Albert Max Schneider (1886-1967) was born in Russian-controlled Poland to Hirsch and Rose Schneider. Around 1892, the Schneider family immigrated to the United States. By 1902, Albert Schnieder had relocated to South Carolina where he first worked as a cotton mill clerk in Summerton and then for a merchant in Charleston. Around 1906, Jacob Max Ringel (1869-1941) recruited Schneider, an unmarried Jewish immigrant seeking a family and a career, to work for him in Georgetown. On December 31, 1910, Schneider married Fannie Lewenthal (1882-1969), a daughter of Sallie and Philip Lewenthal. In 1912, in partnership with his wife’s uncle, Abe Hyman (1871-1942), Schneider established the Hyman-Schneider Company. Regarding this partnership, family histories credit Schneider with operating the store and Hyman with financing the enterprise.
In 1913, his brother-in-law, H.N. Rosen, joined in the management of the dry goods business. Harry Nathan “H.N” Rosen (1883-1961) was born in the Bronx, New York to Isaac Meyer Rosen and Bella Stone Rosen. Around 1910, Rosen had relocated to Georgetown, South Carolina and married Dorothy Lewenthal (1884-1973), a sister of Schneider’s wife. The Schneider-Hyman Company appears to have given way to The New Store by 1914, although the business remained a dry good store through 1920. By 1930, still under The New Store moniker, the Schneider family transitioned into department store goods, including electronics and clothing, while the Rosen family began selling furniture and clothing.
Main Image: Newspaper announcement for the charter of the Hyman-Schneider Co., 1912. Reprinted from The Columbia Record, March 13, 1912.