Aaron Fass (1880-1953) was born in Charleston, South Carolina to dry goods and general merchandise merchants Simon Fass (1835-1897) and Henrietta Jacobosky Fass (1845-1893). As a young man, he worked as a clerk in various Charleston stores. By 1910, he moved to Dillon County, South Carolina, where he made a living for himself as a dry goods merchant and boarded in the home of gentile Augustus Eli Hood (1851-1914). By 1917, Fass married and moved to Columbia with his wife Katie (c.1876-1922). There, he worked as a mill operator in the historic Columbia Mills building until he became a candy salesman in 1920. The following year, however, he secured employment as a jeweler. After Katie fell ill and passed away in 1922, Fass moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where he would work as a jeweler and later as a furniture salesman.
Main Image: Aaron Fass, c.1920. Image courtesy S.I. Karlin.