F. Augustus Heinze

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

F.Augustus Heinze
F.Augustus Heinze
Born	1869 Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died	1914

F. Augustus Heinze (1869–1914) was one of the three "Copper Kings" of Butte, Montana along with William Andrews Clark and Marcus Daly. Heinze was one of the most colorful entrepreneurs in Montana history.

[edit] Early life

F. Augustus Heinze was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He went to Butte in 1889 as a mining engineer for the Boston and Montana Company.

[edit] Business Career

Although Heinze arrived in Butte after Clark and Daly were well established he was able to catch up with the other two moguls through the use of mining law and court lawsuits.

In 1893, Heinze organized the Montana Ore Purchasing Company and began a series of court challenges to the claims of the established interests in Butte, most notably the Amalgamated Copper Company. Amalgamated was controlled by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil.

Heinze was a brilliant man and bought judges to support his cause. He was known to have over thirty judges on his staff at one point in time. He was also notorious for his unusual methods of gaining his wealth. Once, he bought a small triangular plot of land in amongst three much larger claims by three other mining kings, which would normally be expected to be of little use. But, he then had miners dig straight down into the small plot, and then when well underground, would spread out in all directions underneath the other three claims. When the other mining moguls complained, Heinze's bought judges would throw out their cases, ruling, when needed, that the land claims were only valid on the surface of the earth.

In 1906, Heinze sold his mining interests in Butte to the Amalgamated Copper Company for a sum of $10.5 million. He returned to New York and entered the banking business. Soon, he would lose his fortune and set off the Panic of 1907.

Heinze died at the age of 44 from cirrhosis of the liver.