According to his descendants, Jake Lurey (1880-1946) fled from Bialystok, Russia (now Poland) around 1899. After six months in England, Lurey immigrated to the United States and joined his aunt, Brina Lurey Cohen, in Rhode Island until about 1909. He and his family then moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina where his wife, Annie Hecklin Lurey (1880-1951), had family. There, he opened a shoe store, which he ran with the help of his father, Zalick Lurey (1856-1931), and his younger brother Morris (1884-1963). Lurey closed the store in 1910, and moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where he opened another shoe store.