The Washington herald., 1907-08-04
Weyerhaeuser, theLun1ber King

/ The rich lun.berman's signature, simply
''F Weyerhaejsser," is as modest as his
! general conduct. His epitome of the life
| long policy which has enabled him to ac-
cOmplish his achievements is a homeiy
eplgram. Here II is;
Il have always paid more attention to
my credit than to my clothes"
Which is true enough. although Mr..
| Weyerhaeuser Is by no means slouchy
/ in his dress.
Many Unknown Lumber Midases.
weyerhaeuser is the richest of the little
| known lumber mlllionaires, but there are
many in his class all over the once heay-
! ily-wooded States Of Michigan and Wis
| consin as well as Minnesota not few OF
| them being residents of small places and
| quite unknown to any but their own
neighbors. Not few Of the most famous
| fortunes were started in lumber also: the
| late II. a. Alger was a lumberman in
/ Michigan, and the FlagIer fortunes, gen
| orally identified with Standard Oh only,
were begun In the woods of that same
/ State.
/ A few years ago the lumber lake port
/ of Manistee. Mich. was q specially favor
| ite place Of residence for retired mil
! lionaires who had made their money by
cutting off the Michigan forests Ii re-
manned a typical lumber town much later
/ than most other places doing as great
/ volume OF business. Late in the sos.
! when its population was about 1890. it
/ boasted seventeen full-ledged million
aires. and half a dozen OF them, or more.
could multiply the million several times
/ In speaking Of their wealth without draw
/ ing the long bow.
Manstee has been transformed some
/ what since then by the erection Of brick
/ blocks the paving OF its streets. &C. but
/ at that time most OF It's business build
! ings were unpainted frame structures.
most OF its streets common dirt roads.
/ One Of its railroads, reaching 100 miles or
/ more 10 the Eorthward, was still owned
and operated by the timber-cutting firm
/ that had built the line for log-hauling
/ purposes, while its main offices were
/ housed in a building that would be called
a twO-st0ry shanty almost anywhere out
/ side of Manistee.
Put on No "Lugs."
Yet the two partners who owned the
road were sure enough milionaires. as
/ the result OF their timber cutting for
thirty or forty years; but they put on no
Tugs and to-day. though richer than
/ ever. they are as modest in their dress as
is the St. Paul Lumber King" II not
always as restrained in their speech.
II was no secret In Manistee then that
mcst OF it's millionaires continued to live
there because they feared that they would
not "ht in" anywhere else. Some Of them
had tried il by going 10 Chicago 10 live
/ for a while. To them the Windy City
represented the acme of everything de-
sirable-leisured wealth, fashion. refine
ment, scholarship, and art-also it stood
! in their minds for some other things
which Paris seems to mean TO most of the
world.
! Practically every one OF the first gener-
alton lumber millionaires Of Manistee who
attempted TO retire" to Chicago returned
10 the Michigan lumber town to end his
/ days. There the atmosphere was more
| homelike and satisfactory; there life vas
less intense and less rapid IN every re-
spect, and it was safe to cross the street
I without looking six ways for Sunday FOR
| fear Of being run over. as one Of the re-
/ turned retired men once said in explain
I Ing his return.
Primitive Men.
! Il is not surprising that some OF the
Manistee m.Hionaires found Chicago too
I up-to-date for their temperament Some
Of them were newly arrived peasant i'm
migrants when they began TO win their
millions from the forest, and their many
years Of work in the woods, toling as
hard With their hands as theirs own en-
ployes. gave them little chance to grow
in any direction save as money grubbers.
One Of these men, at least. Is said to
have achieved his million without learn
ing TO write more than his name although
he did learn TO add and subtract to multi
ply and divide on paper with pencil as
well as in his head" OF another, a Sean
dinavian, it was told that sometimes he
used to yoke himself with an OK when the
supply Of bovine beasts of burden was
scant, and TO do his full share of the
oddly assorted teams work. so physically
strong was he.
! have never verified the story. but he
had a powerful back. arms. legs, and
torso, and there is no doubt that the tales
of his lifting as much as any three of his
lumbermen. as sturdy as men of their
class generally are, was quite true This
man never tried 10 live In Chicago or any
where else away from Manistee Visits to
the larger cities at rare intervals were
quite enough Of the great outside world
for him.
Uncouth as some Of these lumber mil
lionaires were, they We're all men OF
splendid nerve and courage and of great
ability on the executive side. And one,
at least. of those who could find no pleas
ure. in life except at Manistee was man
of cultivation and excellent taste.
Started Fifty Years Ago,
He went into the woods" nearly half
a century ago, when just out of college.
because Of family reverses" and won
the lost wealth back all the quicker be-
cause he was an educated man For
years he looked forward to the day
when he would be able to shake Manis-
tees dust from his feet permanently,
and when 1t came he joyfully betook HIM
self TO New York on the first pleasure
visit anywhere in half a lifetime. with
the intention of adding himself to the
metropolitan population.
He liked the opportunities that New
York afforded Of meeting more men of
his own type in a day than he could
meet at home in a year. He liked the
picture galleries, the hotel life-for a
little while-and many other metropolI-
tan features. But he missed the resinous
smell Of pine sawdust. New York's many
great noises didn't include the sound Of
the buzzsaw eating its way through the
clean heart of a great log. New York's
night sight didn't include tall sheetiron
stacks, vomiting volumes of spark-span-
gled pitch pine smoke.
SO he FASTENED back to Manistee. where
he inst had RI rap1aip Novr ,ooo..-t- :