Henry Byram Hoffman was born November 12, 1854, and died at the age of 90 on July 31, 1945. He was a Morristown resident almost all of his life, residing at 17 Western Avenue throughout his adult life. He had a long and successful career as a clothing merchant, and in his retirement was acknowledged as the Morris County historian.
Hoffman attended the old Morris Academy, on South Street, and later Schooley's Mountain Seminary. He was employed by the First National Bank of Morristown for nine years, resigning that position to enter into the clothing and tailoring business, started by his father in 1849. He retired from the clothing business in 1928.
He was an active member of the South Street Presbyterian Church, was one of the original founders of the Market Street Mission, and served on the Board of Trustees of the YMCA. Hoffman also joined the Independent Hose Company No.1 in 1882, where he served as Clerk, Assistant Foreman and Foreman. He was a member of the Exempt Firemen's Association, and he served as Town Alderman. One of his major accomplishments while Town Alderman was the development of Burnham Park.
On his retirement, Hoffman devoted his time to reading the files of old local newspapers kept in the county clerk's office. From these, he hand-copied articles about Morristown, Morris County, and New Jersey history, businesses, and individuals of interest. He also assembled scrapbooks of newspapers articles covering the time period of 1902 to 1945.
The Hoffman Collection is a treasure-trove of often obscure Morristown and Morris County information. The collection contains hand-copied newspaper articles from the Morris County Clerk's Office about the history, businesses, and particular individuals of Morristown, Morris County, and New Jersey as well as newspapers clippings covering the time period of 1902 to 1945.
The Hoffman Collection consists of over 60 notebooks, called memorandum books, and 17 scrapbooks. Three typed transcripts of indexes (two bound, one un-bound) are included in the collection, and 24 reels of microfilm (including indexes) are located in the reading room microfilm cabinets.
The collection of notebooks and scrapbooks is arranged into three series: I. Historical Memorandum Books, II. Interesting Locals Memorandum Books and III. Scrapbooks.
Thirty-four composition books containing handwritten entries copied from
Thirty-four composition books containing handwritten entries copied from
Seventeen scrapbooks containing miscellaneous items, including newspaper clippings, playbills and advertisements from the period 1902-1945. Clippings include local, national and international events that occurred during that time period. This series also includes 4 indexes to the scrapbooks.
This material is open for research without restriction under the conditions of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center archives access policy. Records may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research, however, as with all materials in the History Center, researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection. Original material in the Hoffman Collection may NOT be photocopied. Copies of the notebooks and scrapbooks are available on microfilm. Transcribed indexes may be photocopied, but because this material is a permanent part of the History Center's collections, researchers are advised to photocopy with care, using only the edge copier for bound material.
The bulk of The Hoffman Collection was presented to the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center of the Morristown and Morris Township Library in 1941.
Henry Byram Hoffman Collection. North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, The Morristown and Morris Township Library
Arranged by S. Christine Jochem, 1999; encoded by NJHGC archivists, 2006-2013, 2022.