Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of SIMON M. LEVINSTEIN This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 633 SIMON M. LEVINSTEIN has been engaged in business at Buckhannon, Upshur County, since 1899, and from a modest inception has built up one of the large and well appointed retail mercantile establishments of this city. Honorable policies and effective service have gained to him the confi- dence of the local public, and he has distinct place among the progressive citizens of Buckhannon. Mr. Levinstein was born in Russia, in May, 1872, and is a son of Lewis and Bertha Levinstein. The early educa- tional advantages of Simon M. Levinstein included those of an excellent private school in his native land, and he was a self-reliant and ambitious youth of sixteen years when he came to the United States and made the City of Baltimore his destination. Like many others who have achieved success in mercantile enterprise, he initiated his activities at this line by engaging in the selling of goods as a peddler, his commodities being carried in a pack on his back. It was in this way that he made his first visit to Upshur County, West Virginia, and he continued his activities as a peddler for five years. He then opened a small store at Hyattsville, Maryland, a village six miles distant from Washington, D.C., and five years later he sold his stock and business at that place and, in September, 1899, opened a modest stock of goods in a small store room at Buckhannon, West Virginia. With the gradual expansion of his trade he removed to larger quarters, which still later required the addition of an ad- joining room, and after there continuing his prosperous enterprise eleven years he removed to his present modern and well equipped establishment, in which he utilizes foul- sales and stock rooms and conducts a large business in the sale of ready-to-wear apparel for men and women. Mr. Levinstein has become one of the substantial business men of the city and is a stockholder in the Buckhannon Bank, besides having other capitalistic interests of local order. He is owner of one-half interest in the building adjacent to that in which his business is established, and has other real estate, both in Buckhannon and at Gassaway. Mr. Levinstein is a valued member of the Buckhannon Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club, besides holding membership in the local Country Club. He is a republican in politics, and he and his wife retain membership in one of the leading Jewish synagogues in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. He is affiliated with the B'nai B'rith; with Franklin Lodge No. 7, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Upshur Chapter of Royal Arch Masons; and with the local organizations of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and Modern Woodmen of America. On the 22d of February, 1903, Mr. Levinstein wedded Miss Ida Rappeport, and they have four children: Morton, Leon, Eli and Bernice. The two older sons are, in 1921, students in the Buckhannon High School.