Garber’s

Paul Garber was born in Kobryn, Russia (present-day Belarus) in 1886. On May 25, 1903, he boarded the ship Batavia in Hamburg, Germany and arrived in New York on June 8 of that year. He then made his way to Williston, South Carolina, where he worked in a relative’s dry goods store. In 1906, Paul moved to Batesburg, South Carolina and established Garber’s, a department store that sold clothes, shoes, and accessories for men, women, and children. In 1912, Paul married Tillie Morris (1890-1983), the daughter of Sumter merchant Julius Morris (1848-1901) and Rosa Rosendorf Morris (1862-1932). Paul and Tillie would raise four children together: Sarah (1913-2006), Julius (1915-2005), Miriam (1918-2011), and Leon (1923-2012). Prior to 1950, Paul opened branch stores in Allendale, Denmark, and Columbia. Paul operated Garber’s until his death in 1950, at which point he passed on the business to his sons. Julius, and his wife, Bessie Brenner Garber (1919-2014), bought out Leon’s share of the Batesburg, Columbia, and Denmark stores in 1955. Julius and Bessie operated Garber’s until 1987, when they sold it to Al DePace (1947-2022), a gentile who began working for the store in the early 1960s.