Friedrich Weyerhäuser
Friedrich (Frederick) Weyerhäuser (November 21, 1834 in Nieder-Saulheim, Rheinhessen - April 4, 1914 in Pasadena, California) was a German-American timber mogul and founder of the Weyerhaeuser Company, which owns saw mills, paper factories, and other business enterprises, and large areas of forested land. He is the eighth richest American of all time, with a net worth of $72.2 billion in 2006 dollars.
At the age of 18, Weyerhäuser emigrated from Germany to the United States and began as a worker in a sawmill in Rock Island, Illinois, which he later bought. With his brother-in-law, Frederick Denkmann, he formed the Weyerhaeuser-Denkmann Lumber Company and began to acquire interests, including some majority interests, in many other timber companies. He became the central point in what was later called the "Weyerhauser Syndicate," a network of lumber interests, "reputed to have almost a hundred partners, none of whom knew the business of the others," with Weyerhaeuser as the common link. In 1872, he established the Mississippi River Boom and Logging Co., an alliance that handled all the logs that were processed on the Mississippi River. In 1900, Weyerhäuser bought 900,000 acres (3,600 km) of timberland in the Pacific Northwest from James J. Hill and founded the Weyerhäuser Timber Company. One of the 30 factories in which he held an interest was Potlatch, later Potlatch Corporation. He also owned interests in the Boise Cascade Corporation. The Weyerhaeuser Company is still the world’s largest seller of timber.
In 1906, Weyerhäuser's business concerns entered the public eye when the Interstate Commerce Commission recommended to Congress that the lumber industry be investigated for possible anti-trust violations. Weyerhäuser ignored the resulting attention.
Weyerhäuser married Sarah Elizabeth Bloedel on October 11, 1857. The couple had seven children: John P. Weyerhauser, Elise (Weyerhauser) Bancroft Hill, Margaret (Weyerhauser) Jewett, Apollonia (Weyerhauser) Davis, Charles A. Weyerhauser, Rudolph M. Weyerhauser, and Frederick E. Weyerhauser.
In thanks to his home community, in 1904 he established a music hall in Saulheim.
Weyerhäuser was buried in the family mausoleum in Chippiannock Cemetery, Rock Island, Illinois. The structure contained a famous stained glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany that is now on view in the Figge Art Museum across the river in Davenport, Iowa.
Weyerhäuser was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1978.
See also
References
External links
- The Weyerhaeuser Family Papers and F. Weyerhaeuser and Company Records are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Weyerh%C3%A4user
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