Hancock County Historical Society
Carthage, IllinoisSiegfried VI
Page 156MAC SHARPE
After several weeks of brave and heroic struggle with the dread malady, which has saddened so many homes and brought grief to so many hearts, Mac Sharpe answered the call of the Master, and passed away at his home near La Crosse, Ill., August 11, 1920, aged 27 years, 5 months and 5 days.
Stricken in his prime, in the fullness of health and strength, with so much to brighten life, so much to hold him here --- the passing of this young man from the home, where his love and care are so sorely needed --- is most deeply deplored, and the universal expressions of sympathy heard on every hand, give evidence of the great regard in which he and his family are held.
Skles McCulloch Sharpe was born March 6, 1893. He first opened his eyes to the light of day in the house --- the room where he has just closed them in dreamless slumber.
He was the beloved and only child of Dennis and Frances M. Sharpe. The beloved and only grandchild of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace McCulloch. The lives of these good people were bound up in his life. He was the object of their deepest devotion and tenderest care, while his affectionate nature responded with love and loyalty to these parents and grandparents, and the breaking of the tie brings such anguish as can only be endured by the help of the great Burden-bearer, in whose care they commit the spirit of their loved one.
Near LaCrosse and in La Harpe, where the family later located, the subject of this sketch was reared. Here he spent a happy, healthy boyhood. During an evangelistic meeting held by Rev. Hunniwell in September, 1905, he made public profession of his faith in Christ, uniting with the Congregational church, and in later years transferred his membership to the Union church with which he has since been identified. Generous, charitable and kind he made many friends as he came to take his part and place in the active duties of life. On October 1, 1914, he was united in marriage to Miss Idella Huston, of Fountain Green, and located on the McCulloch farm near La Crosse, and has since successfully controlled and cultivated the large estate belonging to his father and grandfather, giving evidence of unfailing industry and fine business ability. The brief married life of these young people was a very happy one. It's brightness shadowed for a time as they mourned the passing of their first born baby daughter so dear to both their hearts. The three little ones later welcomed into their home, and who, with the grief-stricken wife survive to mourn the great loss, are yet too young to understand. They are Jack Huston, Robert Dell and Mary Kathryn.
Mac was devoted to his lovely wife and his beautiful children, and to the home where happiness and content had an abiding place. While busily working and planning for these loved ones he was suddenly and severely stricken with typhoid fever. For a time friends were hopeful. The best of medical skill; trained and tender nursing, and all the aid that love could suggest were enlisted in his behalf. But their best endeavors failed to check the ravages of the dire disease which speedily brought his earthly life to its close. In these days of suffering and sadness --- surely no one has been called to give up more than these good people who are bound to this young man by such dear and sacred ties. In the shadow of this great sorrow --- whose coming they cannot understand, their safest, surest comfort is found in the confident trust that their own interests and the interests of their loved one are safe in the keeping of an all-wise Father who guards and guides in the dark as in the light.
