| Notes |
- No parents listed in IGI Nov 2004
Adam Shortt was a Prussian soldier originally spelling the name "Kurtz"
Kurtz was an apprenticed weaver in his own country and disliking both master and trade, he ran away to Hanover where he was recruited for soldiering under George III.
After peace was declared, he elected to stay in the new world settling on 300 acres on the High Shore, Sophiasburgh. He changed his name to "Shortt" by translating it in order to get along with his British and American neighbors.
"Shortt" served with the British but left them and made his way through the American lines to New Jersey. He lived there 15 years, working as a weaver.
He left New Jersey about 1800 with his wife, nee Odell, and four children, settling at Green Point on the Bay of Quinte, in Sophiasburgh.
He lived here many years, worked as a weaver until shortly before the death of his 2nd wife. At the time of his death, he was in possession of over 600 acres of land and prosperous.
Adam Shortt, of Green Point, Sophiasburgh Tp., Prince Edward Co., U.C., d. 1854, reportedly aged over 94 years. According to Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte, "The pioneer of the Shortt family - Adam Shortt - was of German birth and extraction. He was born in Strasburg in 1760.... After serving [as an apprentice] three years, weaving cotton, linen and wool, he became a full-fledged journeyman, qualified to earn his living, which he did, travelling from place to place as the exigencies of his vocation demanded. While still a young man he left Germany for America, and arrived, after an eighteen weeks' passage, at New York. This was during the progress of the Revolutionary War, in which he served for some time with the British.... He is next discovered in New Jersey, occupied as a weaver.... There he lived and wove for fifteen years, and acquired a reputation for industry and integrity.... Being in sympathy with a British connection for the colonies ... he left New Jersey about the year 1800, and with his wife ... and four children, came to Prince Edward County. He settled on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, at Green Point, Sophiasburgh. There he built a log house ... situated right at the water's edge.... During the Pioneer's long residence at Green Point his prosperity grew apace; from time to time he bought land, until at his death he had purchased and improved about six hundred acres, which then passed to his sons.... He ... lived to be an extremely old man, having seen his ninety-fourth birthday before the end came. He died in 1854."[38] According to the same source, Adam Shortt m. (2) "a twice widowed woman, n [1]
|
1760 - 1854 (94 years)
