B. Nussbaum

Grocery
1918-1940

Main Street
Branchville, SC 29432

FAMILIES:

Bernard “Barnie” Nussbaum (1882-1940) was born in Galicia, Poland, and immigrated to the United States with a friend prior to 1906. In route to Augusta, Georgia, where he originally intended to earn a living, Nussbaum disembarked his train during a stop in Branchville, South Carolina, and decided to stay. By 1910, he’d established himself as a successful merchant in that town. For the first few years, he worked as a fruit dealer, but by 1918, he’d shifted his business to dealing in dry goods. In the late 1920s and 1930s, Barnie’s eldest son, J. Philip Nussbaum (1914-1995), worked as a clerk at his father’s store, which was rebranded as B. Nussbaum and Son. In 1940, Barnie passed away and J. Philip took over the operation of the family business under the name Nussbaum’s Department Store.

Main Image: Advertisement for B. Nussbaum, 1920. Reprinted from the Times and Democrat, July 11, 1920.

The Jewish Merchant Project is supported by the generosity of the Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation and the Stanley B. Farbstein Endowment at the Coastal Community Foundation.

JHSSC Office
Sylvia Vlosky Yaschik Jewish Studies Center
96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424
Phone: 843 953 3918