The Parsippany Cobbs trace their lineage to Henry Cobb (b.1596) of Kent, England who emigrated to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1631 where he became a Congregationalist and senior deacon. Henry married Patience Hurst (b.1610) that same year and among their descendants was Ebenezer Cobb (1694-1770) who was born in Taunton, Massachusetts and settled in Hanover, New Jersey where in 1717 he married Mehitable Robinson (1695-1781) and they had nine children, including Edward Cobb (1731-1813), who was the father of Lemuel B. Cobb (1762-1831) the great grandfather of Andrew L. Cobb (1867-1922) of Parsippany.
Members of the Cobb family were associated with the iron industry as far back as 1639 when they operated a bloomery and forge in conjunction with a large mine. John Bowers Cobb (1784-1849) partnered with Thomas Brown to purchase an iron mine in Rockaway, NJ which also contained a charcoal yard, dam, and pond. According to Sarah DeHart Condit’s 1915 family history, “One said that anyone with Cobb blood, or even related to them by marriage, eventually became an iron merchant.”
John Cobb married Rhoda Smith of Troy and they lived in Rockaway where they raised a family and attended church in Hanover where the children were baptized. John’s brother Thomas Cobb was the grandfather of George T. Cobb, who was a twice-elected state senator and three-term mayor of Morristown.
John and Rhoda’s descendants continued to operate the mine and forge until it closed in 1860. Their grandson, John A. Cobb (1810-1880) inherited the family farm which he maintained until his death at age 70 in 1880; having never married, John’s property passed to his sisters Ann Condit and Eliza H. Cobb. Eliza Cobb lived in the 1783 home located at 469 Troy Road until it was destroyed by fire in 1900; she rebuilt it and lived on the property until her death in 1902.
Lemuel Cobb was born in 1762 to Edward Cobb and Elizabeth Bowers and lived on his family’s Parsippany farm. He worked as a civil engineer and surveyor, as well as serving as a judge and as a member of the board of proprietors. Lemuel was husband to Mary Smith, Susan Farrand, and Elizabeth Lindsley Shaw.
Mary "Polly" Smith (1768-1792) married Lemuel Cobb ca.1789 and they produced two children: Gabriel "Smith" Cobb (b. 1791) and Elizabeth Cobb (b.1790). After Mary's death in 1792, Lemuel was left to raise his two young children alone until 1796 when he married his second wife, Susan Farrand (1773-1816). Susan and Lemuel Cobb had five children together: Alexander (1803-1803), Charles Farrand (1800-1817), Mary "Maria" Caroline (1798-1826), Julia Anne, and Andrew Bell (1804-1873). After Susan Farrand's death in 1816, Lemuel married his third wife, Elizabeth Lindsley Shaw (1775-1858) in 1819 and they produced no issue.
Over the course of his life, Lemuel managed the farm with the assistance of numerous enslaved and paid employees. His journals mention instances where he left town in search of escaped slaves, and the subsequent prosecution of those who offered them sanctuary. These entries also document Lemuel’s extensive travel related to his work in land surveying, and his purchase and management of the Split Rock iron mine and forge.
On November 14, 1809, Lemuel Cobb was one of several men who incorporated the Parsippany and Rockaway Turnpike Company; constructing a road from Pine Brook through Boudinot Meadows, Troy, Parsippany, Denville, Rockaway, and across the mountain to Mount Pleasant before joining up with the Union Turnpike. After it was abandoned in 1822, the Turnpike became a public road and in 1838 it was designated as Route 6, before being widened in 1853 and renamed Route 46.
Andrew Bell Cobb was born in Parsippany to Lemuel Bowers Cobb (1762-1831) and Susan Farrand (1764-1816). He married Elizabeth Farrand Kirkpatrick (1799-1857) and together they raised a daughter Julia K. Cobb (1821-1894) until Elizabeth’s death in 1857. Andrew married his second wife Frances Electa Condit (1837-1920) in 1866 and they had two children, Andrew Lemuel Cobb (1867-1922) and Elizabeth C. Cobb (1868-1953).
Andrew Cobb cared for the family’s large farm in Parsippany and was also an iron manufacturer that operated a furnace at Split Rock, and his business was successful enough to support a housekeeper, domestic servant, and farm hands who all lived on the property. The 1860 federal census valued Andrew’s property at $200,000, or approximately $6.9 million in 2023 dollars. In later life, Andrew served as a Whig politician and judge.
Elizabeth Farrand Kirkpatrick was born in Basking Ridge, New Jersey to David Kirkpatrick (1758-1828) and Mary Farrand (1771-1805), who also raised three sons, Walter Eugene Kirkpatrick (1795-1841), Hugh Kirkpatrick (1797-1860), and Samuel Kirkpatrick (b.1802).
Frances Electa Condit was born to Nathaniel Ogden Condit (1789-1862) and Mary Ann Bedford (1804-1894), and they also had twelve other children: Susan (1822-1890), Isaac (1811-1812), Timothy (1813-1842), Stephen (1815-1839), Mary Ann (1818-1866), Elizabeth C. (1820-1847), Sarah (1824-1903), Charles (1827-1860), Theresa (1833-1901), Melvin Smith (1834-1913), Abby (1836-1837), and Alice (1844-1905).
After Frances was widowed by Andrew’s death in 1873, she continued raising their children Andrew L. and Elizabeth C., as well as her step-daughter Julia. Her two children remained on the family homestead as adults; Andrew with his family until the 1910s, and Elizabeth until her mother’s death at which time she retained ownership of the house.
Andrew B. Cobb and Elizabeth Farrand’s only child together was Julia K. Cobb, who was born in 1842 and, after her mother’s death in 1857, was raised by Andrew’s second wife, Frances E. Condit. Julia married Frederick A. Demott in 1866 but the couple produced no children before Frederick’s death at sea in 1879. Julia married her second husband, Stephen Guerin in 1881 and they had one daughter, Julia Guerin in 1882.
Upon her father's death, Julia inherited Andrew B. Cobb's piano, the Kirkpatrick silverware, and 2,500 acres of land in Hamilton County Texas. He also left certain lands in Morris County to Julia and her husband Frederick Demott for them to live on and collect rents from.
The only son of Andrew Bell and Frances Condit Cobb, Andrew L. Cobb was born in Hanover Township on September 5, 1867 and attended school in South Williamstown Massachusetts where he graduated in 1887. Andrew inherited the family estate and managed the farm as one of New Jersey’s leading agriculturalists. He was also Director of the First National Bank of Morristown and Director of the Children’s home.
Andrew was described as, “scrupulously honorable in all his dealings with mankind” and “had a host of friends who respected him for his many notable qualities.” Andrew L. Cobb died on July 27, 1927 from a fractured skull that he suffered while attempting to fix one of the lines on a team of horses after one of the animals became frightened and kicked Mr. Cobb. He was rushed to Morristown Memorial Hospital but failed to regain consciousness.
Andrew L. Cobb, Jr. was born in 1895 to Andrew Lemuel Cobb, Sr. (1867-1922) and Mary Righter Cobb (b.1870) on the family’s Parsippany homestead known as Cobb’s Corner. Andrew Lemuel Cobb, Jr. grew up with siblings Marion Righter (1895-1995), Frances Condit (1908-1985), and Elizabeth Condit (1868-1953).
Andrew, Jr. married Gertrude Roe McEwan (1901-1967) in 1928 and together they had two children, Andrew L. Cobb, III (b.1929) and Leyland McEwan Cobb (b.1934). During their early marriage, Andrew and Gertrude lived in Mountain Lakes and Whippany, while Andrew worked as a dairy farmer, and later a salesman at McEwan Paper Mill, in addition to his service abroad in World War I. Andrew, Jr. graduated from Princeton University in 1922.
Andrew L. Cobb, Jr. ultimately pursued a career related to the family businesses in transportation and iron when he rose to the position as Chair of the Morristown and Erie Railroad. In his spare time, Andrew was an amateur historian who collected various artifacts that were later donated to Princeton and Rutgers Universities, as well as Morristown National Historic Park.
Andrew served as secretary of the Jockey Hollow chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and was a trustee of Morris County Children’s Home, and board member of the YMCA. He served in the National Guard during World War I and graduated from Princeton University in 1922.
Andrew L. Cobb, III was born to Andrew Lemuel Cobb, Jr. and Gertrude Rose McEwan (1901-1967) in 1929, and his sibling Leland McEwan Cobb was born in 1934. Andrew, III graduated from Princeton University in 1951 and was a veteran of the 82nd Airborne in Korea.
Cobb worked as a specialist at New Jersey Bell prior to assuming the role of President of the Morristown and Erie Railroad in 1961. Andrew’s mother was a member of the McEwan family whose management of the Railroad dated back to its founding when they were heavily involved in the region’s papermaking industry. In 1969, Andrew Cobb, III was appointed to the board of City Federal Savings of Whippany.
Both the Cobb and Righter families have long associations with the Parsippany area, and the two familes eventually became related through marriage. During the 19th century the intersection of Parsippany Boulevard and Route 46 was known as Smith’s Corner and it served as the center of town. Smith's Corner featured a hotel and three other landmark buildings: the Parsippany Methodist Church, the old orphanage, and the schoolhouse. Three hotels were built around Smith’s Corner beginning in 1853 in order to meet the needs of the area’s many visitors; the Parsippany Hotel, as well as two others owned by C.H. Righter. After Andrew Bell Cobb acquired Righter’s hotels in the 1860s the location came to be known as Cobb’s Corner.
Parsippany’s library operated from land on Cobb’s Corner, as did Town Hall, Sarah Card’s Country Store, the police station, clerk’s office, and judge’s chambers. The current shopping center was constructed in the mid-twentieth century. The 1732 Righter House is a Federal-style wood clapboard structure that once served as a stagecoach stop and tavern; it remains standing at the corner of Route 46 and Vail Road where it was moved back from the road a short distance from its original location in 1936.
Private development and public infrastructure projects permanently changed portions of Parsippany during the early- to mid-20th century. Completion of the Jersey City Reservoir in 1902 flooded sections of Old Boonton and Parsippany. Moreover, construction of Routes 80 and 287 in the 1950s levelled large swaths of property, including private homes and Parsippany Methodist Church which stood directly underneath the path of 287.
By the time the town of Parsippany was incorporated in 1928, the Cobb farm comprised 250 acres where the family bred and boarded horses. Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge purchased all the property along Route 46 from Intervale Road to Town Hall as investment and later demolished the Cobb Mansion before gifting the land on which it stood to be used for the new Town Hall.
Sarah DeHart Condit,
Thomas T. Taber,
Morris County Heritage Commission,
Vincent Bello, Patricia Flavelle, Lora Geftic, ed.,
The Cobb Family Papers consist of four record series – I: Cobb Memorabilia and Photographs, II: Miscellaneous Manuscripts, III: Andrew Bell Cobb Papers, and IV: Lemuel Cobb Diary. The collection consists of personal correspondence, family portraits and candid photographs, correspondence related to business matters and the sale of real estate, diplomas and official appointments, estate papers, and various ephemera.
This artificial collection reunites four sets of materials that appear to have originated from the Andrew Bell Cobb family before becoming separated and then donated or sold to the Morristown and Morris Township Library in subsequent years. Although processed as a single collection, the papers are kept within the four record groups as they were originally acquired.
Series I constitutes the second largest volume of material in this collection, and it includes descriptions of the family’s history, several personal letters from the mid- to late-1800s, a small collection of late 19th-century receipts, two pieces of ephemera, and numerous diplomas and certificates bestowed upon members of the Cobb family from around the turn of the 20th century.
The largest group of material from this series consists of approximately sixty photographs, which are mostly studio portraits but also include several candid shots; a number depict what appears to be scenes from the Cobb family farm. Of special note is an oversize photo of Cobb’s Corner (the intersection of current day Route 46 and Parsippany Boulevard) and the Parsippany Methodist Church. Unfortunately, the great majority of these photographs arrived unlabeled and their subjects unknown.
This group of papers was donated to the History Center over the course of several years. They include a family history written in 1915 by Sarah DeHart Condit, a group of estate papers from Andrew B. Cobb, miscellaneous business papers, and a small group of religious and political ephemera.
Of special note is the last will of Andrew B. Cobb that itemizes much of his property, including horses and carriages; silverware, furniture, and clothing; the family homestead including land occupied by renters; Cobb’s iron mines, forges, and related structures in Rockaway, New Jersey; and several thousand acres of land in Hamilton County, Texas.
The History Center acquired the Andrew B. Cobb Papers in 2020 through purchase and this series is the largest of the three. Personal correspondence constitutes the bulk of these materials, although many letters also mention aspects of the family businesses in dairy production, horse breeding, and iron mining.
Various correspondence mention occurrences of epidemic and endemic illnesses common at the time, as well as injuries and the deaths of family and friends. Andrew B. Cobb was unwell during the early 1870s and spent over a year receiving care in Clifton Springs, New York. Letters from his wife Frances “Fannie” Condit describe her handling of his business affairs with the assistance of her brother Melvin “Smith” Condit. “Smith’s” wife Eliza Provost died of typhus in 1871 leaving him to care for their three small children while also running the family farm, which briefly led him to consider giving one or more of them up for adoption.
While some correspondence refers to newsworthy events, most are of a personal nature that reflect the day-to-day lives of an affluent Morris County family and their financial and social obligations. The Cobbs in this line made their wealth through ironworking, dairy farming, horse breeding, and real estate. The Cobbs travelled frequently, often taking the train into Newark, Morristown, or New York City for shopping, business excursions, and social activities. Many members of the family also attended schools in upstate New York or Western Massachusetts, such as Ossining and the Greylock Institute.
A sub-series of real estate papers from the late-1800s and early 1900s refers to a large volume of land in Alabama that Andrew L. Cobb appears to have inherited and that his attorney was actively seeking to sell.
The Lemuel Cobb Diary is a thirteen-volume journal in which Mr. Cobb recorded his business and legal activities, along with some annotations regarding personal matters. Many of the entries refer to Lemuel's work as a surveyor and executor of deeds, and they detail his extensive travel across New Jersey. A number of scraps accompany the thirteen volumes, and they include a copy of the Edward Cobb and Elizabeth Bowers family tree. These fragments appear to have been saved when the diary was disbound and conserved.
Few entries refer to Lemuel's personal life; however, one notable exception is “Fryday 27th April 1792. Buried my beloved wife Polly Smith in the 25th year of her age. I never knew what Trouble was before this time being left with two little infants. Betsy the eldest aged at her mother’s decease 1 year 6 months and 29 days. Smith the youngest aged at his mother’s decease 5 months and one day. Full of Trouble.”
Some entries make reference to Lemuel’s life as a slaveholder: "Sunday 25th (August 1793). At Home. Rainy Day. Bill Run away.” Cobb spent the next ten days searching for Bill, locating him on Sept 5 in “Goshen Goal” -- possibly the town in Cape May County. The journal also documents the enforcement of state laws regarding those who assisted escaped slaves: “Fryday 6th September 1793. Let out after the Negros [sic] who harbored Bill with Adams the Sheff [sic].” One very brief entry mentions the physical punishment imposed on Bill following his capture: “Tuesday 10th. At home. Whipt Bill. Preparing to go to Amboy.”
At least two entries mention the sale of enslaved persons in Morris County: "Monday May 7th 1798 Thomas Kingsland Dr [illegible] Begun this day at noon. To writing a Bill of Sale to Thomson[?] for Negro boys then to M. Farrand Kirkpatrick." And: Saturday 18 June 1803 At home for Peter Righters Negro Bobb £105".
Journal entries from May 1802 onward mention Lemuel Cobb's purchase and management of the Split Rock Mine, which was located about 1,500 feet east of Split Rock Road. Workers descended the iron mine to a depth of 120 feet, and a horizontal distance of about 1,700 feet from around 1800 until it closed in 1881. At its peak, the mine produced 1,300 tons of ore per year, with an average of anywhere between 35 and 400 tons per month.
Other entries of note include plans to sell his house to Howard Hay on March 28, 1795, harvesting timber for the new house in July, and raising the new structure October 19, 1795. That summer, Lemuel also describes Independence Day activities in Morristown that took place on July 4th.
Among the few mentions of family matters in his diary are when his children were home sick with smallpox on April 11, 1797. Lemuel made special note of his wife Susan Farrand giving birth to his third son Charles Farrand Cobb on March 23, 1800; Charles died at age 17 one year after his mother's death.
Related Collections:G 1427,
H 929 COBB,
H929 MSS Condit,
HVFG,
LH0070,
HM9 Cobb,
The Cobb Family Papers consists of four separate collections acquired by the Morristown and Morris Township Library over a period of time. Since these materials originate from the same branch of the Cobb family, the Archivist decided to process them together as a singular collection. He maintained the general organization of the original groups of papers into three distinct series out of respect for their provenance: Cobb Memorabilia and Photographs, Miscellaneous Manuscripts, and Andrew Bell Cobb Papers.
Series I - Cobb Family Memorabilia and Photographs, 1842-1961 is arranged is arranged into six sub-series: Genealogy, Correspondence, Receipts, Ephemera, Photographs, and Diplomas and Appointments. Each sub-series is arranged chronologically except for Diplomas and Appointments which are arranged alphabetically.
Series II - Miscellaneous Manuscripts, 1826-1915 are organized into five sub-series: Genealogy, Estate Papers, Business Records, Ephemera, and Political Ephemera. Within each sub-series the materials are arranged chronologically.
Series III – Andrew Bell Cobb Papers, 1848-1922 are organized into four series: 1. Correspondence, 2. Legal Papers, 3. Real Estate, Alabama, and 4. Ephemera. The materials within each series is arranged chronologically.
Series III, Sub-series 1 is further broken down into seven sub-sub-series: 1. Andrew Bell Cobb Correspondence, 2. Julia K. Cobb Correspondence, 3. Susan Condit Correspondence, 4. Frances E. Cobb Correspondence, 5. Elizabeth Cobb Correspondence, 6. Andrew L. Cobb Correspondence, and 7. Frances C. Cobb Correspondence. Due to the sheer volume and complexity of content inherent to the correspondence in Series III, these are described at the item level, and they are arranged chronologically within each sub-series.
Series IV - Lemuel Cobb Diary, 1791-1817 contains chronological entries; many are brief and most focus on Cobb's business activities. Numerous entries are illegible due to poor penmanship or faded ink.
When the diary was conserved the text blocks were removed from the deteriorating spine and boards and a custom box made to store them. The contents are fragile; therefore, researchers should handle individual volumes with care using a book cradle.
This collection is open for research under the conditions set forth in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center archives access policy. All archival material should be handled with care and kept in its original order; notes may only be taken in pencil or with a computer, and food and drink are prohibited in the Reading Room. Records may be copied for scholarly or personal research using the edge scanner or a digital camera without flash; however, researchers must obtain copyright permission prior to publishing material from the collection.
The Cobb Memorabilia and Photograph series was purchased in 2005. The Miscellaneous Manuscript series consists of various items related to the family that were donated to the History Center over the years. The Andrew Bell Cobb series was purchased from a bookseller in 2020.
Cobb Family Papers, 1791 - 1961, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Processed, described and encoded by Jeffrey V. Moy, Archivist, April 2024.