Checker Liquor Store

Liquor Store
1935-unknown

South Main Street
Woodruff, SC

FAMILIES: Lurey

In 1905, Hymen Lurey (1890-1965) immigrated to the United States from Bialystok, Russia (present-day Bialystok, Poland) with his mother, Mashe Lea Lurey (1856-1932), and siblings, Annie Lurie Rosenthal (1883-1962) and Samuel Lurey (1889-1960). After they arrived in the United States, the Lureys joined their brother, Jake Lurey (1880-1946), and father, Zelick Lurey (1856-1931), in Rhode Island. Around 1909, the Lureys moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where Jake’s wife, Annie Hecklin Lurey (1880-1951), had family. Around, Hymen moved to Laurens, South Carolina, where he opened clothier and cobbler New York Sample Shoe Store. Around 1910, Hymen opened a scrap metal business in Laurens, which eventually became known as H. Lurey & Sons, Inc. In 1912, he married Dorothy “Dora” Fayonsky (1891-1976). The couple raised three children in Laurens: Esther Lurey Ginsberg (1912-1996), Sadie Lurey Kennedy (1917-1994), and Meyer Lurey (1915-1996). In 1935, Hymen opened Checker Liquor Store on South Main Street in Woodruff, South Carolina, the first such store in that town’s history. Hymen also ran a liquor store in Fountain Inn, South Carolina.

The Jewish Merchant Project is supported by the generosity of the Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation and the Stanley B. Farbstein Endowment at the Coastal Community Foundation.

JHSSC Office
Sylvia Vlosky Yaschik Jewish Studies Center
96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424
Phone: 843 953 3918