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Weyerhaeuser, Frederick (1834–1914)

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Black and white photograph of Frederick Weyerhaeuser, ca. 1900

Frederick Weyerhaeuser, ca. 1900

Frederick Weyerhaeuser was a prominent, self-made lumber capitalist and millionaire in the Midwest during the Gilded Age. Nicknamed "the Lumber King" and "the Timber King" during a time when lumber ranked alongside iron and the railroads as a source of industry, Weyerhaeuser created a syndicate that controlled millions of acres of timberland. The syndicate also controlled sawmills, paper mills, and processing plants.

Frederick Weyerhaeuser was born on November 21, 1834, in Niedersaulheim, Germany. His family emigrated to the United States in 1852. In 1856, he arrived in Rock Island, Illinois; a year later he married Sarah Elizabeth Bloedel, with whom he eventually had seven children. In 1860, he partnered with his brother-in-law Frederick Carl Augustus Denkmann to purchase a lumber mill in Illinois that had gone bankrupt.

One of Weyerhaeuser's innovative ideas for the logging industry involved log marking. He realized that if a third party marked the logs that were rolled into the river with a unique symbol, timber men working downriver would more easily find their companies’ logs. This system, he predicted, would allow an operator to take out as many logs as he sent down. Before Weyerhaeuser’s idea, mills often lost profits by not getting back the equivalent of the timber they had initially processed.

Part of Weyerhaeuser's talent was his ability to organize large groups of men and implement industrial change. By 1872, he was named president of the Mississippi River Logging Company. He eventually became the president of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company and other lumber companies, as well as head of the Weyerhaeuser Syndicate.

In 1891, Weyerhaeuser moved his family and business offices to St. Paul, Minnesota. He bought a home at 266 Summit Avenue, close to the mansion of railroad capitalist James J. Hill. As a businessman and industrialist, he used many of Hill's strategies and principles. Like Hill, he located property strategically, invested a low initial amount in development, built conservative financial structures, and, most important, supervised everything in person. He preferred to operate as a one-man holding company and worked to make the lumber industry steady, secure, and profitable.

In 1900, Weyerhaeuser organized the Great Northern Railroad timberland purchase in the West. In this sale, he bought 900,000 acres of James J. Hill's railroad holdings in Washington State for 5.4 million dollars, at an estimated price of six dollars an acre. Afterward, he owned more acres of standing timber than any other American.

In 1906, a muckraking journalist called Weyerhaeuser “richer than Rockefeller” and claimed he had built his fortune by destroying forests and committing fraud. A year later, state congressional investigators studied whether the lumberman (and some of his peers) had violated anti-trust laws. Their findings led to a court order that dissolved his company’s General Paper subsidiary, among others.

Weyerhaeuser denied that his holdings amounted to a monopoly on lumber. Testifying before Congress in 1911, he defended his business practices and insisted that his actions were lawful.

In 2017, the family-run Weyerhaeuser Company is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington, with interests in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. It remains a major lumber producer and landowner, and a world leader in lumber sales.

Weyerhaeuser preferred anonymity in his life despite his success. A religious man, he was born Lutheran and became Presbyterian. He raised his children in the Presbyterian faith. As a philanthropist, he donated money to the Presbyterian House of Hope, Macalester College, the Union Gospel Mission, the Weyerhaeuser Foundation, and other charitable causes.

Weyerhaeuser died on April 4, 1914, in Pasadena, California, at the age of seventy-nine. He was buried in the Weyerhaeuser family mausoleum in Chippiannock Cemetery in Rock Island, Illinois. In 1978, he was inducted in the U.S. Business Hall of Fame for his contributions to the lumber industry.

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Encyclopedia Britannica online, s.v. “Frederick Weyerhaeuser: American Businessman,” 2009.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Weyerhaeuser

“F. Weyerhaeuser, Lumber King, Dead.” New York Times, April 5, 1914.

Healey, Judith Koll. Frederick Weyerhaeuser and the American West. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2013.

Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies. Frederick Weyerhaeuser (1834–1914).
http://immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=239

Lillard, Richard Gordon. "Timber King." Pacific Spectator 1, no. 1 (Winter 1947): 14–26.

Norcross, Charles P. “Weyerhaeuser—Richer than Rockefeller.” Cosmopolitan 42 (November 1906–April 1907): 252–259.

Weyerhaeuser. History.
http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/company/history/

Yates, Judith Borger. "I Made my Way Paying More Attention to my Credit than My Clothes." Twin Cities 6, no. 1 (January 1983): 22–27, 71-78.

Related Images

Black and white photograph of Frederick Weyerhaeuser, ca. 1900
Black and white photograph of Frederick Weyerhaeuser, ca. 1900
Frederick Weyehaeuser, 1924. Oil on canvas painting by M. Askinazy.
Frederick Weyehaeuser, 1924. Oil on canvas painting by M. Askinazy.
Black and white photograph of the St. Paul branch of the Weyerhaeuser Company, ca. 1935.
Black and white photograph of the St. Paul branch of the Weyerhaeuser Company, ca. 1935.
Black and white photograph of the interior of warehouse, St. Paul branch of Weyerhaeuser Company, ca. 1935.
Black and white photograph of the interior of warehouse, St. Paul branch of Weyerhaeuser Company, ca. 1935.
Black and white photograph of lumber milling equipment, St. Paul branch of the Weyerhaeuser Company, ca. 1935.
Black and white photograph of lumber milling equipment, St. Paul branch of the Weyerhaeuser Company, ca. 1935.
Black and white aerial photograph of Weyerhaeuser Twin City yard and surrounding area, 2563 Franklin Avenue, St. Paul, 1953.
Black and white aerial photograph of Weyerhaeuser Twin City yard and surrounding area, 2563 Franklin Avenue, St. Paul, 1953.
Black and white aerial photograph of the Weyehaeuser Company, Albert Lea, MN, 1972.
Black and white aerial photograph of the Weyehaeuser Company, Albert Lea, MN, 1972.

Turning Point

In 1900, Weyerhaeuser organizes the Great Northern Railroad timberland purchase in the West. As a result of the sale, he owns more acres of standing timber than any other American.

Chronology

1834

Frederick Weyerhaeuser is born on November 21, in Niedersaulheim, Germany.

1846

Frederick's father, John, dies.

1852

The Weyerhaeusers emigrate to the United States. They eventually settle in Rock Island, Illinois.

1857

Weyerhaeuser marries Sarah Elizabeth Bloedel, a German American woman also born in Niedersaulheim; the couple moves to Coal Valley, Illinois.

1861

Weyerhaeuser pays for the right to harvest timber in Wisconsin forests.

1869

The Weyerhaeusers move back to Rock Island.

1872

The Mississippi River Logging Company elects Weyerhaeuser as its president.

1880

Weyerhaeuser helps resolve disputes between mill owners in Wisconsin.

1890

Weyerhaeuser founds the Pine Tree Lumber Company, his first lumber venture in Minnesota.

1891

The Weyerhaeuser family moves into a home on St. Paul’s Summit Avenue, close to the James J. Hill House. Weyerhaeuser’s business office also moves to St. Paul.

1900

After negotiating the Great Northern Railroad timberland purchase, Weyerhaeuser founds the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company.

1906

The U.S. Congress calls for an investigation of lumber industry leaders, including Weyerhaeuser, after reviewing allegations of anti-trust violations.

1914

Weyerhaeuser dies in California.