In 1854, Moses Winstock (1818-1905), his wife, Lena (1816-, and his daughter, Anna (1841-, immigrated from Poland to Charleston. where he worked as a commission merchant. While there, he met members of the Erskine College faculty and chose to move to Due West for the education opportunities sometime before 1860. He brought his nephew, G.A. Visanska, with him. In Due West, Winstock owned two small brick stores and employed Visanska as the stores’ accountant. The 1860 U.S. Census indicated that the family was well off, with Winstock reporting $5,000 in real estate and a personal estate worth $26,000. His daughter, Anna, was a member of the first class of the Due West Female College. The family left Due West sometime before 1880, when Moses reported work as a traveling agent in Charleston.