Standard Cloak Company

Joseph Miller (1876-1935) immigrated to the United States about 1890 and likely initially settled in New York, where he met his wife, Ida Cohen (1871-1967). Their first son, David Miller, was born in Spartanburg in 1896, although at that time Joseph was still a peddler. He is listed as a salesman working in “installment goods” in Spartanburg until 1908, when he opened Standard Cloak Company at 104 East Main Street. He moved the business, which sold cloaks and ladies’ ready-to-wear clothing, to 113 East Main Street by 1913. In 1920, North Carolina native Abraham H. Morris (1872-1956) became a partner in the business, and by 1926 he served as its sole proprietor at its new storefront, 115 East Main Street. Miller opened several other stores, including Miller’s and The Fashion, before retiring to Charlotte, where he died in 1935. Abraham Morris’s wife, Jeannette (1886-1963), and son, Melvin, both worked in the store as salespeople. Morris relocated the business several times: 120 East Main Street (1928-1939), 128 East Main Street (1939-1983), and to the Spartanburg mall, where it remained until it closed in 1990. In 1944, the company incorporated with Morris as vice president, his daughter, Sylvia Morris Freedman (1911-1996), as secretary, and his son-in-law, Louis B. Freedman (1897-1978), as president.