One of the first things many of us will learn from a new Monmouth County Historical Association exhibit is that we have been saying the Hartshorne surname incorrectly.
The name – originating in Derbyshire, England, and first recorded in 1086 – is pronounced Harts Horne, which means the stag’s horn.
But “Hartshorne: Eight Generations and Their Highlands Estate Called Portland,” tells the story of a family that lived from about 1676 to 1952 on the Portland tract, which at its largest in 1720 was 2,411 acres and ran along Sandy Hook Bay from today’s Atlantic Highlands to Sandy Hook and south to the Navesink River. It included land that is today’s Sandy Hook Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area and Hartshorne Woods Park in Middletown.
“This is a very important exhibition for Monmouth County,” said Linda W. Bricker, historical association president. “Generations of personal papers and objects – the property they owned is so important to Monmouth County.”
The exhibit kicked off with a social Thursday, Oct. 6, at the association headquarters in Freehold. It runs until April 29.
The exhibit includes photographs, along with such items as a circa 1730 to 1740 powder horn, 1736 armchair, 1745 to 1760 bed hangings, 1745 to 1770 petticoat border, 1760 to 1770 Bible and 1854 document box.
“It’s just so amazing to see it all together,” said Mary Minturn Adams, 63, a Hartshorne family member who grew up at Hartshorne Woods on the Portland tract and now lives in upstate New York. “I am very pleased and I think my family would be pleased.”
Richard Hartshorne, the first with the family surname to settle the area, bought the beginnings of the Portland tract in about 1676. Following him were seven generations of Hartshornes, who were farmers, trade ship owners, British loyalists during the Revolutionary War, marine insurers, art collectors and philanthropists.
Adams’ grandmother was Mary “Polly” Hartshorne Noonan, a prominent member of the family. When she died in 1978, she willed many family papers to the association, which she served as a trustee from 1954 to 1975.
“If I knew what I know now, I would have asked a lot of questions (of Grandmother Polly Noonan),” Adams said.
Much of the exhibit is gathered from association papers it received from two Hartshorne family members who lived in Middletown in the Portland tract area: cousins Daniel Ward Seitz, who died in 2008, and Ellen Noonan Adams, who died in 2011. Ellen Noonan Adams is the mother of Mary Minturn Adams.
The Monmouth County Park System, which operates Hartshorne Woods Park, also loaned items to the exhibit.
Seitz left 74 boxes of materials to the association. Joseph Hammond, association curator of museum collections, finished indexing those materials, opening a door for the exhibit, Bricker said.
“It’s always important to tell our stories,” Bricker said.
On the last day of 1952, Richard “Dick” Hartshorne VIII sold the Portland tract – then at its smallest, 330 acres in today’s Hartshorne Woods area – to a group of investors, including Middletown Mayor Lawrence A. Carton, Jr.
The Carton and his wife, Catherine P., took over the main Portland house, which sits overlooking the Navesink River, in 1953. The circa 1830s Portland house remains in the Carton family – now owned by Lawrence and Catherine’s son, former Middletown Mayor Peter, and his wife, Barbara.
“We were lucky enough to grow up there, from ’53 on,” said Peter Carton, who is in his 70s.
Peter Carton lived on the property until he married Barbara in 1964. They took over the Portland house in about 1982. Peter Carton, along with his wife, attended the opening night of the exhibit, saying “it’s very interesting to us.”
“His father (Lawrence Carton) had the foresight. This (Portland house) is something to cherish, not tear it down,” Barbara Carton said.
Portland house has changed over the years and is now 10 rooms over two stories. But it retains the feeling of its 1901 remodeling, according to the historical association. Various other buildings that once composed the main part of the estate remain standing – such as a barn, gardener’s cottage and chauffeur’s cottage – in the Hartshorne Woods area.
But, of what was once the Portland tract, only “one very small lot” remains in Hartshorne family ownership, Hammond said.
Also, because of such areas as Hartshorne Woods Park and Sandy Hook, many acres of the Portland estate remain preserved. “This is public land,” said Lisa Wilson, a historical association trustee.
The Monmouth County Historical Association is at 70 Court St., Freehold; 732-462-1466; www.monmouthhistory.org.
