Around 1896, Charles Fishburn McFadden (1868-1938) founded dry goods business C.F. McFadden & Co., after years employed at dry goods, clothing, and grocery store A. A. Solomons. Located in Sumter, South Carolina, C.F. McFadden & Co. remained in operation until around 1910. By 1920, McFadden took up a new occupation, that of a traveling shoe salesman. By 1930, however, McFadden changed occupations again, this time to that of a commercial flour salesman. At the time of his death, McFadden worked as a clerk in Sumter’s Imperial Hotel.