Reimer’s Department Store

Louis (1900-1991) and Lena From Reimer (1905-1993) operated Reimer’s Department Store on Main Street, Woodruff for approximately 60 years. Louis was born in Philadelphia and grew up living in New York City with his mother, sisters, and maternal grandparents. By 1920, he joined his Uncle Harry and Aunt Jennie Masur in Augusta, Georgia and began working as a salesman for C.H. Schneider. In the early 1930s, he married Lena of Union, South Carolina. Lena was the oldest of six children born to Lithuanian merchant Israel From (1879-1935) and his wife, Bertha Kessler From (1879-1969). In the 1940s and 1950s, Louis and Lena were both individually listed as department store merchants in the US census. In 1966, Louis was elected chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s merchant’s bureau.