Sickbed Tragedies of the Brothers Shortlidge
- Emma Leuschner
- Aug 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 4
The Brothers Shortlidge were all wildly successful. William (1831-1879), Joseph (1832-1911), Swithin (1840-1931), and Evan (1844-1913) all came from a prominent Chester County Quaker family and went on to lead meaningful careers. Dr. Evan Shortlidge served as the Mayor of Wilmington, Delaware; Swithin C. Shortlidge established Media Academy, and Joseph Shortlidge was the principal and founder of the Maplewood Institute at Concordville.
Swithin Shortlidge graduated from Harvard University with honors. After a brief stint in the newspaper business, Swithin began his career as an educator when he founded a boys’ boarding school in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Swithin relocated this school to Media in 1874 and grew the institution to become “one of the most successful institutions in the country … with an enviable reputation as a preparatory school for young men” (The Pittsburgh Post, 2 January 1894). In later years, the Media Academy (also known as Shortlidge Academy) faced financial difficulties due to poor real estate investments, and Swithin lost most of his money.
The first major tragedy of the Shortlidge brothers occurred in the wintery days of December 1893. After only a week of marriage to his 26-year-old bride and second wife, Marie Dixon Jones, Swithin Shortlidge contracted influenza. He battled the illness for the next three weeks. One fateful morning, Swithin mustered the energy to leave the confines of his home for a walk in the crisp winter air, only dressed in his nightshirt. His bride witnessed Swithin wandering from the house and rushed after him, throwing a coat over her shoulders. The couple proceeded to a wooded section of land near the Media Academy known as the Idlewild Woods. What followed next was a frenzy. Gunshots rang out in the woods, capturing the attention of the passersby. Witnesses ran towards the sound of the shots and found Swithin Shortlidge manically splayed over the dead body of his wife, holding an empty six-shot 32-caliber revolver. Marie Jones Shortlidge was shot four times in the head.
Swithin was immediately placed into custody and taken to jail. All the while, Swithin screamed, “Come back to me, Marie! Did I do it? Why did I do it? What have I done?” The consensus was that Swithin was mentally ill, likely due to the misfortunes of his school and personal finances. Swithin attempted suicide in jail the following day and was then transferred to the Norristown Insane Asylum.
Swithin was found not guilty because of insanity in October 1894. Swithin was taken back to the Norristown Insane Asylum following the verdict.
Swithin's older brother, Joseph Shortlidge, founded the Maplewood Institute (also known as the Maplewood Academy) in Concordville in 1862. He was a graduate of Yale University and a lifelong educator, serving at Edwards Institute in New York state and Greenwood Dell Academy along the Brandywine before establishing his private school in Concordville, Pennsylvania. The school, first known as “Concordville Seminary for Young Ladies and Gentlemen,” originally consisted of one brick building on a 5-acre plot of land where the current Concord Township municipal complex is today. The school grew to include a much larger schoolhouse equipped with “modern” methods of heating, lighting, and plumbing. A gymnasium was built adjacent to the schoolhouse by the early 1900s, and the rear of the campus was used for croquet, tennis, football, and baseball. The school attracted students from across the United States and from prominent local families, and in 1909, it transformed into an all-boys preparatory academy.
Much like his younger brother, Joseph’s demise began on a wintery December morning in 1911. After weeks of a prolonged illness resulting in a bedridden state, Joseph arose from his sickbed in the early hours of the day. Dressed in only pajamas, Joseph wandered out of the door and across the farm and woodland towards Markham Village. There he disappeared until a man driving to the Sharpless Creamery in Ward noticed a top hat floating in the shallow waters at Black Dam near the foot of Concord Hill. There, the man discovered the corpse of Joseph Shortlidge floating in the shallow waters. Dr. Horace Darlington, a local Concord physician, examined Joseph’s body to find that his lungs did not contain any water, indicating that his death was not due to drowning. Darlington speculated that a stroke or heart attack caused Joseph’s death, and he merely fell into the waters as a result. Yet, an attack of delirium drove Joseph out of his sickbed and into the woods, not unlike his ill-fated brother years earlier.
The Maplewood Institute fell into rapid decline after the death of its founder and shuttered in the following months. The school building was eventually destroyed, and all that remains of the school is a brick gymnasium now owned by Concord Township.
