A. M. Krasnoff
Grocery
c.1902-c.1950
Main Street
Bishopville, SC
FAMILIES: Krasnoff
A native of Russia, Abraham Meyer Krasnoff (c.1873-1954) arrived in the United States by way of Liverpool, England on the S.S. Parris around 1889. He landed in New York and was living in Manning, South Carolina by 1898 and Bishopville by 1901. He advertised for his dry goods store in the inaugural edition of the Lee County Vindicator, and his 1918 military registration card identifies him as a “merchant and farmer.”
Farmers customarily held charge accounts with the in-town merchants that were paid off when the crops were harvested. According to one account, Meyer and some farmers were sitting around his coal stove chatting during the Depression when he threw his ledgers into the flames and announced, “Let’s all start over together.”
He married Jennie Levinson (1884-1947) on July 20, 1902, and according to the wedding announcement, it was a “pretty, but solemn, Jewish marriage ceremony” performed by the Rabbi from Manning. By 1910, the family was living on Lee Street and the couple had three sons: Leo (1903-1969), Aaron (1905-1923), and Sollie (1907-2005). Leo and Sollie also became merchants in Bishopville. Meyer was related to the Krasnoffs in Sumter, Manning, and Summerton.1
1 Information courtesy of Rachael Bowman Bradbury’s Images of America: Bishopville and Lee County (2010).
Main Image: Advertisement for A. M. Krasnoff. Reprinted from the Lee County Vindicator, March 28, 1902.
Above Image: The Krasnoff family on their front porch on Lee Street, c.1918. Meyer is seated in the foreground. His sister, Fanny Krasnoff Yoffee is seated in the black dress and his wife, Jennie, is beside her in the white dress. The adult men are Meyer’s brothers and his brother-in-law, Morris Yoffee. The young men are Leo (seated with arms around knees), Aaron, and Sollie Krasnoff. Collection of Jennie Krasnoff Caine, courtesy of Special Collections, College of Charleston Libraries, Charleston, South Carolina
Above Image: Left: Photo of Jennie Levinson Krasnoff. Collection of Jennie Krasnoff Caine, courtesy of Special Collections, College of Charleston Libraries, Charleston, South Carolina. Right: Wedding announcement for Meyer and Jennie. Reprinted from the Lee County Vindicator, July 23, 1902