Henry J. Heinz

Henry John Heinz (October 11, 1844 – May 14, 1919) was an American entrepreneur who, at the age of 25, co-founded a small horseradish concern in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. This business failed, but his second business expanded into tomato ketchup and other condiments, and ultimately became the internationally known H. J. Heinz Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

For other people named Henry Heinz, see Henry Heinz (disambiguation).
Henry J. Heinz
Heinz in 1917
Born
Henry John Heinz

(1844-10-11)October 11, 1844
Birmingham, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedMay 14, 1919(1919-05-14) (aged 74)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Resting placeGreenwood Cemetery
OccupationBusiness magnate
Known forThe creator of tomato ketchup
TitleFounder of H. J. Heinz Company
Spouse(s)
Sarah Sloan Young Heinz
​
​
(m. 1869; died 1894)​
Children5
Relatives
F.L. Brown, S.P. Leet, Reverend J.G. Holdcroft, Marion Lawrence, Henry John Heinz, and Bishop Joseph Crane Hartzell in 1917

He was involved in the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Many of his descendants are known for philanthropy and involvement in politics and public affairs. His fortune became the basis for the Heinz Foundations.

Early life

Henry John Heinz was born in Birmingham, Pennsylvania to John Henry Heinz (1811–1891) and Ann Margaretha Schmidt (1822–1899). John Henry was born as Johann Heinreich Heinz in Kallstadt, (to Charlotte Louisa Trump (1789–1833) and Johann Georg Heinz), located in the Kingdom of Bavaria, and in 1840 emigrated to Birmingham, where he met and married Ann in 1843, who herself had recently emigrated from Kruspis, Haunetal, Hesse-Kassel.[1][2] Anna Schmidt was the daughter of a Lutheran minister; John Heinz was also Lutheran and they raised and confirmed their son to that faith.[1][2][3]

H. J. Heinz Company
Main article: Heinz

Henry John Heinz began packing foodstuffs on a small scale at Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1869. There he founded Heinz Noble & Company with a friend, L. Clarence Noble, and started marketing packaged horseradish. The company went bankrupt in 1875. The following year Heinz founded another company, F & J Heinz, with his brother John Heinz and a cousin, Frederick Heinz. One of this company's first products was Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

The company continued to grow, and in 1888 Heinz bought out his other two partners and reorganized it as the H. J. Heinz Company, the name carried to the present day. The company's slogan, "57 varieties," was introduced by Heinz in 1896; by then the company was selling more than 60 different products.[4] Heinz said he chose "5" because it was his lucky number; the number "7" was his wife's lucky number.[5]

The H. J. Heinz Company was incorporated in 1905, and Heinz served as its first president, retaining that position for the rest of his life. At the time of Heinz's death in Pittsburgh at the age of 74, the H. J. Heinz Company had more than 20 food processing plants, and owned seed farms and container factories.

Later life

Heinz led a successful lobbying effort in favor of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. During World War I, he worked with the Food Administration.[6] He was a director in many financial institutions, and was chairman of a committee to devise ways of protecting Pittsburgh from floods.[6]

Marriage and family

Heinz married Sarah Sloan Young on September 3, 1869.[1] She was of Scots-Irish ancestry and had grown up in the Presbyterian Church. They had five children:[7]

  • Irene Edwilda Heinz-Given (1871–1956)[8]
  • Clarence Henry Heinz (1873–1920)[2]
  • Howard Covode Heinz (1877–1941)
  • Robert Eugene Heinz (1882–1882, lived about 1 month)[2]
  • Clifford Sloan Heinz (1883–1935)

They were raised as Presbyterians.

Religious faith

Later in life Heinz worshipped as a member of Methodist and Presbyterian churches, and worked closely with Baptists as well.[1]

When Heinz visited England, his "tourist stops" included the graves of religious leaders John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, and John Wesley. He visited a chapel that Wesley founded, later writing that "I felt I was upon holy ground."[9] At the beginning of his will Heinz wrote: "I desire to set forth, at the very beginning of this Will, as the most important item in it, a confession of my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior."[10]

Death and legacy

Heinz died at his home May 14, 1919, after contracting pneumonia. His funeral was at East Liberty Presbyterian Church. He was buried at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh, in the Heinz Family Mausoleum.[1][2][11]

A bronze statue of Heinz by Emil Fuchs was dedicated on October 11, 1924 at the Heinz Company building in Pittsburgh.[12]

Heinz is the grandfather of H. J. Heinz II (1908–1987) the great-grandfather of U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III (1938–1991) of Pennsylvania, and great-great grandfather of Henry John Heinz IV, André Thierstein Heinz and Christopher Drake Heinz.

Through his paternal grandmother, Charlotte Louisa Trump, he was a second cousin of Friedrich Trump, and second cousin (twice removed) of 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump.

References
  1. Skrabec, Quentin R. (2009). H.J. Heinz: A Biography. McFarland & Company. pp. 27, 28, 83. ISBN 978-0-7864-4178-5.
  2. McCafferty, E. D. (1923). Henry J. Heinz: a biography. p. 20.
  3. Dietrich II, William S. (Summer 2008). "H.J. Heinz: Relish success". Pittsburgh Quarterly. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  4. "Trivia". Heinz. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  5. Rawsthorn, Alice (April 12, 2009). "An Icon, Despite Itself". New York Times. Retrieved June 9, 2009.
  6. Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). "Heinz, Henry John" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company.
  7. "Henry J. Heinz". Notable Names Database. Soylent Communications. Retrieved January 27, 2013.
  8. "The Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given Research Professorship of Ophthalmology".
  9. Alberts, Robert C. (1973). The Good Provider: H. J. Heinz and his 57 Varieties. Houghton Mifflin. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-213-16481-2.
  10. Lee, Richard (2011). In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional. Thomas Nelson Inc. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-4041-8965-2.
  11. Robinson Library
  12. "Henry J. Heinz Memorial, (sculpture)". Art Inventory Archive. Retrieved October 11, 2014.

Further reading
  • "Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century: Making Markets for Processed Food" by Nancy Koehn. The Business History Review, Vol. 73 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 349–393. JSTOR 3116181, reprinted in Koehn, Nancy F. Koehn, Brand New : How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (2001) pp 43–90.
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