Friedrich Weyerhäuser

Friedrich Weyerhäuser
Born	Template:Birth date Nieder-Saulheim, Grand Duchy of Hesse
Died	April 4, 1914(1914-04-04) (aged 79)
Occupation	Entrepreneur in timber industry
Known for	Founder of the Weyerhaeuser Company

Friedrich (Frederick) Weyerhäuser (November 21, 1834 – April 4, 1914), sometimes spelled Weyerhaeuser, was a German-American entrepreneur in the timber industry and the founder of the Weyerhaeuser Company, which manages sawmills, paper manufacturing plants, and vast forest lands throughout the northern United States. He is recognized as the eighth wealthiest American in history, with an estimated net worth of $85 billion in 2016 dollars. Often called the "timber king of the Northwest," Weyerhäuser established an extensive timber business empire.

Biography

Friedrich was one of eleven siblings and was raised on a modest farm and vineyard near Nieder-Saulheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Following his father’s passing when Friedrich was twelve, he ended his formal education early to assist with farm duties. Motivated by relatives who had emigrated as Forty-Eighters to Pennsylvania during the 1848 Revolutions, he relocated to the United States in 1852 at age seventeen, settling initially in North East, Pennsylvania. He first worked in a brewery and later as a farmer before pursuing broader prospects further west.

By 1856, Weyerhäuser had moved to Rock Island, Illinois, where he worked on railroad construction projects before joining the sawmill company Mead, Smith and Marsh. He quickly climbed the ranks from night fireman to yard manager and sales representative, eventually acquiring the struggling business through personal savings. Collaborating with his brother-in-law Frederick Denkmann, he founded the Weyerhaeuser-Denkmann Lumber Company and gained controlling shares in multiple timber enterprises.

Weyerhäuser emerged as the leading figure of the "Weyerhauser Syndicate," a coalition consisting of nearly one hundred partners connected through him but operating autonomously. In 1872, he co-established the Mississippi River Boom and Logging Company to consolidate log processing along the river. In 1900, he expanded his holdings by purchasing 900,000 acres of timberland in the Pacific Northwest from James J. Hill and launched the Weyerhäuser Timber Company. His investments also included stakes in Potlatch (which later became Potlatch Corporation) and Boise Cascade Corporation. The Weyerhaeuser Company continues to be the largest global timber supplier.

In 1906, federal authorities scrutinized his businesses when the Interstate Commerce Commission urged Congress to investigate potential antitrust issues within the lumber sector; nevertheless, Weyerhäuser largely ignored this scrutiny.

Personal life

On October 11, 1857, Weyerhäuser married Sarah Elizabeth Bloedel. Together they had seven children: John P., Elise (Bancroft Hill), Margaret (Jewett), Apollonia (Davis), Charles A., Rudolph M., and Frederick E. Weyerhauser.

In 1904, as an expression of appreciation toward his hometown community of Saulheim, Germany, he founded a music hall there.

Death

Weyerhäuser passed away in 1914 and was interred in the family mausoleum located at Chippiannock Cemetery in Rock Island, Illinois. He was honored posthumously with induction into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1978.

See also

• Weyerhaeuser House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois

Further reading

• Bochniarz, Zbigniew, and Jacek Lipiec. "Weyerhaeuser: Cultivating a Strong Corporate Reputation." Journal of Intercultural Management 7.2 (2015): 21-29.

• Ficken, Robert E. "The Pacific Northwest Timber Industry and Weyerhaeuser, 1899-1903." Pacific Northwest Quarterly 70.4 (1979): 146-154.

• Healey, Judith Koll. Frederick Weyerhaeuser and the American West (Minnesota Historical Society Press; 2013). A detailed scholarly biography spanning 256 pages.

• Rutkow, Eric. American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation (Scribner, 2012), pages 106–115.

External links

• Research materials including the Weyerhaeuser Family Papers and F. Weyerhaeuser and Company Records are accessible through the Minnesota Historical Society.