The name Frederick Weyerhaeuser (1834-1914) is synonymous with forest products.

The "good-natured old Dutchman," as one of his logging camp foremen described him, had very little money in 1868 when he began buying Wisconsin timber. His competitors thought he was crazy and predicted bankruptcy, but he made a fortune when he sold them the very same lands a few years later.

Once, while Weyerhaeuser was visiting one of his logging camps, a crippled lumberjack appeared. The disabled man needed medical treatment and, since it was long before Social Security or Medicare, was visiting his comrades in the Chippewa Valley to pass the hat. As he went through the bunkhouse, some of the crew tossed in 50 cents, others a dollar.

Someone told him the company 's owner was just then enjoying a meal in the cook shanty and suggested he ask Weyerhaeuser for a donation. So the old man hobbled over, told his story to the lumber magnate, and received a shiny silver quarter. His friends were appalled.

The next morning, Weyerhaeuser 's expensive sealskin cap was missing. A meticulous search of the camp, from the cook shanty to the stables, failed to uncover it and he left bare-headed.

That night, one of the crew walked in wearing the sealskin cap at a rakish angle and the bunkhouse erupted in triumphant laughter. Whether the hat was contributed to the injured veteran 's fund is not recorded.

Weyerhaeuser left Wisconsin after 1900 with the lumber industry, moving his operations to the Pacific Northwest. He spent his final days in St. Paul, Minn.

-- Wisconsin Historical Society
www.wisconsinhistory.org

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