Introduction

Biography

Francis was the son of Is­aac Bur­ton and Ju­lia Ann Knowles.

He gra­du­at­ed from the Wilm­ing­ton Con­fer­ence Aca­de­my (1889) and De­la­ware College (1891), and re­ceived an hon­or­ary Doc­tor of Di­vi­ni­ty de­gree from the Col­lege of Pu­get Sound (1913).

He served pas­tor­ates at the Har­ris­on Street and Ep­worth Church­es, Wil­ming­ton, De­la­ware; First Church, Port­land, Ore­gon; First Church, Salt Lake Ci­ty, Utah; and the First Church, Spo­kane, Wash­ing­ton.

As of 1932, he was a con­gress­man-at-large for the De­la­ware Pro­hi­bi­tion Par­ty.

In se­cu­lar circ­les, Short is per­haps best re­mem­bered as a friend of James Cash Pen­ney, found­er of the Am­er­ican de­part­ment store chain J. C. Pen­ney. When Pen­ney was de­spon­dent ov­er the death of his wife in 1910, Short sug­gest­ed that Pen­ney might try his hand at phil­an­thro­py. Pen­ney went on to es­tab­lish the J. C. Pen­ney Foun­da­tion.

Short’s works inc­lude:

• An After-Thought of Tra­vels in Eu­ro­pe­an and Or­i­en­tal Coun­tries