Solomons Stores:

As already noted, Charles Sonnenberg and Samson Solomon were the founders of the renowned called S. Solomon and Company (popularly referred to as Solomon Stores) in 1884. Max Sonnenberg recounts that the "two soon built up his firm until it was the biggest country store in the whole Cape." In addition to Vryburg, the business initially had stores in Laingsburg in the Karoo and smaller trading stores in Taung, Mareetsane, and Kraaipan. By 1891 Samson Solomon had moved to the Cape and left his affairs' with his son, Charles. The Solomon's later sold their equity to Julius Rosenblatt and Charles Sonnenberg handed over the Solomon responsibilities to his nephew Max. Based on an article from The Stellelander, in 1973, shared with me by Avi Hechter, we learn that the Vryburg (main) branch was a substantial operation in the 1930s and beyond.

 

The business was located on Market Street in the center of town and was an admixture of a general dealer (grocery) as well as a trading post, where farmers could sell their agricultural produce. According to Max Sonnenberg, 'there were two departments at Solomon & Co.-wholesale and. retail." Sonnenberg books adds more color on the shop's size and clientele: "It had 25 clerks and its customers were drawn from an area as large as the United Kingdom, some of them trekking for weeks from German South West Africa." Over the ensuing decades, numerous clerks were Jews. 

 

The yard was substantial enough to allow ox wagons to come in an off-load produce. There were also rooms where the workers of the farmers stayed. Max Sonnenberg's auto-biography sheds light on the features of the property and the nature of commercial goods bought and sold. 

 

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The store of Solomon & Co. was the most imposing building in Vryburg-I50 feet long, of solid stone and occupying the site opposite the present Town Hall. Like all the others in this -district, however, it was single storied, with ploughs, bags of sugar and tobacco on the verandah. An ox-wagon was usually to be seen parked outside, being loaded or un- loaded with produce, particularly hides from the cattle country of the Kalahari or the Western Transvaal, horns, bales of wool and sometimes even ivory.

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In 1920 the Sonnenberg and Rosenblatt families sold the business to Schneier and London Limited, based out of Johannesburg. And after the new owners poorly ran the establishment, it was taken over by Ephraim Hechter in 1933. Harry Joffe was brought in by Ephraim to manage the business. In his memoirs he reports that the company had lost 50,000 pounds from 1929 to 1933. This was in part thanks to the Great Depression but also  due to poor management. Ephraim had met Harry and his brothers at Grasfontein on the Lichtenburg Alluvial diggings (north of Lichtenberg). Ephraim had run a number of small stores in the Transvaal with Jewish partners. One such partnership existed in Vryburg from 1931. 

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Headermans:

Ephraim had initially set up Headermans in partnership with Zalman Davidovitz. Explaining the name, Joe Davidovitz  recounts, "Headermans is Hechter and Davidovitz and the “mans” was taken from Greatermans, Ackermans etc." Headermans was a very modern building compared to the older Solomon's and had multiple divisions: a ladies section (run by Pessha Davidovitz), a men's section, a hardware section (managed by Ben Kruger), a habedashery section and a grocery section. There was also a section for African consumers. The shop backed into an old church which served as a store room. Joe Davidovitz recalls that there was a chronic shortage of bridal dresses for a time and his mother made wedding dresses from netting. The main competition for Headermans was the local Co-operative. Joe adds that during the war supporters  of the Ossewa Brandwag called on Afrikaners to support the Co-op and boycott Jewish stores like Headermans.

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After almost two years in business the two founders, Davidovitz and Hechter, parted ways and Ephraim bought Zalman out of Solomon's.

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Solomon's under Ephtaim Hechter:

At Solomon's Ephraim Hechter was ably assisted by Harry Joffe, Joe Joffe and Max Cohen, who would emerge as highly successful entrepreneurs. A letter to Harry Joffe from his colleagues, ahead of his departure in 1938,  indicates how well regarded he was by fellow staff. After Harry Joffe left, Solomon’s Stores was run by Hymie Arenson, Jatz Katz and Percy (Oom Piet) Leibowitz. Jack Katz and his wife Zara left for the Rand after thirty years in Vryburg with the sale of the business. Meish Arenson, son of Hymie, quips that his dad came for a short stint and ended up staying over two decades. Meish recalls driving the Solomon’s truck at the age of twelve.

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Selwyn Leibowitz reminisces:

 

"My dad ran the wholesale section and used to travel to country towns and to the mines in Kuruman to sell to them. Also to shops on farms. I often went with him during school holidays. Allot of the roads were like farm roads and my job was to open the gates that divided the land. My dad was with Solomon's for 40 years plus. The wholesale section was the first to close, all the asbestos mines started closing and that was a great loss to them."

 

Jobs for the Griners:

What is salient is the number of families who worked for Solomon Stores, Vryburg Wholesalers and other businesses as managers or sales reps. Joe Davidovitz recounted that his father and the other businessmen made a point to recruit newcomers to South Africa. He referred to them as Griners and recalls that the family home had a small rondawel (a small round bachelors flat) which housed them. Joe recounts that one of them was a Kruger, whose art he still owns. Headermans, Vryburg Wholesalers and Solomon's Stores employed a large number of Jews. 

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The Indian Community:

One of the main competitors of Solomon’s Stores was MC Ghoors. The Ghoor family are in all probability Gujarati’s and were either brought to South Africa as indentured laborers or arrived willingly as “passenger Indians.” The former were imported by the British colonial regime in 1860 in order to work on the Natal sugar plantations. By the end of a decade of Indenture they were Free Indians and granted British Citizenship. Free, they began migrating to the Cape, drawn by the Kimberley diamond rush. Like the Jews they benefitted from kinship networks and were successful traders. The Ghoors set up shop in Vryburg in 1903. Max Sonnenberg (p. 87) recounts that as Vryburg grew it attracted a number of Indians. "In after years they became formidable competitors and a a movement was started to expel them. This revolted my sense of fair play so much that I was accused of entrenching those already there. In the end a voluntary agreement was reached, under which the Indians themselves agreed not to increase the number of their shops which stood at about 30 or 40." Sonnenberg explains his vocal defense of the Indian traders as follows: "I protested violently against this injustice, declaring that similar discrimination might some day be applied to Jews, Englishmen or any other section of the populace" In 1950 the Indian businesses were forced off Market Street, to the Indian section of town, after the Separate Areas Act. Today Ghoors and many of these businesses still thrive. Both Avi Hechter and Joe Davidovitz recall their fathers interacting with the Ghoor family. 

 

What is striking from the Stellanader article on Solomon’s Stores is that the management of Solomon’s Stores made a Rand1,000 donation both in 1967 and in 1973 to the town. No less remarkable, was the insistence that a third of the gift be availed to non-Europeans. As seen earlier, Solomon's also donated towards the Shul. 

 

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