On Jan. 18, 1900, Frederick Weyerhaeuser and 15 associates purchased 900,000 acres of Washington state timberlands from the Northern Pacific Railway. In establishing their company, Weyerhaeuser took a long-term view. “This is not for us,” he said, “nor for our children, but for our grandchildren.” Today, Weyerhaeuser stands as the largest private owner of timberlands in the U.S. and one of the largest wood products manufacturers in North America, but those words still serve as a reminder of the values upon which the company was built. Weyerhaeuser began operating in Mississippi in 1956 and today owns or manages more than 1.1 million acres of timberlands and employs more than 700 people in the state. Weyerhaeuser began operations in Philadelphia in 1967 when it purchased the sawmill operation from the A. DeWeese Lumber Company.