Manuscript Group 1323, Lehlbach-Smith Family (Newark, NJ) Papers, 1870 – 1970 (Bulk dates: 1919 – 1970)

Archives Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs

Manuscript Group 1323, Lehlbach-Smith Family (Newark, NJ)

Papers, 1870 – 1970 (Bulk dates: 1919 – 1970), 1 linear foot / 2 boxes

Call Number: MG 1323

Summary

• Biographical  Note

• Provenance Note

• Scope and Content Note

• Folder List

Summary:

Manuscript and printed material relating to the Lehlbach family of Newark, New Jersey.  Items include a Bible, wedding gift book, World War I letters by Mills Reed Smith, uncle of the donor.

Gift of Anna T. Lehlbach,  1990.

Biographical Note:

The Lehlbachs were a prominent family in Newark, New Jersey.  Herman Lehlbach (1845-1904) was a New Jersey Congressman from 1885-1891. Herman and his wife, Gertrude Milton Baldwin, had five children: Herman Baldwin, Frederick August, Milton, Gertrude, and Elizabeth Eleanor.

Herman B. Lehlbach (1872-1949) became a civil engineer in East Orange, New Jersey and was a faculty member at New York Law School.  Frederick A. Lehlbach (1875-1946) was a city attorney in Newark.  He married Anna Adele Doremus (b. 1877), also of Newark, on October 19, 1909.  The couple had two daughters, Anna Therese born in 1912 and Adele born in 1917.

Sources:

Frances M. Lehlbach Biography File, The New Jersey Historical Society.

Herman B. Lehlbach Biography File, The New Jersey Historical Society.

History of the City of Newark, Vol III. (The Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York, 1913).

Lehlbach Family File, The New Jersey Historical Society

Provenance Note:

Gift of Anna T. Lehlbach, July 1990.

Scope and Content Note:

The collection contains letters, photographs, postcards, and other papers and material belonging to Adele Doremus Lehlbach and her sister and brother-in-law, Florence Doremus Smith and Mills Reed Smith.  This collection, which dates from 1870 to 1970, measures one linear foot and is stored in two boxes.  The collection has been arranged into the following series: Series I: Adele Lehlbach, and Series II: Florence Doremus Smith and Mills Reed Smith.  The items have been arranged by type and then within each folder by date.

Series I has souvenirs from Adele’s marriage to Frederick A. Lehlbach in 1909 and a few miscellaneous bills and receipts.  Wedding items include a copy of their invitation and the copper engraving plate from Tiffany’s used to make the card.  There is also an itinerary of the wedding trip to Washington D.C. and Virginia, and souvenir brochures from the hotels and places visited on the trip.  In this series are also bills, receipts and other papers belonging to Adele Lehlbach.  Finally, there is a German-language bible owned by Adele and Florence’s Great Aunt Lora (Eleanora) Lehlbach.  Family information, a copy of which can be found in the Doremus family file, is included in the bible.

Series II consists mostly of letters written to or by Florence and Mills Smith.  Some are from Mills Reed Smith to Florence written while he was in France in 1919 for the National Work Council of the International Committee of the YMCA.  The bulk of the correspondence is from friends of the Smiths in France.  Most of the letters are from Helene de Givry, and in them she writes about the weather, her garden, and relatives and friends.  Some of the early letters are in French.  There are two letters written by Mills Reed Smith while visiting France in 1919.  Also included in this series is a letter of condolence written in 1892 to Mrs. William Smith of South Evanston, Illinois.  The message is signed the “Blue Monday Club” and relates to the death of William Smith who was probably Mills Reed’s father.  Series II contains two folders of postcards from France and papers relating to Mills Reed’s 1919 stay in France.  Among them are a ration book and various papers issued by the National War Work Council International Committee of the YMCA.

Folder List:

Processed by Alicia Santoliquido, July 2001

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