Philip Wineman & Co.

Born in Portsmouth, England, Dr. Philip Wineman (1826-1895) immigrated to the United States as a child and settled in Charleston, South Carolina, around 1837. By 1853, he was employed by pharmacist Philip M. Cohen (1808-1879) at 29 Hayne Street. When Cohen’s store suffered a fire in 1855, he was forced to sell his business to Benjamin Mordecai (1809-1893). According to Shari Rabin of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, Benjamin Mordecai “turned the store over to J. H. Ashurst, the former bookkeeper, and kept Wineman on as clerk.”¹

After several years of working for John Ashurst (also spelled Ashhurst, 1826-1899), a Presbyterian merchant and fellow English immigrant, Philip Wineman took a more prominent role in the business. In 1863, Philip and John placed a co-partnership notice in The Charleston Daily Courier and named their venture Philip Wineman & Co. Continuing to operate at 29 Hayne Street, Philip and John sold everything from soap, toothbrushes, and combs to window glass, paint, and brandy.

After three years of this arrangement, Philip and John left Hayne Street to partner with George C. Goodrich (c.1837-1871) at 153 Meeting Street. Regarded as the successor to the Old Southern Drug House, this new wholesale business—known as Goodrich, Wineman & Co.—supplied merchants, physicians, and planters with medical supplies, chemicals, housewares, and building materials. After George’s unexpected death in 1871, Philip and John moved to 35 Hayne Street and reopened Philip Wineman & Co. In 1877, Philip and John went their separate ways. Philip briefly operated under his own name before joining Dr. Herman Baer (1830-1901) in business on Meeting and Calhoun streets.

When Philip died in 1895, he was described as “one of Charleston’s oldest, [most] popular, highly respected and widely known citizens” who “enjoyed the confidence and respect of the entire community.”² He left behind a widow, Laura Louisa Jacobs Wineman (1826-1909), and two sons, Philip Jr. (1854-1942) and Meyer (1861-1936). Philip Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps and opened Wineman’s Pharmacy a year after his father’s death.

¹ Shari Rabin, “The ‘Kingdom of Israel’ in this Town,” Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, accessed May 1, 2025, https://jhssc.org/the-kingdom-of-israel-in-this-town/.
² “Dr. Wineman Dead,” Evening Post, October 19, 1895, 1.