J. L. Weinberg

Jacob “Jake” Libbert Weinberg (1879-1940) was the son of Darlington merchant Abraham Weinberg (1846-1933) and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Iseman Weinberg (1858-1880). He was raised by Rosa Iseman Weinberg (1859-1926) who was both his aunt and stepmother, and likely grew up in his father’s general store. By 1900, Jake set out to establish his own name in the business community by taking a job in traveling sales, and in 1904, he married Elizabeth “Lizzie” Richard (1876-1972), who also grew up in an entrepreneurial family. In the early days of their marriage, the Weinbergs relocated on multiple occasions. In 1910, the US census reported that Jake was working in a dry goods store in Cordele, Georgia and then in 1915 an Omaha directory reveals that both Jake and Lizzie worked at the Burgess-Nash Company department store in Nebraska before Jake briefly turned to car sales around 1920. In 1921, another Omaha directory lists both Jake and Lizzie at their own dry goods store, J. L. Weinberg. However, not long after that they moved to Tampa, Florida and then returned to Darlington in the late 1920s or early 1930s. There, they opened a men’s ready-to-wear store on Public Square before Jake died unexpectedly in 1940.