>> guest: he, he's the most powerful man on the comstock.e becomes a senator from north dakota, this is even though -- from nevada, this is even though after he's already moved to san francisco. so he's living in san francisco, supposed to be representing nevada in the senate, in the u.s. senate. but at that time that's when the bank collapse occurred, and he spends the six years that he's a senator really unraveling all all that ralston has, putting it together with his own fortune. he'll end up, number one, with one of the worst records of any u.s. senator as far as attendance, but also he ends up being the wealthiest man in california for that time. he was paying, for several years he paid one-fiftieth of all the taxes in california, william sharon was paying them. >> host: so we've talked about him as a businessman, what about his personal life? what was going on there? >> guest: well, william sharon was married and had three children. even before his wife's death, he was known as a womanizer. one point he signs a book up at glenbrook up

or back out from the comstock.am sharon created that. his story starts way before he did the train. he is a little bit older from the young people coming up here. he was in his 40s. he becomes the wealthiest of the mine owners for a time, anyway. >> where did he come from? >> you came from san francisco. so he was in real estate. a very bright man. and also a really ruthless man. but he had a small fortune, $150,000. just starting in san francisco. he loses his fortune and has to start over. and there is a man that becomes his partner named william ralston. he started the bank of california, which was the largest institution in west. people treated it as if it was the united states treasury. so he has sharon come up to the comstock and looks around at how disorganized the mining appears. he tells ralston that we could start to branch out and make some money. so he signed him up as a partner and they are going to make a huge fortune. >> how is the comstock organize one you came here? >> for one thing they saw these

. >> what is william sharon's legacy here in the comstock and the state of nevada? >> you know, it's not as great as you would imagine, for all that he did. the railroad is probably his outstanding legacy. they are running again from carson city up here, and so they will talk about william sharon some. there's a building in town called the sharon house, but there's way more stuff named for william ralston, for example. he is not as renowned as you would have thought. >> when did you first hear about william sharon? >> you know, i have read a lot of western history and always when you read history about the comstock, there's something about william sharon that it would only be a few lines or a paragraph. so i was intrigued to find out why. and i believe the reason, the book i write, the first one about william sharon and get all these great things, but he really was a bill into an awful lot of people and i think that's what no one picked up this story before this. >> for more information on booktv's recent visit to carson city, nevada, and the many other cities visit

classroom at a drive me crazy is that nevada was admitted to the in as a safer gold and silver from the comstock, although mining wealth. not true. nevada was admitted as a territory in 1861 for its mining wealth. after the outbreak of the civil war, but in 1864 it was associate with abraham lincoln's reelection bid to get new states that would support him, popular vote and electoral votes. and on top of that, he was already looking at reconstruction, the reconstruction of the south, looking at the 13th a minute. it already passed the senate. nevada could support his efforts in the house. so the truth in the matter is, lincoln and the moderate republicans needed nevada supporting him to relent. it look like it would be a three-way race between general mcclellan, who is a democrat, and john c. fremont was the first republican candidate in 1856. also fremont cut a deal with the lincoln, dropped out of the race and lincoln one handedly. nevada was critical in its houseboat for the 13th amendment, supports the 14th amendment, and was the first state any to support the 15th amendment. so it's all abo

the comstock was remarkable. one of the richest gold and silver strikes in history. it was a huge repository of gold and silver, and what also made it remarkable, it took a good 20 years to excavate it, so this place had pretty much ongoing on pew -- oppulance. and that had never happen in the minding u.s. incredible productivity. bonanza, a spanish term for a good time. for a bonanza to last 0 2-20 years was incredible. >> learn more about the comstock load. >> now a hearing on missing personnel. witnesses include the commander of the joint p.o.w.-m.i.a. accounting. this is an hour and 0 minutes. >> this hearing will come to order. i apologize for my cold. >> we're here to review the department's management for pow pow mia accounting. we mate a commitment to make the fullest possible accounting for the missing and recovery of remains for those who died serving our country. today, the defense department estimates there are 83,000 missing u.s. personnel from past conflicts, including world war ii, the cold war, vietnam, korea, and the persian gulf war. over the last k

wanted to play a little trick on sam up on what's called the divide near virginia city and on the comstock, and they robbed him, robbed him of his watch. he was incensed, he was so angry. you know, this was so terrible. and then his friends returned his watch, and he was even angrier. he could dish it out, but he couldn't take it, and that -- mark twain always had a little soft spot that way. that it was easier for him to play with people, but he didn't like to be played with himself. that incident up on the divide is one of the great incidents that kind of show mark twain's temperament, you know? because he was quick to anger, and he didn't like people playing with him. so he came back one other time. after he went to europe and the middle east which led to the writing of the book "the innocence abroad," everybody wanted to hear about that experience, and he was? san francisco. -- he was in san francisco. he had been writing stories in the newspaper about that experience, putting that book together. so he made another tour, and he came back here in april and may of 1868, and he arrived at

here's a look at the infamous king of comstock, a story of former u.s. senator and how he profited from the silver mining boom in nevada. >> there were these huge ridges appear. one of the things they thought would really make money would be mills to process the order. everybody started building mills. they overbuilt them. that was one of the first thing that sharon saw. sharon started loaning money to these guys building the mills, two percent per month. that is 24% per year. that have been loaning money earlier, they were charging five percent per month interest. everybody switched over to the bank of california. ,s soon as they could not pay as soon as they were not in good working order, sharon foreclosed on them. the bank ended up owning seven mills. and other partners ended up creating what was known as the brink crowd or bank rain. they buy those mills from the bank at a cut rate. sharon continues foreclosing on other mills. eventually they own 17 mills in the bank rain. >> washington may be gridlocked theseays but the governors are not. we have t

guest: julia entertained so much that quite possible and i recognize the name comstock from the civil war years. and julia's memoirs in the white house. and frequently, congressman or people who were looking to get into see grant would try and do that through julia or to gain favor from grant, they would free the we go through julia because she was accessible to them. host: our next is a call from judy in brooklyn. caller: since general grant smoked so many cigars, i was wondering if julia or the children had any respiratory problems. and my other question was, since england had leaned so heavily towards the confederacy, what were the relations during the grant administration with england? guest: good questions. neither julia nor the children ended up with respiratory problems. of course, grant ended up with throat cancer from smoking cigars. so it did eventually kill him. s far as england was concerned, one of the first issues that grant had to deal with as president was the claims against england for their support of the confederacy. he sets up the first ever international arbitrati