The Gray Brothers established a new business in St Louis in 1917 called The Liberty Bond Exchange. Pictured here is William Gray aka Wolf Groman and a hired clerk. This is the place where Pearl Weinhouse met Edward Gray aka Yashia Groman one Saturday in 1919. That was shortly before the business was shut down for lack of authorization to deal in United States government bonds.
During this period the family was also engaged in the building cleaning and cleaning supply business. The building cleaning operation had grown from window washing to sandblasting stone facades of commercial buildings. It’s prime mover was Edward. Origins of the other start-ups is unknown. The cleaning supply business was created to sell products via mail order. A cleanser made primarily of soda ash was its principal product. World War I brought that business to an early end. Soda ash became unavailable due to its use in munitions.
Pearl was brought to the bond exchange store by her cousin, Pearl Trube who was about 10 years older and had recently married Joe Gray following his return from combat in France. (He suffered what was then know as “combat fatigue” – now called Post Traumatic Syndrome or PSD.) The marriage didn’t last long. Pearl and her sisters were raised by their grandparents Bertha Trube and Simon Omensky. Pearl Trube was Bertha’s niece, daughter of her brother Max.
The Trubes had come to St Louis in the 1880s, but that is another story.
