Jeffrey Robson Short
Eldest child of John G. Short and Mary Pattullo, born at Woodstock, Ontario, in 1880 and named for his grandmothers' families. He came with his family to Chicago in 1897 and made his life in its suburbs, at La Grange and Winnetka, with his wife Nancy. Brother of Ruth (Short) Ellingwood, he carried Cudge Ellingwood through the Depression and in 1940 backed his Culligan soft-water franchise at Spokane.
Life
- 1880Born18 Aug 1880, Woodstock, Oxford County, Ontario
His birth registration (registered 2 Sep 1880 by his father); "Aug 1880" in the 1900 census.
- 1900LivedChicago, Illinois
"Geoffrey R.," 19, in his parents' household in Hyde Park; an assistant salesman. Came to the United States in 1897.
- 1919LivedLa Grange, Illinois
"Jeff and Nancy were living in LaGrange, Ill. when I first met them in 1919" (Cudge's memoir); later at Winnetka.
documentedprobable
Family
- Father
- Mother
- Spouse
- Nancy Trumbull
Nancy, a sister of Jay Trumbull of the Chicago investment firm of Trumbull and Walton (Cudge's memoir); her maiden name is inferred from her brother's.
documentedprobable
Pedigree
Notes
Brother of Ruth (Short) Ellingwood. Born at Woodstock to John G. Short, then a hardware merchant, and Mary Pattullo, he was named for his two grandmothers, Mary Jeffrey and Jane Robson (record). The family moved to Chicago in 1896-97, and in 1900 he was nineteen and an assistant salesman (record). He stayed in the Chicago area when his parents went west to Spokane.
In Cudge Ellingwood’s memoir he is “Jeff”: living with his wife Nancy at La Grange when Cudge met them in 1919, later in “that beautiful home” at Winnetka; a very good tennis player; the brother-in-law who lent Cudge money for more than a year in the late 1930s and, at Christmas 1939, suggested he look into the Culligan Soft Water Company, in which Nancy’s brother Jay Trumbull had money. “Jeff and I decided to go along with the deal, and we got a franchise,” Cudge recalled; Jeff backed it with working capital, and the Spokane business opened on 15 February 1940. Their children were Marian, who married Stanley Harris, a Seattle banker, and Jeffrey Jr.
Open questions
- His death, and Nancy’s dates.
Pictures
Connections
- In his ancestry
- 4 notable connections →
Every notable ancestor and famous relative that Jeffrey's own ancestors lead to, with the lines drawn down to him.