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The Life of HENRY J HEINZ

Born in Pittsburgh of German immigrants, Henry John Heinz began life poor, had a phenomenal early success, suffered an agonizing bankruptcy and, at age 32, started over again to eventually become a powerful millionaire. An industrial pioneer, he founded the H. J. Heinz Company, home of the “57 Varieties” and carried its products and philosophy to four continents. During a time when the working conditions in Pittsburgh were often wretched, Mr. Heinz was a pioneer paying considerable attention to the social welfare and health and happiness of his employees. His efforts were rewarded, as there was never a strike at his company during his lifetime. Mr. Heinz was also an art collector, horseman, philanthropist and religious leader. In 1892, he moved his family from the middle class surroundings of Sharpsburg into a thirty-room mansion called Greenlawn in Point Breeze, one of Pittsburgh’s most opulent neighborhoods.His property occupied the full block on Penn Avenue between Lang and Murtland Avenues. The homes of other Pittsburgh tycoons such as H. C. Frick, George Westinghouse, Thomas Carnegie and Thomas Armstrong stood nearby.The mansion was razed in 1924 but the block-long wrought iron fence, which bordered the estate, still stands. The Heinz mausoleum, with 24 crypts, has the largest capacity of any privately owned mausoleum in the cemetery.A section of the mosaic floor can be lifted revealing 16 crypts below ground level. Four generations are entombed here representing nearly a century and a half in the history of the Heinz family.

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