Looking around the Archives last week, I found an account ledger with some of George Hearst's entries made at the First National Bank of Deadwood, South Dakota . His famous son and the family fortune  have moved George Hearst to a "supporting role" in history, but the Hearst family saga begins with George

Born in 1820 and nicknamed "Boy-That-Earth-Talks-To" because he had a knack for finding ore, Hearst came to California in the Gold Rush and made his way. But it was the Comstock Lode in Nevada where George's innate talent made him wealthy a decade later.

With his riches, Hearst bought land in San Simeon  that would later be developed to a fantastic extent by his son, the memorable William Randolph Hearst , whose newspaper empire began with the San Francisco Examiner , which the elder Hearst acquired in 1880. Six years later, George was appointed to the United States Senate.

George Hearst formed a partnership with James Haggin and Lloyd Tevis, fabled landowners and entrepreneurs. Tevis was Wells Fargo's President from 1872-92, the longest presidential tenure in Wells Fargo's history. The partnership soon became the largest mining concern in the world. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills , the three men purchased the legendary Homestake Mine  in 1877.

While in Deadwood , Hearst kept accounts in the First National Bank, which eventually became part of the Wells Fargo family of banks in 1998.