About
The author and webmaster, Ralph D. Roe, who created this website biography of Asa Hartshorn, is one of his many descendants – specifically one of his great-grandchildren. He is fascinated by the exploits of this courageous Forty-Niner. Retirement has allowed the considerable time necessary for research and website construction. Living in California in or near the Gold Country for some 40 years has fostered inspiration.
The author’s four siblings and I, as well as our Mother, grew up on Asa Hartshorn’s Homestead farm in Lebanon Center, a hamlet near Lebanon NY, in Madison County, which Asa bought in 1864 and my parents sold in 1947. Hired workers became too difficult to find in the aftermath of the post-WWII growth in manufacturing. A five-day week is much more appealing than a seven-day week, with long hours and no vacations, spent dairy farming. None of the siblings was interested in the low pay and uncertain economic future that was characteristic of the farming economy from post-WWII through the mid-1950’s.
Today, Asa would find that farming, which in his day employed a majority of the population, has shrunk to less than 3% due to the technologies of modern equipment. It was inevitable that the author’s siblings and I would leave farming and venture out into the world as did Asa. But we all stayed in the outside world.
Among the author’s siblings, the result of our low-income childhood environment was the seeking of 2 Master’s degrees, 4 bachelors degrees, and one JC vocational degree. You can tell that we were highly motivated, by our early experiences on the farm, to seek a better lifestyle. However, we all still want to live with land, trees, fresh air, and lots of space, and none of us are “city people”.
The oldest, Richard Roe, left the farm before it was sold in 1947, trained in aircraft instrument maintenance at a local JC, and became a Captain in the Air Force, piloting large cargo planes for the USAF to Germany and later to Japan during the Korean War, then left to become an NDE testing tech (non-destructive testing of critical parts).
The next, Stanley, became a Lt. Col in the US Army. He served at the tail end of the Korean War and was boots on the ground in remote outposts in the Vietnam War. A nearby outpost was run by Capt. Colin Powell. Stan earned a BA and an MBA while in the Army. After retiring from the Army, he became a community college extension programs administrator, finally retiring on a lakefront only a few miles from the former location of Asa’s farm and near Colgate University.
Ralph, the author-webmaster, earned a BSEE and MBA/Finance, and spent 40 years in the high-tech manufacturing industry. He earned the MBA while in a full time career. He started his 40 year career creating test procedures and supervising technicians for rocket navigation systems, next transferred to the Apollo capsule development program. What a change from growing up on a dairy farm. and Asa surely would be shocked. When that project wound down, he worked in other high tech manufacturing firms, moving up to VP Manufacturing, and later in his career, when manufacturing declined, morphed to a Marketing Operations Mgr in Silicon Valley. Over his career, the products he worked on ranged from rockets to helicopters to medical radiotherapy, medical and CO2 lasers, automated test equipment, automatic fax information retrieval systems, voicemail systems, and network data storage systems, while the fast-moving technology advanced. These changes are a result of what is called disruptive technology, the same set of events that happened to Asa with gold, oil drilling, and his farming business. Ralph married a schoolteacher, Eleanor Harmon, perhaps a destiny since his mother, grandmother, and at least two cousins were schoolteachers. They reside in Southwest Virginia mountains in a college city near to a river and lake.
Eleanor Harmon Roe BA, MA, started teaching at age 19 (legal in Illinois after an AA), worked for about 40 years as an elementary school teacher with a focus on teaching reading, but took on added duties such as assistant principal, special ed (including leading the team to manage such students), and still made time to be a mentor presenting the latest developments in reading techniques to other teachers around Silicon Valley. She completed a BA, then an MA in Education, while employed.
James Roe completed a BS in Industrial Distribution, then worked in Finance for Northrup Corporation for many years in Los Angeles, following which he was employed by a Public Utility as an accountant in Costa Mesa, CA, and now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The youngest, Laureen Roe Williams, earned a BA in History, was employed by Xerox and was President of the Wayne Central Girl Scouts, subsequently managed a charity store, and currently resides in Central NY near Colgate University.
Not bad for all the Roe’s starting out in a very rural 2-room grades 1-6 school. No pre-school, no kindergarten available. All have lived to their 80’s or 90’s. This must be derived from the same genes that energized and drove Asa. So, Asa, all of us are very appreciative for your genes and accomplishments as a role model.
How to Contact
You are encouraged to post questions, comments, and especially new information on the Feedback page of this website. New information from descendants of Asa’s Siblings is very, very, welcome, as is information from his descendants. The author-webmaster reviews all the comments prior to posting. Your email address is kept private from the readers of this website. If requested, your input or questions can also be kept private.