New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-04-05

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full that he had opportunity for only
sufficient schooling to gain speaking
acquaintance with the three RS" But
IT did not MI his ambition. Instead, at
eighteen, he brought his mother and sis
tiers to America and set out 10 win A
fortune.
Left Brewery to Pile Slabs.
For n time he worked in a brewery at
Eric, Penn. with little satisfaction 10
either mind or pocket. Then he Went
West. TO Rockford. H., which was then
really "out West" and got a job in a
lumber mill. Piling slabs for a dollar
a day was humble work. But 1t started
him in the career for which he was dcs-
tined and in which he won the world 8
greatest success. That was ffty-eght
years ago. For nfty-eight years. there
fore, lumber and Weyerhaeuser were in
separable terms.
lie and a comrade on the slab pile, f..
c. A. Denckman, saved their money and
In a few years bought out the concern
by which they had been employed. They
maze il pay, and with the proceeds
states. Also, they bought up timber land
wherever they could get 1t at their price;
vast tracts far in advance OF need, which
I'm time became enormously valuable.
Thousands OF acres were secured on
which the timber was considered an in
cumbrance They got the land cheap
lust because it was covered with huge
trees. They took no speculative flyers
i'm other businesses, but kept right on
at lumber, their business growing rs
steadily and as irresistibly as the trees
which were their stock in trade. II was
said OF them. not quite truly, that they
never invested dollar outside OF the
lumber trade, and never invested one
in that - which did not pay good
returns.
Weyerha,. sr did at one time invest
some small Sums ia bank stock. with
unsatisfactory res.' whereupon he
sententiously dec.Srod that logs were
better than banks. and thereafter devoted
himself exclusively 20 his one chosen
business.
Thirty-odd years ago Weyerhaeuser or
gained the Mississippi River Boom and
remained the foundation of the vast con
Germ called by some the "Weyerhaeuser
Syndicate and by others the Lumber
Trust" the most powerful factor in the
lumber trade of the world. Its name
is not as familiar as the names of many
other big corporations. and its opera
lions have not been as spectacular and
notorious as theirs
Yet for widespread grasp and control
Of one of the greatest industries, and for
profit 10 it's directors, it is the peer OF
any. 1t, too, as did the earlier business
OF Weyerhaeuser and Denckman, grew as
quietly, as steadily and as surely as the
trees OF the forests. To-day it extends
from Maine to oregon and from Canada
TO Mexico, with the name of Frederick
Weyerhaeuser written and cross-written
over the continent.
Controlled Many Companies.
It would be difficult to say just how
many companies he did own or control in
the eyerhaeuser Syndicate Among them
were the Atwood Lumber Company the
Rutledge Lumber Company, the Mssis-
land Pine Company, the Pine Tree Lum-
Der Company, the Chippewa Valley Log
ging Company, the Musser- Sauntry Com
pany, the Weyerhaeuser-D enckman-C Col
quet Company, the North Wisconsin I.um-
Der Company, the Bonners Ferry I.um-
Der Company, the Superior Timber Com
pany, the Barker Lumber Company and
the Boise Fayette Lumber Company, OF
Idaho.
He dominated not only Wisconsin,
Minnesota. Illinois and the whole Misss-
sppi River lumber region, but also the
vast forests of Idaho. Washington and
oregon. conservative estimate Of the
area owned or controlled by him was
$4,000 square miles. considerably more
than the entire State of New York.
The same qualities of quietness and UNI
obtrusiveness which marked his business
career also marked the man personally.
Nobody ever saw Weyerhaeuser i'm a town
meeting He never figured at social func-