Henry J. Heinz

Henry J. Heinz (1844 - 1919) was a United States businesssman.

• Co-founded Heinz Noble & Company in early 1870s
• Co-founded F & J Heinz Company in early 1876
• Bought out partners by 1888, and renamed the company H J Heinz Company, the familiar Heinz company of today.

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Henry Heinz was one of eight children born to John Henry and Anna Schmidt Heinz. Both parents had emigrated from Germany and settled in the Birmingham section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- today known as the South Side.

When Henry was five the family moved several miles up the Allegheny River to the little town of Sharpsburg. There, at age six, young Henry (Called Harry by his family) started helping his mother tend a small backyard garden behind the family home. At age eight Henry was canvassing the neighborhood with a basket under each arm selling vegetables from the family garden door to door.

By age nine he was growing, grinding, bottling and selling his own brand of horseradish sauce. At ten he was given a 3/4 acre garden of his own and had now graduated to a wheelbarrow to deliver his vegetables. At twelve he was working 3-1/2 acres of garden using a horse and cart for his three-times-a-week deliveries to grocery stores in Pittsburgh. At seventeen he was grossing $2,400 a year -- a handsome sum for the times.

Eventually -- as we all know -- the little six year old gardener had built the H.J. Heinz Company into one of the largest food production and processing companies in the world.