HENRY COBB

SHERIFF HENRY COBB

1923 - 1927

Henry Cobb, Sheriff of Colbert County, lived most of his life in that section of Alabama. He was a farmer and merchant and became known to the majority of the citizens in that rich and prosperous industrial county as a man to be trusted for his efficient performance in every relationship imposed by duty.

Mr. Cobb was born in McNairy County, Tennessee, December 12, 1863. The Cobb family was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and was established in North Carolina in Colonial times. The grandfather of Sheriff Cobb was John H. Cobb, a native of North Carolina, who as a young man moved west and became one of the pioneer settlers of
Tuscumbia, Alabama. Robert Harvey Cobb, father of Henry Cobb (the sheriff) was born in Tennessee in 1839, and spent his active life as a farmer in McNairy County. He entered the Confederate army when a
comparatively young man, was in service throughout the struggle and in 1865, about the time the war ended, he was killed - being ambushed by bushwhackers six miles north of Corinth, Mississippi. Robert married Miss Sallie Carman, who was born in McNairy County, Tennessee on February 4, 1844. Sallie was left a widow with
two young children - Henry and Alice.

Henry Cobb was only two years old when his father died and he grew up in the home of his uncle, James D. Erwin, at Allsboro in Colbert County. He attended public schools there and assisted in the work of his uncle's farm to the age of twenty-six. After leaving the home of his uncle he engaged in farming for himself in Colbert
County for about six years, and in 1896 he became a merchant at Cherokee, Alabama, conducting a general store at that point until 1922.

Mr. Cobb was elected Sheriff of Colbert County November 4, 1922 and began his term of four years on January 16, 1923. After taking office he had his home in Tuscumbia. He was a democrat and a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Cobb married at Cherokee, Alabama on January 8, 1890 to Miss Fannie E. Carter (daughter of John Henry and Lucy (Weaver) Carter. Sheriff and Mrs. Cobb had two children - Robert H. and Alice Turner.

From letters that Henry's son Robert H. wrote to his father, Mr. Cobb was a very strict, upright man with a very strong sense of right and wrong.

Information above from History of Alabama and Her People, Volume II, 1927, The American Historical Society, Inc.