Biography

1850 -

The son of William Hamilton and Emmeline Davis Shortt of Sugar Grove, Warren County, Senator Shortt was born March 10, 1850, in Youngsville, Warren County, Pa.; educated in public schools; the State Normal School; and afterward he held several clerkships and eventually pursued merchandising, up to 1877, when he was chosen cashier of his father’s Sugar Grove Savings Bank, which position he served as president after his political career.  He was elected alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1880; served in the state House of Representatives, 1833; and was elected to the Senate in 1894.
From the authors of the Sugar Grove Twp. page, an interesting anecdote:
Mr. F.A. Schoonover was a director of the bank for nearly half a century.  He remembered Charles McKendrie Shortt as a man of character and integrity.  “Charley Shortt did a lot of good people never knew about,” Mr. Schoonover said.  “For example, before Christmas he’d come into the stores and say: ‘Do you know of any poor families who don’t have much to eat?’  Then on Christmas morning or the day before, these people would be delivered a bushel basket of groceries.  They never knew who sent them.” 
When he retired, Charles Shortt held 60% interest in the bank, and he sold a large part of it to the Warren Savings Bank.  The other stock was held by area residents.  In 1952, all of the assets of the Sugar Grove Bank were acquired by the Warren Bank & Trust Company, and it was thereafter operated as a branch bank.