mines all across the West, but you don’t’ have a town.
So that is what she did.”
Learn more about Lead’s history and more in a recent Dakota Life episode featuring Lead by clicking HERE.
