Solomon Star
Values Codes: I – H – E – L – P
Solomon Star (1840-1917) was born in Germany but, at ten, his parents sent him to America to live with his uncle, who ran a clothing store in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Solomon “Sol” Star
Star, always known as “Sol,” attended school and worked in his uncle’s store until he headed west in 1861.
He settled in Virginia City, Montana, and opened a store which he ran for seven years.
At the same time, the territory’s governor chose Sol Star to be his personal secretary and he later appointed Star to be territorial auditor.
In 1872, President Ulysses Grant appointed Sol Star head of the U.S. Land Office in Helena, the territorial capital.
During his time in Helena, Sol met Seth Bullock, who became his lifelong friend and business partner.
Star and Bullock learned of a new gold rush in South Dakota’s Black Hills in 1876.
They left Helena and drove a team of oxen, pulling a wagonload of consumer and mining supplies, to the Deadwood mining camp that lay at the center of the gold strike.
The Deadwood hardware/general store venture flourished.
Star won election to the Deadwood city council within months of his arrival.
In 1878, President Hayes appointed Star postmaster of Deadwood, requiring him to leave the council.
After several years as postmaster, Star resigned to dispel false rumors that he had misappropriated post office funds. He was later cleared of all wrongdoing.
Star returned to the Deadwood council in 1882 and two years later won the first of nine consecutive one-year terms as Deadwood mayor.
In 1889, while Sol Star was serving as Deadwood mayor, the voters also elected him Deadwood’s representative in the first South Dakota state legislature.
As Star was ending his mayoral tenure in 1893, Deadwood voters elected him to the South Dakota senate. His senatorial colleagues chose him to serve as president pro tempore.
In 1896, Star won a two-year term as Deadwood mayor and was re-elected for the eleventh and final time in 1898.
Starting that same year, the voters elected him 10 times to be clerk of court for Lawrence County.
Sol Star won twenty-six elections in his political career and was never defeated.
Source
- Mark Rutzik, Breaking New Ground: The Untold Story of Early America’s Jewish Electoral Pioneers – 1788 to 1920, 2025.
Mark Rutzick is the curator of this Solomon Star exhibit.
