Max Crane

Max Crane (1884-1952) opened a dry goods store in Bennettsville after moving to South Carolina in the mid-1920s. Max immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1906 and initially settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he worked as a weaver and a salesman. In the late 1910s or early 1920s, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, and in 1923, married fellow Russian immigrant Esther Schoenbert (1892-1939) there. Not long after that, the couple moved to Marlboro County where they welcomed two daughters, Dorothy (b. 1925) and Annette (b. 1928), and opened a dry goods store in Bennettsville. In 1941, Esther passed away after suffering from severe chest pain. Later that year, Max married widow Lena Brown Chaplain (c.1888-1973) of Columbia. Max retired from his dry goods business in November 1949 and moved back to Brooklyn with Lena.