Friedrich Weyerhäuser

Weyerhäuser arrived from Hesse in 1852 at eighteen, worked in a brewery and then at a sawmill in Rock Island, Illinois, which he and his brother-in-law bought when it failed. Buying timberland rather than just milling logs was his big move, culminating in 1900 with the purchase of 900,000 acres from the Northern Pacific railroad. Weyerhaeuser is still one of the largest private owners of timberland in the United States.