Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Phoebe Apperson Hearst 1842 ~ 1919

Phoebe Apperson Hearst

Philanthropist, The wife of Senator George Hearst, of California, was the daughter of R. W. Apperson, and was born December 3, 1842. She was married to George Hearst, June 15, 1862, and their only child is William Randolph Hearst, editor of the New York American and the San Francisco Examiner, and a syndicate of papers published in the principal cities in the United States.

Mrs. Hearst, since her husband's death, has been very active in philanthropic work. She established and maintained in San Francisco free kindergarten classes and working girls' clubs for several years, and also classes for training kindergarten teachers in Washington City. The latter were maintained by her for almost ten years, and from these classes came the first kindergarten teachers in the public schools of Washington, D. C.

In Lead, South Dakota, where she owns much mining interests, she has established a kindergarten for about three hundred children. She gave two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to build the National Cathedral School for girls in Washington, D. C. She paid the cost for the plans submitted by the architects of Europe and America for enlarging the University of California, and erected and equipped in connection with that university the Mining Building as a memorial to her husband; has given free libraries to the city of Lead, South Dakota, and also to Anaconda, Montana; was the first president of the Century Club of San Francisco; vice-president of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association; regent of the University of California, and vice-regent for California of the Mount Vernon Association.

Mrs. Hearst is a woman of great ability, and has done much for the progress and educational improvement and advantages for education, not only in her own state of California, but in many places of the United States. She has helped and is helping today in many ways the less fortunate. She is one of the conspicuous women of America, and one to whom her country is greatly indebted.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.