The Bess Newcomer papers date from 1936 to 1978 and measure 2 linear inches. They consist of her columns and a manuscript of her memoir "My Seventy-Year Affair with the Wabash Railroad." Newcomer wrote columns that were regularly published on the first pages of the Iowa Bureau Farmer from 1941 until 1947. She wrote a regular column, "Rustic Ruminations" for the Iowa Bureau Farmer from 1947 until 1951, when a change in editor took place. The columns were originally kept in a scrapbook that has been disassembled and the articles photocopied for preservation purposes.

The manuscript does not have page numbers until page 131, nor are chapters numbered. Page numbers given here assume sequential pagination. The first folder of the manuscript (pp. 1-57) concerns the history of the Wabash Railroad and the second (pp. 58-154) tells Newcomer family history in the context of the national economy, the history of the Wabash Railroad, Moulton, and family lives of railroad workers. A prospectus, bibliography, reference notes, and list of illustrations are included.  There are no illustrations in the manuscript, however. A few newspaper clippings about Newcomer and photocopies of the chapters she wrote about the Wabash Railroad and the Short and Newcomer Families for a history of Moulton complete the collection.