William Weightman

William Weightman (September 30, 1813 – August 25, 1904) was a chemical manufacturer and one of the largest landowners in the United States.[1] Nicknamed the "Quinine King,"[2] he invented a synthetic form of the drug.[1] His company, Powers & Weightman, merged in the 1920s with the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.

Not to be confused with William Weightman III or William Wightman.

William Weightman
Born
William Weightman

(1813-09-30)September 30, 1813
Waltham, England
DiedAugust 25, 1904(1904-08-25) (aged 90)
Ravenhill Mansion, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
NationalityBritish
OccupationChemical manufacturer
Known forQuinine
Spouse(s)Louisa Stillwagon
ChildrenAnne Weightman
William Weightman, Jr.
John Farr Weightman
RelativesWilliam Weightman III (grandson)

Biography

Weightman was born on September 30, 1813 in Waltham, Lincolnshire, England. At the invitation of his uncle, chemist John Farr, he immigrated to the United States in 1829, at age 16. Farr had founded the firm Farr and Kunzi, the first manufacturers of sulfate of quinine in the United States. Upon Kunzi's retirement in 1836, Farr partnered with Thomas Powers and 27-year-old Weightman to establish Farr, Powers and Weightman, manufacturing chemists.[1]

Powers & Weightman advertisement, 1859

When John Farr died in 1847, Weightman became an administrator and executive of the business, which was renamed Powers and Weightman, chemical manufacturers.[3] Powers & Weightman developed a synthetic form of quinine, a prophylaxis for malaria. With importation of British quinine cut off during the Civil War, the company profited greatly through a quasi monopoly.[1] In 1875, Powers & Weightman was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal for Engineering, by the Franklin Institute.[4]

Weightman amassed a large fortune through shrewd investments, derived from his manufacturing enterprise, estimated at $51.8 billion in 2014 adjusted value.[5] At the turn of the 20th century, he was "the largest individual owner of Philadelphia real estate,"[6] having purchased hundreds of acres of farms and built whole neighborhoods of middle-class housing. His architect for these was Willis G. Hale, the husband of one of his nieces.[7]

Hale also designed Weightman's country house, Ravenhill (1887), built in the West Germantown section of Philadelphia, on a ridge overlooking the Wissahickon Creek.

Having outlived his two physician sons, Farr and William, Weightman came to rely on his daughter, Anne Weightman Walker. Following her husband's death in 1903, she was admitted as a partner in Powers & Weightman, "the only woman in the United States to hold such a position of responsible trust".[3]

Personal

Weightman married Louisa Stillwagon in 1841. Together, they had three children: John, William Jr., and Anne.[8]

Weightman died at age 90 on August 25, 1904, at Ravenhill.[1] He left the bulk of his estate to his surviving child, Anne.

Ravenhill was inherited by Anne Weightman Walker, who donated the estate to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1910. Cardinal Dennis Joseph Dougherty of the Archdiocese granted the Mansion to an order of nuns, the Religious of the Assumption, in 1919. The sisters converted the mansion into a school and named it Ravenhill Academy.

Legacy
Weightman Hall (left) and Franklin Field in 1922

A posthumous portrait of William Weightman was also commissioned by his daughter Anne Weightman from the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury; it was exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington and in Philadelphia in 1908.

The University of Pennsylvania gymnasium, Weightman Hall (1903–05, Frank Miles Day, architect), adjacent to Franklin Field, is named for him.

"Ravenhill," the Weightman mansion in West Germantown, is now part of Thomas Jefferson University.

  • Weightman house, Trenton Avenue, Cape May, New Jersey
  • Weightman house, SE corner 18th & Walnut Streets, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia
  • "Ravenhill," Weightman mansion, Schoolhouse Lane, Germantown, Philadelphia

References
  1. "William Weightman Dead. One of the Largest Real Estate Owners in the Country". New York Times. August 26, 1904. Archived from the original on June 6, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010. William Weightman, popularly known as the richest man in Pennsylvania, and certainly one of the largest real estate owners in the country, died this morning at his Summer home, "Raven Hill," in West School Lane, Falls of Schuylkill.
  2. "Celebrates Wedding by Giving $1,000,000. Mrs. Walker Remembers Relatives and Institutions in Marrying Frederic C. Penfield. Daughters of Mrs. Wister, Who Tried to Break Weightman Will, Among Beneficiaries". The New York Times. February 27, 1908. Retrieved September 28, 2010. Frederic Courtland Penfield, diplomat, author, and clubman, and Mrs. Anne Weightman Walker, one of the wealthiest women in the world, were married at 10:45 ...
  3. JOHN W. JORDAN, LL.D (1914). "Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated". NEW YORK: Librarian Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Archived from the original on September 30, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  4. "The Franklin Institute Awards - Laureate Database page on Powers and Weightman". Archived from the original on May 30, 2010. Retrieved January 13, 2010.
  5. STEVE HARGREAVES (June 2, 2014). "The richest Americans in history". CNN money. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  6. Moses King, King's Views of Philadelphia (New York: Moses King, publisher, 1901), p. 89.
  7. Willis Gaylord Hale (1848-1907) from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  8. William Weightman from Find-A-Grave

Further reading
  • Philadelphia - A History of the City and Its People. Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer (Philadelphia, 1911).
  • James Foss. Willis Gaylord Hale and Philadelphia's Rebellion of the Picturesque: 1880-1890. Masters Thesis, Penn State University, 1964.

Archives and records
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