Mickey Funeral Home (Charleston, S.C.)

The Mickey Funeral Home was established in Charleston, S.C. in 1894 by Edward Mickey (1850-1899), who helped found the Humane Brotherhood Association in 1843 and who was a state legislator during Reconstruction. At his death in 1899, Edwin G. Harleston (1854-1931), brother of Edward Mickey's wife, Hannah Harleston Mickey (1848-1928), took over the firm until the two Mickey sons, Richard Harleston Mickey (1889-1934) and Edward Crum Mickey (1883-1965), became of age. Upon graduating from Avery Normal Institute in 1901 Edward Crum Mickey (who also helped found the NAACP in Charleston and was active in the Y.M.C.A.) learned the trade and worked with Edwin G. Harleston at the funeral home. The company split in 1913. The Mickey Funeral Home re-established itself as an individual entity, run by the two brothers and their mother Hannah, while Edwin G. Harleston founded the Harleston Funeral Home. In the early 1930s, attempting to siphon business away from the Harleston firm, E.C. Mickey decided to build an expensive funeral parlor at 50 Cannon St. The business failed and the firm shut down in 1933.