The Zar nd Francis Scott House at 2125 E. 1st St. (Image: Duluth Preservation Alliance.)
On This day in 1848, future Duluthian Zar Scott was born in Plymouth, Michigan. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1873 he worked surveying lakes and railroads for the federal government before entering the lumber business in Minneapolis. By 1880 he had relocated to the Zenith City and he and D. E. Holsten started the Scott-Halsten Lumber Company. By 1890 the firm had become Scott-Graff, and Zar found himself a business partner of Edmund Graff, a Pennsylvania lumberman who had been operating mills in Duluth since 1880 as well (Graff was born on October 24, 1846). After 1900 the Scott-Graff Company began easing out of the timber industry and in 1908 the company became a leader in reforestation. By 1927 the sawmill had closed and the company focused on millwork. Scott was later president of the Minnesota State Forestry board for several years and was considered “largely instrumental in the creation of the Itasca State Park.” In Duluth he belonged to the Kitchi Gammi Club, the Duluth Boat Club, and served as a city councilor and school board member. He died on November 11, 1931. Scott-Graff survived its founders until 1967, when it became part of Pacific Mutual Door Company, which closed its Duluth facilities in 1978. Read Zar Scott’s biography here and read about his East End estate here.
This is interesting to me because my family surname is Zar, with my forebears having come from eastern Lithuania.
I have encountered a few folks other than my family with Zar as a last name but not as a first name.
Weird first name, common last name. Any idea the derivation of the name Zar?
Surprising how many of Duluth’s pioneers started off as surveryers. Surveying must have been a growth industry in the 1870-1900.