312. Pensacola's Son Motor Company

Updated: Mar 27, 2022

Nathan Anschel Son (1848-1922) immigrated to America from Hamburg, Germany sometime around 1870. The earliest record of his arrival was aboard the SS Cimbria in 1875 although he lists 1870 as his immigration date. He settled in Port Gibson, Mississippi where he married Miss Bertha Abraham (1853-1915). She had arrived from Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany in 1872, the daughter of Heinrich Abraham. The young couple settled in Port Gibson where Nathan opened a dry goods store. By 1910, he had entered the clothing business in New Orleans, LA called N. A. Son & Company. Five years later, his lost his Bertha in 1915 and buried her in the Hebrew Rest Cemetery. In 1921, he returned from New York and moved in with his daughter Beatrice Masur where he died unexpectedly of heart failure the following year.

His son Jacob Anschel Son Sr. (1888–1954) was born on August 16, 1888 in Port Gibson, MS, and came to Pensacola around 1920, just before his father passed away. Before coming to Pensacola he had become the manager of the family clothing store Son & Sons in New Orleans. Upon arriving in Pensacola, Jacob "Jac" opened a Buick automobile dealership called the Son Buick Company located at 217 North Palafox Street. Ironically, a young lady by the name of Lillian R. Jacoby was working in 1919 as a secretary at the nearby Pensacola Buick Company at 209 North Palafox. When Jac showed up the next year, it appears he bought the company where he apparently met Lillian (1897-1962). She was the daughter of Mitchell Jacoby (1855-1913) and Bertha Slager with her father a local wholesale hardware merchant. In 1919, she was living with her widowed mother at 813 South G. Street and married Jacob the following year of 1920. The young couple made their home in "Fisherville" that was a neighborhood located from Cypress Street to Pensacola Bay from "E" Street to "K" Street. By 1927, Jacob and Lillian had moved in with her mother at 813 North "G" Street shortly before she died that same year. By 1940, they had moved into 1408 East Brent Street, valued at $10,000 before eventually moving the business to 2301 West Garden Street.

After the onset of WWII, their son Jac Anschel Son Jr. was a member of the Pensacola High School Class of 1942 and a student of the Riverside Military Academy. But prior to finishing, he enlisted in the US Army on September 18, 1943 and sent to Camp Blanding, Florida for processing. In the meantime, his parents continued to run their automobile dealership until Jacob passed away at home on December 12, 1954 at the age of 66-years old after a lingering illness. He was buried in the Temple Beth-El Cemetery, Pensacola, FL where he was finally joined by Lillian in 1962.