L. Platkin

Merchant
1900s-1910s


Branchville, SC 29432

FAMILIES:

Louisa Klauben Platkin (1865-1932) was born in Austria and immigrated to the United States around 1880. During the early 1890s, Louisa lived in Holly Hill, South Carolina with her husband, David Platkin (b. 1864), a furniture merchant, and their two eldest children, Arthur Platkin (1892-1935) and Mollie Platkin (b. 1892). By 1895, the family had left the south, and by 1900 lived in Norfolk, Virginia, where Wolf (also known as David) was employed as a furniture merchant. Between 1900 and 1910, the couple began living separately, and by 1908, Louisa Plotkin had settled in Branchville and established a dry goods store. She likely chose Branchville because her brother, L.A. Klauben, lived in nearby St. George. In 1910, her son, Arthur, was granted permission to practice as a pharmacist and worked alongside his mother in Branchville. By 1917, however, the family had moved to Atlanta, Georgia, settling there permanently.

Main Image: 1910 newspaper report on Arthur Plotkin successfully passing the state pharmacist’s examination. Reprinted from the Greenwood Daily Journal, July 23, 1910.

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
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Charleston, SC 29424
Phone: 843 953 3918