Abraham “Abe” Pearlstine (1876-1910) was born in Branchville, South Carolina to Charles Louis Pearlstine (1836-1886) and Rebecca Tobish Pearlstine (1845-1917). Until the turn of the 20th century, Abe assisted his mother and brothers in the operation of the family business, known first as Mrs. R. Pearlstine and then as R. Pearlstine and Sons Company. Sometime after 1900, Abe ventured into business for himself, establishing a dry goods store on Main Street in Branchville. On the morning of December 15, 1910, Abe Pearlstine confronted J.J. Jones, a local attorney, at the Branchville post office about the latter not fulfilling payments to the former’s creditors. Jones later claimed that Pearlstine struck him with his fist, and in self-defense, Jones shot and killed him. In 1914, after serving more than two years of a ten-year sentence in an Orangeburg County chain gang, Jones was paroled and exiled from South Carolina. After the death of Abe Pearlstine, his dry goods business closed.