Local History: The Founding Family of Short Hills

As was noted in an earlier article, Stewart Hartshorn improved his father's crude spring roller. In 1864 he received patent number 44,624 for a design introducing the rachet and gravity pawl.

Because of the success of the Hartshorn spring mechanism, largely due to Stewart Hartshorn's marketing savvy, the business grew until the Hartshorn shade crowded all others off the market. With the success of his business, Hartshorn was able to buy land in Short Hills, hire architects to build fine homes to attract like-minded, nature-loving home buyers, and create his "ideal community."

The Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society has an extensive collection of Hartshorn family material, including handwritten notes and poems by Stewart Hartshorn. The society's collection was recently enriched by the donation of two portraits of Stewart Hartshorn's parents, Jacob and Jane Hartshorn, as seen in the photo here.

Hartshorn was born in about 1840 in Tennessee. By the 1850 U.S. Census the Hartshorns were in Dover, Mass., where his father Jacob's occupation was recorded as "farmer." Hartshorn's older brother Samuel was a "machinist" in 185o. An online biography of Hartshorn, written by descendant Derick Hartshorn, says Stewart Hartshorn at 17 years old entered into business with his father, "to begin manufacturing the spring shade roller which had been patented by his father, his uncle, John, and brother, Henry. The business was moved to New York City after the death of his father. The death of his brother left Stewart in control of the company which he would head until his death 77 years later."