Weyerhaeuser, << WY ur `how` zur, >> Frederick (1834-1914), was the leading American lumber executive of his time. He came to the United States from Germany at the age of 18. In 1856, he went to work for a lumber firm in Rock Island, Illinois. Four years later, Weyerhaeuser and his brother-in-law, Frederick Denkmann, bought the mill. In 1870, they joined 16 other lumber firms and formed the Mississippi River Logging Company.
The new company floated rafts of logs down northern tributaries to the Mississippi. There, the logs were cut into lumber, which the firm sold in the Midwest. Through the years, Weyerhaeuser and his associates bought more and more woodland in the Midwest. In 1900, they incorporated the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company to purchase large areas of timberland in the Pacific Northwest. Weyerhaeuser became president of the firm. He was born on Nov. 21, 1834, in Niedersaulheim, Germany, near Mainz. He died on April 4, 1914.
