Person:John Sharp (80)

Information on John Sharp

From "William Sharp Sr. = Pocahontas County Pioneer", by Rebecca Ann Sharp:

JOHN SHARP John Sharp, son of Wm. Jr. and grandson of Wm. Sr., married Sarah Johnson on June 3, 1845. Sarah was the daughter of William Johnson (b. 1799) who married Mary Lamb in 1818. Sarah also had a sister Susan who married Marcus Waugh. Later Marcus & Susan's daughter Mary Jane was to marry John & Sarah's son Hugh Hanson Sharp. William Johnson was the son of James Johnson & Elizabeth Hughes who married in 1795. James Johnson was the son of Pocahontas Pioneer, John Johnson (1734-1826) whose wife was thought to be a daughter of yet another famed Pocahontas Pioneer James Ewing. Ewing decendants & their many allied families migrated from Pocahontas County in the early 1800s to Gallia County Ohio, where decendants are credited with establishing the towns of Vinton and Ewington. James Johnson's Ewing wife died relatively young, leaving him with seven children. James Johnson employed Elizabeth Auldridge as a governess to care for his children and later they were married. Elizabeth was a widow who came to America with her 10-yr. old son William Tilson Auldridge, with James Johnson having advertised and paid for their passage. Most Auldridges in Pocahontas County can trace their ancestry to William T. Auldridge. Elizabeth lived to be 114 years old and was buried in an old cemetery on Jerico Road (believed to be where the old rock quarry is located).

John Sharp and Sarah Johnson built a log home on the old estate of Wm. Jr., but later bought land on Jerico Road (from the William Ewing II estate, a son of "Indian John" Ewing, who died without children) and moved there. John & Sarah had a son they named William Ewing Sharp, who later lived in the old log home they had built before building his own new home nearby. John Sharp was among other things a "moonshiner" or whiskey maker and had a license to make whiskey before the days of Prohibition. This was apparently to become a family tradition, as his son David was also a whiskey maker - apparently before & during prohibition - and then David's son Clifford carried on the tradition during prohibition. There are those today who would like to get their hands on that "old family recipe". John & Sarah are buried at their homestead in the Sharp Cemetery on Jerico Road. The first burial in this cemetery was an infant of their daughter Susan E. Sharp, who was buried by Susan's brother James. This infant's grave is marked by stones and is located at the foot of John & Sarah's grave facing north- south versus east-west as are the remaining graves. Susan's grave is nearby, with the stone marked only "Mother".

John & Sarah had nine children as follows: (1) William Ewing Sharp (Laury Ann Malcomb) (2)Henry D. Sharp (Elizabeth Moore) (3) Hugh Hanson Sharp (Mary Jane Waugh) (4) Mary Sharp ( William Dilley, son of Henry & Margaret Sharp Dilley) (5) Martha Jane Sharp (James Wilfong) (6) Nancy Ann Sharp (Noah Wilfong) (7) David Warwick Sharp (Amanda Beverage) (8) Susan E Sharp b. 2/12/1866 (Amaziah Irvine) (9) James Alexander Sharp (Eleanor Wilfong).

Source: http://files.usgwarchives.org/wv/pocahontas/bios/wmsharpsr-bio.txt