Morris Drucker’s Dry Goods

Merchant
1935-1967


Denmark, SC

FAMILIES: Drucker

Morris Drucker (1904-1992) was born in Kartuz-Bereza, Russia (present-day Biaroza, Belarus) to Mayer Drucker (1849-1934) and Toby Malke “Tillie” Borshaw (1865-1941). In 1914, German soldiers invaded his village, killing people and livestock. Drucker’s “early teens coincided with the Bolshevik Revolution. When Russian Czar Nicholai was executed, the country was thrown into even more turmoil, despair and hard times. At that point, Drucker, along with his parents, a sister, brother-in-law and niece, decided to leave the country and join relatives in the United States.” The Druckers passed through Ellis Island in 1921, and joined relatives in McCormick, South Carolina. There, Drucker “became known as the ‘Baby Peddler’ because he traveled the unpaved country roads by wagon drawn by his horse [sic. mule], Lou, peddling goods like cloth, shoes and underwear.” In 1927, he started The Service Store in Fountain Inn, South Carolina. In his own words, he “cooked on a 67-cent hot plate and slept on a $1.50 army cot in the back of the store for two years.” In 1930, he married Ida Belle Andronosky (1909-1985). Five years later, the Druckers moved to Denmark, South Carolina, where he established a larger retail store, Morris Drucker’s Dry Goods. Drucker retired in 1967.1

 

1 Ellis, B. J. “Gateway to America.” The State, September 9, 1990.

Main Image: Al and Esther Berger, Abrom Daitch, Morris and Tobie Drucker, circa 1967. Courtesy Larry Drucker.

 

Above: Sign in the window at Morris Drucker’s Dry Goods, Denmark, South Carolina. Courtesy Larry Drucker.

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