You know this jewelry store chain. Its roots lead to Jewish immigrants in Fort Worth.

The $22 train tickets doled out by a New York nonprofit to transport Sam Zalefsky’s penniless family to Fort Worth in 1911 turned into a sound long-term investment.

Zalefsky, a Russian Jewish immigrant, barely eked out a living as a house painter and wallpaper hanger. But his two young sons — Morris Bernard, 9, and William, 7, who shortened their last name to Zale — channeled their immigrant drive and family ties into a business that grew into an international retail jewelry chain.

The Zalefskys were among 72 families who resettled in Fort Worth between 1903 and 1915 under the sponsorship of the Industrial Removal Office, a Progressive Era charity with a jarring, impersonal name. The agency’s goal was to “remove” poor Jewish emigres from urban “industrial” slums that bred crime, disease, anti-Semitism and radical politics. The agency relocated them in wholesome small-town environments west of the Hudson.

In Fort Worth, the B’nai B’rith lodge, a Jewish social-service fraternity, coordinated the effort. Its volunteer placement director was Uriah Meyer “U.M.” Simon, an attorney, real estate investor, and an immigrant himself. Simon empathized with the refugees, yet discerned the discomfort they generated among American-born neighbors. From the dozens of applications he received for “removal” approval, he most often gave the nod to immigrants with relatives already entrenched in the city. The chain migration of families tended to provide a safety net.

When Sam Zalefsky’s IRO application crossed Simon’s desk in 1911, he learned that the house painter’s wife, Libby, had two brothers in Fort Worth — Sam and Julius Kruger. The Krugers were Main Street jewelers who catered to the carriage trade. The brothers were eager to reunite with their sister, brother-in-law, and nephews.

On Jan. 31, 1911, in a telegram on file at the American Jewish Historical Society in Manhattan, Simon instructed the IRO’s New York office: “Please send at once Sam Zalewisky [sic] and family, relatives able to provide work, but cannot contribute toward transportation. . . . If it is possible for you to send him I believe it will be desirable.”

In Fort Worth, Sam Zalefsky is remembered as the Yiddish-speaking immigrant who painted the interior of Congregation Ahavath Sholom, the Orthodox synagogue then located at 819 Taylor St. The house painter’s young sons helped support the family by selling chewing gum, making buttons, and digging up sand, sometimes earning $3 a week.

Though poor, the Zalefsky family had a pushke, Yiddish for a charity box that they filled with extra coins to help those even less fortunate. After seventh grade, Morris dropped out of school and went to work at his uncle Sam Kruger’s store at 1309 Main St., polishing fingerprints from watches on display.

Oil was discovered in 1918 on ranch land surrounding Burkburnett. Nearby Wichita Falls, a railroad center, grew into a boom town. Jeweler Sam Kruger was offered the city’s lucrative Hamilton watch franchise. In those days, train conductors proudly consulted Hamilton pocket watches, the most technically advanced timekeepers made in the U.S. For safety’s sake, their pocket watches had to be precisely on time, regularly cleaned, and professionally wound once a week.

When Kruger jewelers moved to Wichita Falls, the Zalefsky family followed. Morris worked for his uncle in 1919 and in 1922 managed a branch store in Burkburnett. That’s when Morris Bernard Zalefsky changed his name to a more American-sounding moniker —M.B. Zale.

Ready to be his own boss, in 1923 M.B. rented space inside a drugstore in Graham, 60 miles south of Wichita Falls. He might have remained, but on Oct. 19, 1923, the Ku Klux Klan staged a parade, a rally and a cross-burning across the street from the boarding house where he lived. The only Jew in town, M.B. moved out. He returned to Wichita Falls where his uncle was moving from a small jewelry shop into a larger storefront. M.B. subleased the old location.

With his younger brother William as marketing manager, the boys launched Zale Jewelry Co. on March 29, 1924. Their business plan was far different than their uncle’s, whose wealthy customers paid full price at the time of purchase. The brothers saw promise in attracting oilfield roughnecks, ranch hands, and schoolteachers. To bring luxury to the masses, they introduced to the jewelry trade the concept of lay away. Customers paid as little as a dollar down and a dollar a week for gold watches and sparkling diamond rings. “Buy them now — Pay later,” Zale’s advertised in the Wichita Daily Times.

By the 1980s, Zale Jewelry Co. had expanded worldwide to 1,500 stores. In 1986, a rival corporation engineered a hostile takeover. The Zale name remained, but the family was no longer part of the business.

The Zales continued to control the M.B. & Edna Zale Foundation, which had begun in 1951 and today has assets of more than $30 million. The family foundation focuses on innovative programs that feed the hungry, help the homeless, provide healthcare, educate minorities, and assist the disenfranchised.

The Zale boys, who came to Texas with $22 train tickets from a New York nonprofit, proved to be diamonds in the rough.

Hollace Ava Weiner, a former Star-Telegram reporter, is an author, archivist and director of the Fort Worth Jewish Archives.