Moses Newell Combs was born in 1753 in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Lydia Crane. Toward the end of the Revolutionary War, a veteran of “several severe engagements, ” he took up his residence in the village of Newark.
As a tanner and shoemaker, Combs quickly attained success, and with a shipment in 1790 sealskin shoes from his shop to Georgia the export trade of the city of Newark may be said to have started. Although not the first tanner or shoemaker in the community, Combs has been called the “Father of Newark industries, ” for “it was through him that the town’s industrial system was formed”. In later years he received as high as $9, 000 for a single order of shoes, and “silver was showered on him so plentifully, ” he said, that he did not know what to do with it.
The shoe and leather business has always been a basic Newark industry, and many men, such as Luther Goble, later prominent in Newark buisiness life, served their apprenticeship under Combs. In addition to his leather interests Combs was treasurer of the Springfield-Newark Turnpike Company (1806) and one of the founders and directors of the Newark Fire Insurance Company.
Of a philanthropic turn of mind, Combs “strenuously advocated three things many years ahead of his time: emancipation of slaves, temperance and universal education”. In 1794 he opened an evening school for his own and other apprentices, the tuition fee being $2. 50 for each scholar from November to March. This nominal tuition fee was soon abolished and for years Combs supported the institution as a free school. It was in existence as late as 1818 when announcement was made of a “School for Educating the Children of the Poor in Newark, ” with Moses N. Combs as president, one of his sons, David, as treasurer, and another son, Isaac, as a trustee.
The religious interests of Combs were very deep. Differing with Dr. Alexander MacWorter and the majority of the First Presbyterian Church of Newark because of their willingness to accept the “half-way covenant, ” Combs led an exodus from the Newark church to the Presbyterian Church of Orange. Finding the distance to Orange too great, Combs and his associates after several years held services in one of the buildings attached to his tanning plant, and here Combs preached to them. During 1797 he issued a few numbers of a magazine containing a variety of essays on the Bible. His church after some years disintegrated, the members returning to their original Newark communion.
Combs was conceded to have been one of the most valuable citizens of his community in his day. He was also credited for being the first entrepreneur to sell his own leather products beyond the city's borders. He also opened the school in Newark and it was stated that this school “was probably the first night school in the United States, and was one of the first free schools in the country. ”
Combs was a man of strong personality and extreme individuality bordering on eccentricity.
In 1779 Moses Newell Combs married Mary Haynes. She bore him thirteen children.
