Mrs. R. Pearlstine

Rebecca Tobish Pearlstine (1845-1917) was born to Moses Tobish and Esther Tobish in Bialystok, Russian-occupied Poland and immigrated to the United States about 1860. Around 1864, she married Charles Louis Pearlstine (1836-1886), a Russian-Polish immigrant who had settled in Charleston with his father and brother. By 1866, Rebecca and Charles Pearlstine had relocated to Branchville, where they established a general merchandise store. Charles Louis died in 1886, leaving behind his wife and several children, all under the age of 19. At that time, she founded Mrs. R. Pearlstine’s of Branchville, which sold men’s and children’s clothing, to support her family. Rebecca Pearlstine managed this business until the mid-1890s, when she and her adult sons reorganized as R. Pearlstine and Sons Company, a general merchandise operation. Rebecca Pearlstine retired in 1904 but remained in Branchville until her death in 1917.