2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the Morrison County Historical Society (MCHS) and the 51st anniversary of the opening of the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Museum. However, there’s never been a comprehensive biography of his life by MCHS, but it is about time that changed. His early life, his work and its impact on central Minnesota, and how he became linked to a county historical society will all be revealed, with some information sourced from the Works Progress Administration project that established MCHS in 1936, written by the first president of the organization, Val Kasparek.
Charles August Weyerhaeuser was born April 2, 1866 in Coal Valley, Illinois to German immigrants Frederick and Sarah (Bloedel) Weyerhaeuser. He was the fifth of seven children–he had an oldest brother, three older sisters, and two younger brothers. Before his youngest brother was born, the family moved to a large house in nearby Rock Island where the children would grow up.
According to a biography of his father, young Charles, or “Charlie” as his family called him, was often found in the “more colorful” Weyerhaeuser childhood stories (107). His natural athleticism and outgoing personality got him out of trouble as much as it got him in it. His youngest brother recalled a time where Charlie’s previous shenanigans made him a suspect of throwing a ball through a window. According to his brother, the culprit was his slightly younger brother, Rudolph, but Charlie shouldered the blame (Healey, 116).
When it came to wit and business acumen, Charlie took after his father. A close family friend recalled a time when Frederick ordered Charlie to get rid of his unruly dog that attacked anyone who came to the house (119). He agreed, then informed his father about a priest who was trying to reach him to talk business but was too scared of the dog to approach the house. Upon learning this, Frederick told him to keep the dog.
After graduating from Augustana College in Rock Island, Charles started working as an assistant bill clerk for his uncle, even moving to a room above the office. He soon learned that his father was paying his salary through his uncle and became quite upset at this. Charles wanted to prove that he could work without the support of his father. So, when his father and several other timber magnates, including Mussers from Iowa, founded the Pine Tree Lumber Company in Little Falls, Minnesota, Charles was placed in charge of it with Richard “Drew” Musser.
At its opening in 1891, the Pine Tree Lumber Company (PTLC) was the largest saw mill in the United States and regarded as the most up-to-date of its time. The population of Little Falls doubled just two years after its opening. Charles managed operations and personnel as General Manager–including the logging, sorting, and milling–while Drew took on the financial side of the business as Secretary and Treasurer. Drew wrote to Charles’ brother in 1936 that their fathers’ friendship was an important factor in their sons running the PTLC.
Their positions played to their differing strengths. Drew was reserved and slight of build, careful in his work, and preferred detail and accounting while Charles was expressive and assertive, with a large, athletic build and personality to match. Despite their differences, or maybe because of them, Charles and Drew were close friends. Such good friends, in fact, that they built their homes five feet from each other on the shore of the Mississippi River, an area now known as “Linden Hill.” Charles moved into the home with his wife, Frances Maud Moon, after their marriage on December 14, 1898. The couple would raise two children there, Carl Augustus and Sarah Maud.
The pair made a great team and great employers. The business was debt free and earning profits by 1899. Val Kasparek, the first president of the Morrison County Historical Society reported that Charles “possessed that happy faculty of giving orders to his associates and the men working for the company without the slightest offence or superiority and the words spoken through him, led men to want to render excellent service to his company and they did” (8) According to Kasparek, Charles often engaged with his employees in their jokes and banter, they even called him Charlie.
The PTLC closed its doors in 1919 after “the timber tributary to Little Falls had been exhausted” (Kasparek, 8). Upon closure, Drew and Charles gave their employees bonuses of “many thousands of dollars” (8) to thank them for their years of service. While Drew was ready to settle into his retirement at Linden Hill, Charles was preparing his family to move on from Little Falls.
Many friends and associates begged him to stay and live a relaxed life, but Charles “seemed to have possessed a wonderful judgment [sic] in nations largest affairs of Lumbering trade and apparently got his inspiration through the extra sensory perception, which all mankind possesses but do not know how to develop and use it” (Kasparek, 8). He moved to St. Paul–where much of his family lived–in 1920 to continue managing his father’s businesses as they expanded into the western United States and British Columbia.
Sadly, Charles would only have a few more years with his family. On February 15, 1930, while on an around-the-world cruise with Maud Moon, he unexpectedly died from blood poisoning in Bombay, India. He was 64.
His connection to MCHS began in the 1960s, when the organization had outgrown its location in the basement of the Historic Courthouse in Little Falls and made plans to construct their own building. During this process, Charles’ daughter, now Sarah Sivertsen, along with her husband, Robert, and brother, Carl, chose to donate funds to the Historical Society for our new home. They wanted the building to be named after Charles as a memorial, while still upholding the Historical Society’s mission of housing and sharing the history of Morrison County. So, after years of fundraising and planning, the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Museum opened its doors to the public in 1975.
Which brings us to today. In 90 years as an organization, we’ve collected thousands of items and records from generous donors to preserve them for future generations to appreciate. Then, with 51 years on south Lindbergh Drive, right on the Mississippi River, we’ve assisted thousands of researchers and welcomed thousands of guests into our doors to experience and learn Morrison County history. Along with the work of wonderful volunteers, board members, and employees throughout the years, we are incredibly grateful to the Weyerhaeusers; from the help of Carl and Sarah (Sivertsen) in funding our location, to the bustling lumber industry that brought so many to the area, to the family’s dedication to uplifting this community. We are proud to bear the Weyerhaeuser name as we carry out our mission of saving and sharing the history of Morrison County for another 90 years.
By Alesha Ouren
Sources:
Healey, Judith Koll. Frederick Weyerhaeuser and the American West. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2013.
Kasparek, Val. “Vanished Industry”. Logging and Lumbering. Works Progress Administration, Morrison County Historical Society, 1938.