Happyville, South Carolina

Happyville, South Carolina was a short-lived rural Jewish agricultural settlement of 2,300 acres located in Aiken County, South Carolina, between the communities of Aiken, South Carolina, Aiken and Montmorenci, South Carolina, Montmorenci. The colony was founded by Yiddish-speaking Russian-Jewish socialists who wanted an escape from the sweatshops of New York City.

History

Between 1890 and the 1920s, many American Jews, Jewish immigrants settled in or near Aiken. The immigrants were Eastern European Jewry, Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews, mostly from History of the Jews in Russia, Russia and History of the Jews in Poland, Poland. In 1905, a group of Russian-Jewish Jewish left, socialists from Judaism in New York, New York founded a farming colony in Aiken County that they called "Happyville". The residents of the colony grew watermelon, cotton, corn, and grapes. Community members would fish for catfish, Esox, pike, Centrarchidae, sunfish, Smelt (fish), smelt, and hold Fish fry, fish fries. Lumber was also cut and sold. During the early 20th century, the state of South Carolina created the Department of Agriculture, Commerce, and Immigration at the urging of a wealthy banker in Columbia, South Carolina, Columbia, with the intention of attracting "desirable" European immigrants, particularly Russians. The department's campaign, printed in both German language in the United States, German and Yiddish, was called "South Carolina, The Garden of America", and attracted the attention of the Jewish-American socialist Charles Weintraub and his business associate Morris Latterman. Together Weintraub and Latterman purchased the Sheffield Phelps Plantation, a former List of plantations in South Carolina, slave plantation. The project was blighted by bad weather, insufficient funds, and land unsuitable for growing crops. By July 1908, the population dispersed and the land was sold back to Weintraub. Weintraub owned the land in partnership with three brothers from the Surasky family until 1918 when the Suraskys bought Weintraub's share of the land and sold the property.

See also

*Alliance Colony
*Am Olam
*History of the Jews in Charleston, South Carolina
*Yaazor

External links

"H" is for Happyville
South Carolina Public Radio

References

{{Reflist

1905 establishments in South Carolina
1908 disestablishments in South Carolina
Aiken, South Carolina
Ashkenazi Jewish culture in South Carolina
Jewish agricultural colonies
Jewish-American working class
Jewish socialism
Jews and Judaism in South Carolina
Rural culture in South Carolina
Polish-Jewish culture in the United States
Russian-Jewish culture in the United States
Secular Jewish culture in the United States
Socialism in South Carolina
Utopian communities in the United States
Working-class culture in South Carolina
Yiddish culture in the United States