The Hirsch Co.

The Hirsch Co. was established by Polish immigrant Alex Hirsch (1876-1971) around 1919. Born to store buyer Louis (1855-1923) and his wife Eva Rosch Hirsch (1851-1908), Alex immigrated to the United States around the age of five and grew up in New York City. In the 1890s, he moved to South Carolina with his brother Harry (1882-1947) and briefly worked as a clothier in Lancaster County’s Flat Creek before moving to Birmingham, Alabama, and establishing a mercantile business there. In 1903, he married Lena Karesch (1881-1949), and the couple spent the next several years moving between South Carolina and New York City, before setting down roots in Charleston.

In 1915, Alex established the Palmetto Bag and Waste Company at 162 East Bay Street with H. L. Schlosburg and A. Morgan. By January 1918, the men dissolved their partnership, and Alex founded The Hirsch Co. at the same location. Acting as the successor to Palmetto Bag and Waste Company, Alex made factory-produced bags at 162 East Bay Street. In 1926, Alex and Lena incorporated the business, with Alex serving as president and treasurer and Lena working as vice-president and secretary.

In October 1938, as the Great Depression was coming to a close, The Charleston Evening Post announced that The Hirsch Company would be shuttering their doors due to passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which initially set the federal minimum wage at $0.25 per hour and then increased it to $0.40 the following year.

In the 1940 US Census, Alex was listed as the operator of a burlap bagging company, and Alex and Lena placed advertisements for textiles at “Hirsch Co., up Meeting St.” until 1945.¹ They retired sometime after that and moved to Georgia before Lena’s death in 1949.

¹ Advertisement, The Charleston Evening Post, April 4, 1945, 10.