Sol Star
Solomon Star was born into a Jewish family in Bavaria, Germany on December 20, 1840. Star and his family immigrated to the United States around 1850 and settled in Ohio. At an early age he traveled to Montana, engaging in business in Helena. There he began a hardware business with Seth Bullock, and together they followed the gold rush to Deadwood in August of 1876. They established the Star and Bullock Auctioneers and Commission Merchants at the corner of Main and Wall Streets, where they sold picks ($12), shovels ($10), pans ($8), dynamite, much welcomed chamber pots, and anything else the local population desired. Watson Parker writes in Deadwood: The Golden Years that Star and Bullock were “...effective and adroit businessmen, politicians and guiders of the economic destiny of the Black Hills.”

In 1878 the partners sold the first farm machinery in the area. Sol Star was also held in high esteem by the Chinese community, and he was one of the few Deadwood residents allowed to attend meetings at the Chinese Masonic Lodge. In partnership with his friend Seth Bullock, Star expanded his business interests to the outlying towns of Spearfish, Sturgis, and Custer, as well as establishing a livestock business in Belle Fourche. He and Bullock partnered with Harris Franklin in the Deadwood Flouring Mill Company in 1880, where Star served as its general manager.

While in Montana, Sol Star distinguished himself in public service as territorial auditor and personal secretary to the governor. He continued as a public servant in Deadwood, serving fourteen years as mayor. Star was one of the first town councilmen elected in 1876 when the vote was taken to organize Deadwood as a town. Star also served as postmaster in 1879, and was Clerk of Courts when Lawrence County was established in 1877 and held that office until his death on October 10, 1917.

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