Elizabeth Runyon Combs was born c 1825 at New Jersey. Elizabeth Runyon Combs was born c 1829 at New Jersey. She was the daughter of
Thomas Combs and
Jemima (Unknown). Elizabeth Runyon Combs married
Henry H. Conover.
Elizabeth Runyon Combs appeared on the census of 10. Jul. 1860 at with her mother, Shrewsbury Twp., Monmouth County, New Jersey; a widow. She died on 4. Feb. 1897.
Death of Mrs. Elizabeth R. C. Conover at New Brunswick
Mrs. Elizabeth Runyon (Combs) Conover, widow of Henry H. Conover and daughter of the late Jemima and Thomas Combs of Red Bank, died suddenly last Thursday at the home of her son-in-law, Dr. C. M. Slack of New Brunswick. She was talking to her daughter when her head suddenly fell back and she expired almost immediately. The funeral was held on Monday from her late residence. She leaves four children, Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Slack; Ella, widow of Edmund Throckmorton of Red Bank; Emily, wife of T. Fosdick James of New York; and Thomas Combs Conover of Franklin Park, N. J.
Mrs. Conover's father, Thomas Combs, was at one time a large property owner in Red Bank, and he also owned a great deal of other real estate. He was a resident of New York and about 1832 he came to Red Bank and boarded at the old hotel which was located where the Allaire house, owned by the late Wm. W. Conover, now stands. The Joseph Wood house adjoining was originally part of the old hotel. Mr. Combs was infatuated with Red Bank and he bought largely of real estate here. He bought from Rice Hetzel the store property at the corner of Broad and Front streets, and he bought the rest of the property on that side of Broad street all the way to the Ludlow property. He also bought property on Front street, including the land where the postoffice building stands, and a strip of property now owned by the Globe hotel.
These purchases of land, as well as those in the country about Red Bank, were made from 1832 to 1834. He built a house, which was then one of the finest in the place, on the site where THE REGISTER office is now located. The site now occupied by the furniture store of Hendrickson & Applegate was used by Mr. Combs as a vegetable garden. For a good many years Mr. Combs kept a general store on the corner of Broad and Front streets. His daughter Elizabeth married Henry H. Conover, son of Barnes B. Conover of Middletown, and a descendant of one of the oldest families of Monmouth county. Mr. Combs took his son-in-law in partnership with him and the firm name was Combs & Conover for many years.
At Mr. Combs's death there was a dispute among the heirs over the property, and a suit to compel the property to be sold was begun. The property was sold in March, 1865. When the Broad street property was laid out in lots before the sale, it was thought that it would sell to better advantage if the lots had a rear entrance, and a twenty-foot alleyway was laid out from Front street to the rear of the last lot of the Combs tract on Broad street. The sale was postponed once or twice and this caused the property to bring lower prices than it might otherwise have done. The value of business property in Red Bank at that time may be estimated from the fact that the two lots on the east side of Broad street, owned by John Sutton, and occupied by him and William T. Corlies, sold for $4,000. At the time of the sale there was a brick building on one of the lots and a frame building on the other. The other business property on Broad street brought proportionate prices.
The property on Front street was bid in for Mr. Combs's widow. This was sold fifteen years ago to J. Holmes and the late Samuel T. Hendrickson. They moved the Combs house to a lot further east on Front street, and put up the present brick building, 100x100 feet. The Combs homestead is the house now occupied by Mrs. Eliza Hendrickson, widow of Charles B. Hendrickson.