December 26, 1913: “Pear,” a Duluth cow, named bovine “champion of the world”

On this day in 1913, a Duluth cow named Pear set the world record for milk and butterfat production and was declared the “champion of the world,” at least as far as Red Polled dairy cows were concerned. Pear was a resident of the the Zenith City’s experimental Jean Duluth Farms who in the previous year, according to the Duluth News Tribune, had produced 13,000 pounds of milk and 605 pounds of butter fat, the equivalent to 726 pounds of commercial butter. The farm’s manager, George P. Grout, told the paper he and his colleagues were “filled with pride” over Pear’s production, which exceeded the previous butter fat record by 90 pounds. In fact, Pear’s production for the past four years was greater than any other Red Polled ever recorded. The Jean Duluth Farm was established as the Jean Duluth Company in about 1900 by land developers Charles Craig and John Williams. As the area’s largest agricultural operation, the Jean Duluth Stock Farm covered over 4,000 acres along the Lester River on the East Duluth & Lester River Road, which became the Jean Duluth Farm Road and is known today as the Jean Duluth Road. The Jean Duluth Farm was part of Duluth’s Homecroft movement, which you can read about here. Duluth’s namesake is Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut, and there was no Jean Duluth. So where did the name come from? Find out here.