• Weyerhaeuser's Beginnings in Illinois
• Weyerhaeuser Expands to Chippewa Falls
• Weyerhaeuser & The Chippewa Lumber & Boom Co.
• The Death of A Rich Man With A Rich Personality

Frederick Weyerhaeuser (1834-1914) Courtesy of the Chippewa County Historical Society. *Click on image to enlarge.

Weyerhaeuser’s Beginnings in Illinois

Frederick Weyerhaeuser was born on November 21, 1834 in Prussia. Weyerhaeuser came to the United States in his early manhood, and his adventurous spirit carried him to Rock Island, Illinois. He was alone and without a dollar, but starting as a common laborer he saved his money and watched his opportunities.15

Weyerhaeuser started in the lumber business at Rock Island, Illinois with his brother-in-law Frederick C.A. Denkman. On, May 1, 1860 the two purchased a saw-mill that had a capital less than $1,000.16 The partners began an association of families in business enterprise, and had the advantage of complementary aptitudes and skills. Weyerhaeuser was becoming a master at judging men and opportunities, bargaining, and making contracts.17 Weyerhaeuser steadily extended the business and soon laid the foundation for his future success. The rapid growth of the mid-west, in the years succeeding Weyerhaeuser’s occupation there, and the sudden expansion of every avenue of commercial enterprise, opened up opportunities for businessmen like Frederick.18

Chippewa Herald: November 4, 1887. *Click on the article for a source analysis.

Weyerhaeuser Expands to Chippewa Falls

After while, Rock Island became to small for a budding businessman like Weyerhaeuser, and on November 1, 1870, Weyerhaeuser, along with Lorenzo Schricker and Elijah Swift leased out the Beef Slough Company of the Chippewa Valley for five years. (Forming of Beef Slough Company) On December 29, 1870 the Beef Slough Company formed a union with the Mississippi River logging firms, and formed a corporation called the Mississippi River Logging Company.19 Lorenzo Schricker was the original president, but on September 5, 1872, the stockholders of the company decided he had been tactless in handling his sixteen partners, and unseated him as president. As their new president they elected the man who had been most active in opening up the Chippewa Basin and in creating the company, Frederick Weyerhaeuser.20

Weyerhaeuser & the Chippewa Lumber & Boom Company

Early in April of 1881, Weyerhaeuser and his associates purchased the Chippewa Lumber & Boom Company. The amount paid was $1,275,000. At this time Weyerhaeuser and his associates owned around 200,000 acres of pine land on the Chippewa River and it’s tributaries. With the addition of the C. L. & B. lands Weyerhaeuser became a part of the strongest and largest lumbering institution in the country.21

On June 21, 1881 there was an adoption of the corporation of the Chippewa Lumber & Boom Company where Frederick Weyerhaeuser was named their president.22 (Date of Incorporation: State of Wisconsin document). This worried the inhabitants of Chippewa Falls. The city was highly dependent on the Big Mill and it was predicted that if Weyerhaeuser got the property the mill would have been immediately shut down, the timber cut and the logs sent to the river mills. This was not the case though. Frederick Weyerhaeuser was known as a builder not a wrecker. Weyerhaeuser ordered an enlargement and improvement of the Big Mill and saw that contracts were let to log its extensive stumpage.23