Hartshorne-Hartshorn Family of Taunton, Massachussetts

Hartshorne-Hartshorn (Taunton families). The Hartshorne family is one of long standing in this country and one of achievement. The name has been a continuous one in the old home town of Reading, Mass., and in that region of country since early in the 17th century, and some years ago some of the land of the original settlers was still in the family name; and in different fields of effort not a few of the name have been men of achievement and of large means. During the struggle of the Colonies for independence the family was well represented in the field, the names of Benjamin, James, Jeremiah, John, Jonathan, Thomas and William appearing on the rolls as from Reading.

One branch of the earlier Reading Hartshorne family, and the one to which this article is more especially directed, found its way into what is now the town of Foxboro, Mass., and a later generation removed to Taunton, Mass., where the name has long been representative of substantial men and women and useful citizenship. Reference is made to some of the posterity of Jeremiah Hartshorne, who was of Foxboro prior to the Revolution, and maybe the Jeremiah whom records of Reading show connected with lengthy service in that struggle. Notably at Taunton have lived and figured in its social and business life the late Charles Warren and George F., sons of the late Jesse Hartshorne, and of a still later generation the late George Trumbull Hartshorne, a liberally educated gentleman, who for a period was an instructor in his alma mater – Harvard – and later an analytic chemist of his native city, in fine, a cultured gentleman prominent in the social life of Taunton.

Thomas Hartshorne, the first of the name of whom we have record, settled early in Reading, Mass., was a freeman in 1648, and served as selectman of the town. The Christian name of his first wife was Susanna. She died in 1659 and he then married (second) Mrs. Sarah, widow of William Lamson, of Ipswich, Mass. His children were:

1. Thomas Hartshorne, born in 1642
2. John Hartshorne, 1650
3. Joseph Hartshorne, 1652
4. Benjamin Hartshorne, 1654
5. Jonathan Hartshorne, 1656
6. David Hartshorne, 1657
7. Susanna Hartshorne, 1659

Benjamin Hartshorne, son of Thomas, born in 1654, married (first) in 1682 Mary, daughter of George Thompson. She died in 1682, and he married (second) in 1684 Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Osgood) Brown. Mr. Hartshorne died in 1694, aged forty years. His children were:

1. Mary Hartshorne, born and died in 1682
2. Benjamin Hartshorne, born in 1685
3. Elizabeth Hartshorne, 1686
4. Hannah Hartshorne, 1689
5. Jonathan Hartshorne, 1690
6. Elizabeth Hartshorne, 1692

Benjamin Hartshorne (2), son of Benjamin and Elizabeth, born in 1685, married in 1716 Elizabeth, daughter of Sergt. James Boutwell, and their children were:

1. Benjamin Hartshorne, born in 1720
2. Jonathan Hartshorne, 1721
3. Elizabeth Hartshorne, 1724
4. James Hartshorne, 1727 (died in 1729)

Benjamin Hartshorne (3), son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Boutwell), born in 1720, married in 1742 Mary, daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah (Burnap) Swain, and their children were:

1. Benjamin Hartshorne, born in 1744
2. Mary Hartshorne, 1746
3. (Deacon) James Hartshorne, 1750
4. William Hartshorne
5. Jonathan Hartshorne
6. Jeremiah Hartshorne, in 1760
7. Mary Hartshorne, 1765
8. Sarah Hartshorne, 1768

Jeremiah Hartshorn (as he spelled the name), son of Benjamin and Mary (Swain), was born in 1760. He and his wife Rebecca lived in Foxboro, Mass., where their son Jesse was born.

Jesse Hartshorn, son of Jeremiah and Rebecca, was born May 17, 1786. He married Priscilla, who was born April 5, 1791, daughter of Abizer Dean. When a young man Jesse Hartshorn entered the service of the Shepards, who were pioneers in the cotton manufacturing business and built what was known as the Green Mill in Taunton, probably the fifth in the country, there being at that time two in Pawtucket, one in Cumberland and one at Warwick. Jesse Hartshorn came to Taunton in 1807 in the employ of the Green Mill Company. In 1813, he with Robert Dean and some others formed a company and built a mill in the east part of Taunton, and Mr. Hartshorn became superintendent and agent of the company. In 1819 he built and equipped a mill at Falls of Tarboro, N. C, and later built and organized other mills at various places including Pawtucket and Blackstone, R. I., and Humphreysville and New London, Conn. About 1813 he returned to Taunton and was in the employ of Crocker, Richardson & Co., until their failure in 1837. In 1840 he took a lease of the cotton and paper mills at Westville where he remained until 1845. In 1846 he entered the service of William Mason & Co., as superintendent of their machine works, remaining with them until 1851, when he retired from active business. The Foxboro records show Mr. Hartshorn officially connected with the public affairs of his town, holding the office of selectman in the early years of the nineteenth century. His death occurred April 2, 1868; his wife survived him many years, dying Jan. 14, 1885. Their children were:

1. Charles Warren Hartshorn, born Oct. 8, 1814, and died March 31, 1893
2. Mary Leonard Hartshorn, born April 25, 1818, and died in April, 1885
3. George Franklin Hartshorn, born Sept. 27, 1826, and died in 1901
4. Martha E. Hartshorn, born Dec. 31, 1830, and died June 8, 1900

George Franklin Hartshorn, son of Jesse and Priscilla (Dean) Hartshorn, was born in Taunton, Mass., Sept. 27, 1826. He was educated at the Bristol Academy, which he attended from 1836 to 1843. In the latter year he entered the employ of Bates, Turner & Co., importers and jobbers in Boston, Mass., but remained with them only a year, in 1845 going to New York City as a clerk in the commission house of William F. Mott, Jr. In 1848 he went to Worcester, Mass., where until 1856 he was engaged as cashier of the Central Bank. Mr. Hartshorn was one of the first manufacturers of machine-made envelopes in the country, buying the patent of the inventor. He resigned his cashiership to engage in this business, but was reappointed to it in 1859 and served until 1862, retaining his interest in the envelope business, which grew to large proportions, until 1865. Mr. Hartshorn left Worcester in 1867, and resided in Taunton until 1873, then in Quincy until 1878, in Cambridge until 1885, and from that date up to the time of his death in 1901, in Taunton. Mr. Hartshorn married, July 18, 1855, Isabella Frink, daughter of George A. Trumbull of Worcester, Mass. Their only son, George Trumbull, was born in Worcester, Oct. 20, 1860.

George Trumbull Hartshorn, only son of George Franklin and Isabelle Frink (Trumbull) Hartshorn, was born Oct. 20, 1860, in Taunton, Mass., descending from a number of old Taunton families among them the Deans and the Leonards. He was educated at Adams Academy, Quincy, Mass., and at Harvard University, always taking a high rank as a scholar, particularly in chemistry, in which he was deeply interested. At the conclusion of his college course he was for some time an instructor in the chemistry department of the university.

At the close of his term as a college instructor, Mr. Hartshorn came to Taunton, making his home with his parents, and followed the profession of an analytical chemist, his work being as much a pleasure as a profitable undertaking. He was also deeply interested in music, was a splendid performer on the violon-cello, and his home was always regarded as one of the central points in musical and social life in Taunton. Some years later, owing to the illness of his father, the consequent cares of the management of a large estate engrossed the larger portion of his time, and this he continued to look after until within a few years of his death. He purchased the ancestral acres on Dean street and there fitted up for himself and family a beautiful country place, amply adequate for all the enjoyments of life, but which he himself was destined only to enjoy for a short time.

Mr. Hartshorn married some years before his death Miss Alice Roberts, of Cambridge, who survives him as does one son George Dean Hartshorn, who was born April 3, 1894. He was actively interested in social life in Taunton and prominent in it. Up to 1895 he had been secretary of the Segregansett Country Club from its formation, and had a lively part in making it the success that it proved to be. A gentleman, a scholar, a hearty, whole-souled friend, a good husband and father, who found his greatest pleasures in a quiet studious home life, and in the entertainment of his friends with unstinted hospitality, his death was sincerely mourned by a large circle. This event occurred Aug. 22, 1905, at his home on Dean street, Taunton, Massachusetts.