Detroit tobacco mogul Daniel Scotten was born December 11, 1819 in Norfolk, England. In 1836 he immigrated to Palmyra, New York with his family. He came to Detroit in 1853 and began working in the tobacco industry as a partner with Thomas C. Miller & Company. In 1856 he joined forces with Hiram Granger and William C. Lovett, whose brother he had worked for in Palmyra, to form his own company. Scotten, Granger & Lovett operated the Hiawatha Tobacco Factory in Springwells, where the leading brand of plug and fine cut tobacco was made.

Yankee Girl

His company focus was on chewing tobacco, cigars, and flake tobacco. Over the years, business partners came and went, and company names changed, his nephew Oren Scotten eventually becoming a partner. In 1882, the firm became his own, the Daniel Scotten Company. Over two million pounds of tobacco were made in 1883, shipping to ports in England and Hawaii as well as across the U.S. By the 1890s, the Daniel Scotten Company had 1,200 employees and earned $4 million in sales annually.

Oceanic Plug

One of Scotten-Dillon's brands was Oceanic Cut Plug tobacco. This was a reference to the 1899 ship Oceanic, built for the White Star Line by Harland Wolff Ltd. Known as the "Queen of the Sea" and considered the most glorious ship of her time, the White Star Liner was built for around one million pounds silver. It was 700 ft. long with a 68 ft. beam, 17,274 tons and a maximum speed was twenty knots. The ship would have 15 years of service before being grounded 20 miles off Northern Scotland in the Shetland Islands on September 8, 1914 while serving in the Royal Navy as an armed merchant cruiser. Oceanic would remain there untouched until 1973, when salvaged.

Union Workman

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