Sol’s Junk & Metal Co.

At five years old, Sol Aberman (1900-1967), his mother, Bella (1863-1944), and his siblings immigrated to the United States from Zhitomir, Russia (present-day Zhytomyr, Ukraine) to join their father, Myer (c.1869-1927), who came to the United States in 1903. By 1910, the Aberman family was living in Chicago, where Myer and his eldest son, Moses, worked as tailors. By 1920, Sol secured work as a machinist in a Chicago packing house. Later that decade, he married Bessie Samet (1905-1990) and moved to High Point, North Carolina, where he established a junk shop. By 1933, Sol, Bessie, and their sons, Mitchell (1930-1953) and Eddie (1932-2000), moved to Rock Hill, South Carolina, where Sol established scrap metal, hide, and junk business Sol’s Junk & Metal Co. on East Black Street. In 1938, the Sol opened a new scrap yard for the business at 111 North York Avenue. Sol’s Junk & Metal Co. ceased operations around 1954.