Friedrich Weyerhäuser

Friedrich (Frederick) Weyerhäuser (November 21, 1834 – April 4, 1914 He was known as the "timber-king of the Northwest".

Early life Friedrich was one of 11 children of Johann Weyerhäuser and his wife. The family supported itself by working a farm and a vineyard near Nieder-Saulheim in the independent Grand Duchy of Hesse. Friedrich started attending the Lutheran school at Nieder-Saulheim when he was 6, and at age 8 began helping on the farm. When he was 12, his father died, and Friedrich had to give up most of his studies to help out on the farm. The Revolutions of 1848 in Germany prompted several members of his family to emigrate as Forty-Eighters to western Pennsylvania in the United States. They sent back glowing letters describing the conditions and opportunities they found in America.

In 1852, at the age of 17, Weyerhäuser emigrated with a group of his family from Hesse to the United States. They landed in New York City in July and proceeded to Pennsylvania, settling at North East. Frederick went to work for an earlier immigrant in a brewery. After two years, he abandoned the brewing business, because, as he put it, he felt that a brewer "often becomes his own best customer". He then worked on a farm for a year. When the company opened a new yard in Coal Valley, he was sent to manage it. Though his yard prospered, the firm got into financial difficulties, and with savings from his salary Frederick bought the business. Thus he began doing business under his own name. 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 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.

With his family he lived in a house at the Weyerhauser Lake Nebagomen plant.

In 1904, in thanks to his home community, Weyerhäuser established a music hall in Saulheim, Germany.

Death Weyerhäuser died in 1914 and was buried in the family mausoleum in Chippiannock Cemetery in Rock Island, Illinois. He was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1978.