History of Weyerhaeser

            
             Weyerhaeuser Paper Company began in Frederick Weyerhaeuser came to America from Germany at the age of 18. He worked hard and saved money. He was hired as night watchman at a sawmill in Rock Island, Illinois. Fredrick slowly climbed within the company learning about what needed to be done to stay success full. Shortly after Fredrick started work at the saw mill, it fell into bankruptcy. After the saw mill closed Fredrick and his brother-in law leased a lumber yard and saw mill here the original. When trees began to become scarce he and his brother-in law went north to find wood. The two men were doing very well for themselves and because of this, in January 1900, Frederick Weyerhaeuser and 15 partners made history of the lumber industry. They the purchased 900,000 acres of Washington state timberland from the Northern Pacific Railway largest private land transaction in American history to that time. Frederick wanted to name the new land and timber firm "The Universal Timber Company." His partners overruled him and instead named the company in his honor. Fredrick had great dreams for his land and company he was quoted, "This is not for us, nor for our children - but for our grandchildren." All of what Fredrick had worked so hard to obtain was almost taken away by a fire in the summer of 1902, it took decades for the company to recover from the damage done to the land and even longer to overcome the financial impact. The company became one of the biggest contributors to fire prevention following the fire. .
             For a number of years after the fire Weyerhaeuser mainly focused buying land. After the company had acquired some of the most valuable timberlands in the world they open the first electric sawmill in the entire country. Shortly after two more mills were opened and Weyerhaeuser was on it's way to becoming the largest softwood lumber producer in the world. Weyerhaeuser's business was booming before the First World War and, after the onset of the war Weyerhaeuser began making sending spruce from Weyerhaeuser forests to build World War I airplanes.