Records from the Andrew Bell Cobb Family and the Howell Family now open to researchers

Two collections of papers related to longtime Morris County families were recently processed are now open to researchers. The Andrew Bell Cobb Family Papers concern the business and social affairs of a well-known Morris County family. Andrew B. Cobb (1804-1873) was an iron manufacturer, farmer, politician, and judge who maintained the family’s substantial farm in Parsippany. The papers date from 1791-1961 and include personal correspondence and photographs from his family, as well as the diary of Lemuel Cobb (1762-1831) which details his purchase and operation of the Split Rock iron mine and forge, and his role as a slaveholder.

The Howell Family Papers, 1770-1948, document several members of the prominent Morris County family and their lives in Littleton Village (near modern-day Routes 10 and 202). Among the records are journals and correspondence that refer to life on the family farm, the Morristown Baptist Church, studying to become a teacher at the State Normal School in Trenton, discussions around slavery, and visits to the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum. Finding aids to both collections are available on our website, and the papers are open to researchers in the History Center’s reading room.