Several years ago at a Forest History Society meeting, Rick Weyerhaeuser and George Weyerhaeuser Sr. discussed the fact that while much had been written on Frederick Weyerhaeuser’s career as a businessman, nothing of any substance had been written about Frederick as a person. He was a unique individual for his time. A man of strong moral character, he also possessed outstanding leadership and organizational skills.
A great deal of time was spent trying to locate a biographer who would be interested in undertaking this project. The principal problem was that there did not appear to be sufficient information available that had not already been published. We then had several strokes of good fortune that enabled us to proceed. First, Judy Healey, who was a consultant to our family foundation for many years and the author of its history as well as several historical novels, expressed interest and excitement in taking on the project. We entered into a contract with Judy to write the manuscript.
When the family offices were moved from the First National Bank Building to what is now the Wells Fargo Tower in St. Paul, Minnesota, the family found a large amount of original material in the basement vaults. These documents included important personal information about Frederick. There were many letters that he and Sarah had written to one another as well as innumerable letters written in old German, which had to be translated into modern German and then into English. A treasure trove of letters also came to our attention courtesy of one of the villagers in Saulheim, Germany, who had a long connection to our family members. Further queries uncovered many other letters, written by Frederick, Sarah, and their children, in the Greer family’s attic. Through all these resources, Judy found more than enough material for her work. This book is the result of that effort.
I wish to thank George Weyerhaeuser Sr., Rick Weyerhaeuser, Lucy Jones, Tom Rasmussen, and Elise Donohue for reading several drafts of the work and making helpful comments. I also want to thank Cathy Morley and Julia Heidmann for help in book design and family genealogy. Many thanks to the Rock Island Company for sponsoring the research effort. And finally, we all owe a great deal of thanks to Judy for her extended effort and commitment to this project. We hope that you enjoyed reading this personal account of Frederick’s life.