My Genealogy Hound

HENRY SHORT, of East Bangor, Northampton County, Pa., was born August 27, 1828, near Calmford, in the county of Cornwall, England. His father, who in his religious belief was a Methodist, was a shoemaker by trade, and had a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters, for whom he comfortably provided, though he was unable to give them time or opportunity to get such educational advantages as the neighborhood afforded. At an early age Henry began to earn something to help his father, by working in the slate quarries in the neighborhood of his home, where both his parents, Henry and Honor (Brown) Short, were born and lived all their days. All the brothers and sisters of our subject are living, one brother in Australia, a sister in England, and the other two brothers and three sisters in East Bangor.

For more than fifty years Henry Short has been connected with the slate business, and few men in the United States have as thorough and practical a knowledge of the quarrying and manufacturing of slate as he. In 1856, in company with Joseph Bray, a native of the same place, Mr. Short crossed the ocean to look at the region around Pen Argyl, Northampton County, Pa., where he had learned that some extensive beds of slate had been discovered. He found employment very readily among the slate men of the new neighborhood, his expert knowledge of slate formations and of the methods of quarrying, etc., enabling him to be of great service to his employers. In 1857, while prospecting around the hills and valleys beyond Bangor, Northampton County, he saw such indications as, to his practiced eye, were assurances that enormous beds
of slate were awaiting development in the region now known as East Bangor. He talked with his friend Bray on the subject, and the two went together and prospected the region. Their researches confirmed Mr. Short’s first impressions, and they agreed that if capital could be obtained great quarries of splendid slate could be opened there. But at that time it was a hopeless task to endeavor to interest capital in the slate business, and such efforts as they made were without encouragement.

In 1862 Henry Short became interested with Joseph Kellow in an invention connected with blasting powder, and returned to England with him for the purpose of taking out a patent upon it there. In 1863 they formed a powder company, which was very successful, and in 1864 Mr. Short sold out his interest therein for a sufficient amount to give ample funds to return here and open and develop a quarry at the place where he had made his discovery, and of which spot he had never lost sight. He bought a tract of land at East Bangor for $6,000, associated his friend, Joseph Bray, with him in the enterprise, and together they went to work, with a few hands to aid them, developing what in a few years became famous as the Bray & Short Quarry. In 1882 they sold out to the East Bangor Consolidated Slate Company, which was capitalized for $250,000, and which now, in the extent of its operations, number of hands employed, etc., is only rivaled by one slate company in the United States.

The partners retained a considerable interest in the new company, but the death of Mr. Bray in 1889, and Mr. Short’s desire to rest after his labors, induced him to retire from the superintendency of the quarries, in which he still retains a large amount of stock, in addition to several partnership interests in slate and other properties with William Bray, the son of his former partner and the present Secretary and Treasurer of the East Bangor Consolidated Slate Company.

In 1858 Henry Short was married to Miss Cecelia, daughter of John Field, of Devonshire, England, and their pretty and hospitable home at East Bangor is located on an eminence which commands a view of the famous Delaware Water Gap of the Blue Mountains. Here the pioneer of the East Bangor slate region, and one of the fathers of the slate industry in this country, enjoys his well earned leisure from business cares and entertains his numerous personal friends. Attending and supporting the Methodist Church, contributing to religious and charitable enterprises, and taking a lively interest in projects for the benefit of humanity, he and his estimable wife enjoy the respect of all who know them. With a firm belief in the beneficial influence of protection in a growing country, Mr. Short, though abstaining from any active part in politics, has generally supported the Republican ticket. He has a sure conviction, too, that the time is not far distant when large capital will be combined and control the output of the numerous quarries of the country, and that then the slate industry will be the chief of all Pennsylvania’s sources of wealth.