M. Blum & Co.

Morris Sidney Blum (1886-1918) immigrated to the United States as a boy and settled in South Carolina where he and his brothers made a name for themselves in the mercantile business. After operating stores in Abbeville and Columbia, Morris moved to Dillon and opened a dry goods store called M. Blum & Co. on Main Street. In 1909, he shot and killed another merchant named James Whitehurst in Marion County after an alleged disagreement between James’s wife and Morris’s sister, Rebecca Blum Goldstein (1881-1947). Morris was tried for murder the following year in a “sensational” trial that garnered a great deal of attention locally. The case ultimately ended in a mistrial and Morris returned to Dillon. He married Kathryn “Kittie” Copeland (1895-1922) in 1914 and died four years later at age thirty-four.