B. Fleishman & Bros. (Fleishman Company)

Merchant

115 South Main Street
Anderson, SC 29624

FAMILIES:

B. Fleishman & Bros., a ladies’ and men’s furnishings store, operated at 109 South Main Street in Anderson, South Carolina from 1906 until 1915 and under a various succession of names at 115 South Main Street from 1915 until its closure in 1981. Its founders were three of seven brothers who immigrated from Lithuania: Samuel (1880-1955), Benjamin (1875-1948), and Morris (1878-1957) Fleishman. Benjamin resided in Baltimore, Maryland, and Morris in Dunn, North Carolina, leaving Samuel to run the day-to-day operation at the store. Shortly after the store’s opening, Samuel’s 12-year-old nephew, Nathan Fleishman (1894-1969), joined him in Anderson. By 1915, Nathan was serving as the company’s manager. In 1922, the company was known as The Fleishman Bros. Company, and when Nathan and his brother-in-law, Philip Klyne, bought the business in 1926, they renamed it Fleishman Company (sometimes called Fleishman and Klyne). These stores sold “dry goods, men’s and boys’ clothing, hats and caps, [and] ladies and children’s ready-to-wear.” Fleishman and Klyne opened additional locations in Greenville, South Carolina and Hartwell, Georgia, but were forced to close the Georgia business during the Great Depression. They split ownership of the remaining stores, with the Anderson location staying in the Fleishman family. Both Nathan’s wife, Sarah L. Fleishman (1898-1974), and his son, Alvin Theodore Fleishman (1921-2009), later became co-owners of the business, which by the 1940s became known as “Anderson’s ‘Thrift Store.” Alvin ran the store following his father’s death in 1969.

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