John S. Hart, secretary and treasurer of the Racine Woolen Manufacturing Company, was born January 16, 1885, and was the youngest of the three sons of Sands M. and Stella. M. Hart. The eldest brother, Lucius S. Hart, mentioned elsewhere, was accidentally shot while out hunting in California. The second brother, Harold H. Hart, is the president of the Racine Woolen Manufacturing Company. On another page of this work is given a complete history of both the paternal and maternal ancestry.
After leaving the high school John S. Hart entered Dartmouth College, from which he was graduated in 1907. He spent a year and a half in Central America and was engaged in banana cultivation in Costa Rica. Upon his return to the United States he went to Minneapolis, where he became interested in the flour trade as a representative of the Washburn-Crosby Company and later he was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the H. W. Johns-Manville Company, manufacturers of asbestos goods. In 1912 he returned to Racine to join his father and brother on the reorganization and reincorporation of the Racine Woolen Manufacturing Company, of which he became secretary, and following the death of his father in 1915, his brother, H. H. Hart, became president of the company and John S. Hart secretary and treasurer. The two brothers now concentrate their efforts upon the further development and extension of the business which already in its trade relations reaches to all parts of the country. Their specialty is the manufacture of Indian blankets and they sell to Indian traders throughout the entire United States
On the 18th of October, 1909, Mr. Hart was married at St. Paul, Minnesota, to Miss Hannah C. Hall, a daughter of Willis E. and Margaret (Blow) Hall. of Racine, and they now have two children, Willis C. and Margaret E. Mr. Hart, like the others of his family, votes with the Republican Party, believing firmly in the efficacy of its principles as factors in good government. He also holds to the religious faith of his ancestors, being a member of the Baptist church, and his interest in Racine’s welfare is manifest in his membership in the Commercial Club. He is devoted to the city’s upbuilding and improvement along many lines and he maintains the same high standards for which the family has ever stood in public and private relations.