Friedrich Weyerhäuser

Friedrich (Frederik) 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 possesses large forested areas as well as saw mills, paper factories and other business enterprises.

At the age of 18, Weyerhäuser emigrated from Germany to the United States and began as a worker in a sawmill, which he later bought. He also began to acquire interests, some of which were majority interests, in many other timber companies. 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 km²) of timberland in the Pacific Northwest from James J. Hill and founded the Weyerhäuser Timber Company. Weyerhäuser never changed the name of the company which he controlled. 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 Weyerhäuser Company is still the world’s largest seller of timber.

In thanks to his home community of Saulheim, he established the music hall there in 1904.