tentLy 



CHARLES HARTSHORN 



was born in Lebanon, Madison Co., N. Y., Dec. 6, 1815. His 

 father, Jacob Hartshorn, was a native of Litchfield, Conn., born 

 Oct. 27, 1777, and removed to Madison County while a young 

 man, about 1803, in which year, August 28, he married Jeru- 

 sha Ransom, a native of Colchester, Conn., who was born July 

 15, 1779. 



He resided on the farm, where he was one of the pioneer 

 settlers of the town, until his death in 1850. His main occu- 

 pation was farming, although, through his interest in the great 

 political questions of his time, he was prominently identified in 

 politics, and gained considerable distinction as an advocate in 

 justices' courts under the name of " Pettifogger." 



His children were Philander (deceased), Mary (Mrs. David 

 Madale, deceased), Jane (Mrs. Orson Sheldon, of Hornellsville), 

 Dr. John R. (deceased), Charles, Minerva (Mrs. Bigelow 

 Packer, deceased), Adelia (Mrs. Luke Gr. Maxson, Hornells- 

 ville), and Ira D. (of Friendship, Allegany Co., N. Y.). The 

 mother of these children died in 1855. 



Mr. Charles Hartshorn spent his minority on the farm of his 

 father, and received the advantages only of the common schools 

 of his day for obtaining education from books, but his subse- 

 quent history has fully developed his early business ability and 

 sagacity. 



His time from thirteen to fifteen years he spent with 

 his eldest brother, who was then a merchant at Hornellsville, 

 and at the age of twenty-three he came to the then small village 

 of about seventy houses and three hundred and fffty inhabitant^ 

 to take up his residence, and purchased a one-third interest in 



his brother's farm of two hundred and forty-four acres (including 

 a portion of the present site of Hornellsville), a grist-mill, and 

 saw-mill. After two years he became the sole owner of the 

 property, which he managed until 1850, the date of the com- 

 pletion of the Brie Railway, when the growth of the village 

 required that he should lay out a large part of his farm into 

 village lots, which he did, and has since been largely interested 

 in real estate transactions and building, both within the village 

 and in the adjoining country. 



In the year 1845, March 2, Mr. Hartshorn married Oordelia, 

 eldest daughter of Charles N. and Eliza (Allen) Hart, of Harts- 

 ville, this county, but formerly of Saratoga County. Her father 

 became a resident of this county in 1826. Mrs. Hartshorn was 

 born in 1825. 



They have an only son, Charles Hart Hartshorn. Mr. 

 Hartshorn has led a strictly business life, although ^mewhat 

 active fornaerly as a Whig, but now as a Republican, he has 

 ever been interested in the matters of vital importance to the 

 country. He. has never been solicitous of public preferment, 

 and has only been connected publicly as an excise commissioner 

 under the old law, and for two terms trustee of the village. 



About 1852 was the first organization of the Baptist Church 

 and Society. Mr. Hartshorn, as a member of the latter, in 1856 

 was chairman of the building committee in the erection of the 

 fine brick structure of that denomination in the village, and 

 foremost in support for its construction, and has since not only 

 contributed liberally for that, but all enterprises of a kindred 

 nature in the village. 



