Charles & Bessie Short, MA

Charles Lewis Short and Bessie Perkins Hilliard were married in Georgetown on Jan. 18, 1897. They moved to Newburyport and lived with his parents a short time, and then purchased a home on Water St, Newburyport.

They raised 2 children, Betsy Hilliard and George Granville Short. Their first child Henry Sewall was stillborn after Bessie fell in the Plum Island Lighthouse inher 9th month, visitng Charles at work at the Plum Island Life Saving Station. 1900.

Oral Tradition tells us that he participated in one of the earliest Sailing races from Marblehead to Nova Scotia when he was 19 years old. He was hired in charge of the crew. They came in 1st place.

Charles worked as a fisherman and clammer, and as a cobbler in shoeshops in Newburyport until a job related accident that caught his hands on fire from the shoe glue and an open flame. He worked for the owner of the shoe shop at his home gardens after his recovery, until retirement as he could no longer work in the Shoeshop.

Bessie worked in her home making linens and lace. She studied the Short and Hilliard genealogy.