Henry J. Heinz: Co-founder of the H. J. Heinz Company

Henry J. Heinz: Co-founder of the H. J. Heinz Company

Business Owner · Food & Beverage

Pittsburgh

Henry J. Heinz co-founded the Pittsburgh food company that bears his name and helped secure passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.

About Henry J. Heinz: Co-founder of the H. J. Heinz Company

Henry John Heinz (October 11, 1844 to May 14, 1919) was an American entrepreneur who co-founded the H. J. Heinz Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was involved in the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, and his fortune became the basis for the Heinz Foundations; many of his descendants are known for philanthropy and involvement in politics and public affairs. Heinz was born in Birmingham, Pennsylvania, to John Henry Heinz, born Johann Heinrich Heinz, and Anna Margaretha Schmidt. His father immigrated from Bavaria in 1840, worked making bricks and married Anna, who had recently emigrated from Hesse-Kassel, in 1843; his paternal grandmother's family, the Trumps, came from Kallstadt in the Palatinate. When Henry was five his parents moved to Sharpsburg, where his father started his own brickmaking business. His mother, the daughter of a farmer and church administrator, was raised Calvinist, while his father was Lutheran, and they raised and confirmed their son in that faith. Sources: English Wikipedia (Henry J. Heinz, accessed September 2026).

Basic Information

Co-founder, H. J. Heinz Company (1844-1919)

Company Details

H. J. Heinz Company

Food Manufacturing, Condiments