INTRODUCTION by Nannie

This is a collection of family records, documents, and papers which may be of interest to members of the families and to others interested in the history of this area in the days since the late 1700’s.

The purpose of this book is to record for the future, ancestral achievements, and standards of behavior and something of the lives of those who have lived before us, so that we may see them as out relatives, with the same strengths, weaknesses, emotions, trials and triumphs as we ourselves have in our present times.  Time cannot dim the recorded luster of ancient names that were honorable and lives that were worthwhile.  The genealogy of mere names and generations is pretty dry reading, but mention of those who have gone before us who were intemperate, quarrelsome, romantic, intellectually gifted, can be of interest.

Genealogical research, meaning the knowledge of one’s family, holds a special and unique fascination for the average person, for within the printed pages we seem to make the personal acquaintance of kindred long dead and are made to feel the continuity of life in a way that strengthens faith in immortality.

The qualities that were best in our ancestors we recognize as best today, and while casting a mantle of forgiveness over all shortcomings, we dwell with pleasure and pride on ancestral courage, patriotism, and fidelity to all that was good.

The Coat of Arms is an interesting part of genealogical research.  Historians tell us that out of the Middle Ages and down through the centuries, to the world today, has come the custom and romantic tradition of the ancestral Coat of Arms.

Many hours have been spent in writing and rewriting, arranging and rearranging this presentation. I fully realize that rhetorically, there are probably many errors, but I hope this fact will be overlooked by those who may be interested, or curious enough to read “Our Family Tree”.

I dedicate this genealogy “SHARP-COATS” collection of dates, pictures, legal papers, facts, etc. to my dear father, ALLEN SHARP, who began working on the Sharp-Coats family tree many years ago.  I also dedicate this book to HOLLIS COATS who has been so helpful in gathering Sharp-Coats data.  Also, my sincere thanks to all Coats-Sharps and others who have helped in any way.

Bernard Shaw once said, “No autobiography is worth a tinker’s dam, because no man will tell the whole truth”.  The trouble with the Irish sage is that he tells too many unvarnished truths regarding each personage of whom he writes.

The work has required a search for the history of quite a few parent families---The CAMPBELLS, SHARPS, COATS, McKELVEYS, HILLS, HEATHS, ERVINS, CANNONS, SWINDELLS, GALEYS, CRUTSINGERS, SIMS, COXS, PRINCES, HORNBEAKS, HIGGS, PASCHALLS, LOWRANCES, EDMONDSONS, and others. It has been a rather tedious and long drawn-out undertaking, however, I have enjoyed the searching in my leisure hours.

this record, the pictures, old deeds and papers, letters from dear friends, school papers, etc. has been compiled primarily for my immediate family, but I would like for other interested relatives to have copies.
( M.C. note: end of INTRODUCTION.)

COAT OF ARMS
Picture of SHARP Coat of Arms, under it, SHARP ARMS- Argent three griffins’ heads earased sable within a bordure azure platee,( No. T1117, Sanson Institute of Heralort Institute of Heraldry) reference source 1/2 REFERENCE SOURCE: Burke, Sir Bernard, General Armory of Great Britain.

Picture of COATS Coat of Arms,under it COATS of Ballathie- or three mascles sable, a chief engrailed azure semme of fleurs-de-lys of the field.
MANTING- azure and or.
CREST- on a wreath of colours, a stag’s head erased proper, charged on the neck with an escarbuncle or.
MOTTO-”Coeur Fidele”. Livery- Dark blue with white piping.
(M.C.’ notes: end of Coat of Arms)


The surname SHARP or SHARPE is said to be of the Anglo-Saxon origin and to have been given to its first bearer as a nickname because of his quick or keen wit.  It is found on ancient records with  several  spellings; SCHARPE, SCHRPPE, SCHARP, SCHARPP, SHARPPE, SHARPE, and SHARP, the last two are those most commonly used in America today.

Families of this name were found in early times in the Counties of Buck, Sussex, Lincoln, York, London, Durham, Lancaster, Fife, Edinburg, Dumfires, Cumberland, Leicester, Rutland, Warwick, Devon, Nottingham and Suffolk.

Records  show that the SHARPS were mostly of the landed gentry and yeomanry of Great Britain.

While it is not entirely clear from which lines of the family in England the first emigrants of the name to America were descended, the Sharps and Sharpes were well represented among the early settlers tin the British Colonies.

Probably the first of the name in America was WILLIAM SHARP, who came to Charles city, VA with his wife, Elizabeth, about 1620. He was the father of ISAAC SHARP, SAMUEL SHARP, probably JUDITH SHARP, and possibly others.

Many of the SHARP name  who settled in America in the 1600’s but left few records of themselves and their families were THOMAS of Boston in 1630, who returned to England soon after; JOHN of Dover in 1633; JOHN of Westerly in 1668; RICHARD of Boston in 1674; CHARLES of New Hampshire in 1684; and JOHN of Cambridge, with his wife, Elizabeth, prior to 1699.

Many other SHARPS migrated to America in the 1700’s. Among the first was THOMAS SHARP of Stratford, Conn., about 1700. In 1701 he married LYDIA DICKINSON by whom he had issue of THOMAS SHARP, MARY SHARP, JOHN SHARP, WILLIAM SHARP and ELIZABETH SHARP.

In 1712 or before, JOHN SHARP(E) and his brother JOSEPH, descendants of the SHARPES of Horton, Yorkshire, England came to America and settled in Penn.  In 1726 JOHN SHARP(E) married ANN BRYAN. They had 6 children: JOHN, ELIZABETH, GEORGE, BENJAMIN, MARY and THOMAS SHARP(E).

About 1730 ISAAC SHARPE emigrated from Ireland to New Jersey. His children were SAMUEL, EDWARD, ANTHONY, MARY, JAIEL, HANNAH, SARAH and ELIZABETH SHARPE.

In the latter half of the 1700’s JAMES SHARP, a descendant of the Horton, England family, came to Virginia. His only son was ROBERT SHARP.

About 1770 Capt. THOMAS SHARP(E)  was living in Virginia, moved later to Kentucky. By his wife, JANE MAXWELL, he was the father of MAXWELL, LEANDER, FEDELIA, SOLOMON, ABSOLOM, LAVINIA, ELEANOR, and CAROLINE.

Scattering westward from the Atlantic States to all parts of the Union, the offspring of these and other branches of more recent arrivals in this county have made a substantial contribution to the rise and development of the American nation.  A sturdy, often long-lived, enterprising, practical, and capable race generally speaking, in many instances of considerable intellectual and cultural accomplishment and sound business judgment, the SHARP(E)S have won notable success as lawyers, businessmen, bankers, soldiers, writers, clergymen and statesmen.

Some of the officers in the Revolutionary War were:
Major ANTHONY SHARP of New Jersey
Brevet Major ELIJAH SHARP of Conn.
Captain JOHN SHARP of Penn.
Captain ANTHONY SHARPE of North Carolina
Captain JOSEPH SHARPE of North Carolina
Surgeon’s Mate JAS. BOYD SHARP of Georgia
Ensign JOHN SHARP of North Carolina

Numerous others of the SHARP name served in the ranks and in the Militia of several states.

Some of the Christian names which have been most favored by past generations of the SHARP family for their male offspring were: JOHN, WILLIAM, JOSEPH, ANTHONY, JAMES, THOMAS, ISAAC, SAMUEL, EDWARD and ROBERT. (Aunt Nannie’s note: Jim, Tom, Sam, Ed, and Bob are all names in our JOSEPH SHARP family.)
(end of media bureau)

THE SHARP FAMILY by Frances Cowles from Newspaper-Ancestors

There were many settlers named SHARP who came from England, Scotland, Sweden, Holland and Ireland to settle in this country. It is rather difficult to tell who came first. The majority of them came from England, and the family there is very old.

The English name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and used to be spelled SCHRAPE and SCHRAPE. Then it became SHARPE and since about the sixteenth century it has been spelled either with or without the final E.

The family increased rapidly and by the time of colonization in America, many SHARPS were ready to seek the new world in the 1600’s.  However, many more SHARPS came to America in the 1700’s than the 1600’s.

One of earliest settlers was ROBERT SHARP of London, who came to Brookline in 1635 in the ship Abigail. He married MARTHA JOHN and was killed by Indians in a fight they had with the colonists in 1676. His children were MARTHA SHARP, WILLIAM SHARP, and ROBERT SHARP.

Another part of the family settled in New England in 1701 when THOMAS SHARP married LYNDA DICKINSON. He was well-to-do and well educated and a citizen of a good deal of prominence and was one of the twenty-eight to whom the General Assembly of Connecticut granted a charter for the new township of Newton. His 5 children were THOMAS, MARY, WILLIAM, JOHN and ELIZABETH. Several of his grandchildren served in the Revolution and  his great-grandson, LUGRAND SHARP, was a great worker among the Methodists of New England and a pioneer in certain parts of Vermont.

The SHARPS in New Jersey were established by WILLIAM and THOMAS SHARP, who came over in the ship Samuel in 1682. They settled at Burlington, N.J.  They came from Oaklane County, Middlesex, England, and brought their families with them.  Their descendants still have in their possession several things which WILLIAM brought with him, among them an old eight-day clock that winds without a key and a two-gallon bottle.

JOHN, JEREMIAH, WILLIAM, THOMAS, SARAH, ELIZABETH, REBECCA and HANNA were the favorite first names among the early SHARPS of New Jersey. They intermarried with the ALLENS, COATES, BRINTNALLS, PAINES, AUSTENS and many others.
 



Shortly (note by MaryCarol - shortly is relative, but not TOO shortly as they were in Gibson county on or just before 1838) before the Civil War there was a wagon train from North Carolina going west to settle on new land and build homes.  They came by way of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and went farther west. (on their way to Ok or MO?)

In Gibson County, Tennessee, near what later became Milan, Tennessee, the wagon master’s wife took sick and died.  They buried her nearby and the wagon master refused to go on.  The entire group disbanded and refused to travel any further.  They bought land and built homes there in Gibson County.  Much later many moved to Weakley County.

Some of the families who were members of this wagon train were COATS, SHARP, HILL, WILLIAMSON, CLAYBROOKS, McKELVY, HORNBEAK, PRICE, etc.

In existence are copies of old deeds for farms and of Old Concord Cemetery as follows:
1862-Deed for land bought from Robertson Anderson by Joseph Sharp ( 38 acres of land, cost $304.00 or $8.00 per acre) Green Hill’s land touched this land on North.  March 3, 1851, Deed for 3 acres of land bought from Robert Anderson for cemetery plot (Old Concord). Armistead Coats land was on the west of cemetery plot.

We visited Old Concord Cemetery, which is located 1 1/2 miles west of Milan and 1/2 mile from the L & N Railroad.  There we saw the tombstones of Joseph Sharp, Jarushia Taylor Sharp (his 2nd wife), the Hills, John and Nancy , many Claybrooks, and many, many other familiar names.

We then drove to Mt. Pleasant Cemetery CME ( Colored Methodist Episcopal Church) west of Milan.  We visited the grave of Nancy Joyce Sharp, first wife of Joseph Sharp.  She was buried in the white section of the cemetery.

THE FOLLOWING IS COPIED FROM A FOOLSCAP PAPER, BADLY WATER STAINED, OWNED BY JOHN W. HILL of Gibson County TN

ELIZABETH SHARP, daughter of JOSEPH and NANCY SHARP was born on the 11th of February, 1829. (M.C.’s note:  “Betsy” m. William McNairy “Mac” COATS, son of Armistead COATS)

JANE SHARP, daughter of JOSEPH and NANCY SHARP was born on the 9th day of October, 1830 or 1831? (M.C.’s note: Jane m. John HILL, grandparents to Mr. J.W. Hill in following newspaper article.)

JAMES HAMILTON SHARP, son of JOSEPH and NANCY SHARP, was born on the 5th day of January, 1833. (M.C.’s note: “Jim” m. Sarah “Sallie”Louisa COATS, daughter of Armistead COATS.) Jim Sharp father of Allen Sharp and grandfather of Nannie Sharp Campbell, author of this book)

JOSEPH W. SHARP, son of JOSEPH and NANCY SHARP, was born on the 21st of July, 1834. (M.C.’s note: he never married)

SAMUEL HOUSTON SHARP, son of JOSEPH and NANCY SHARP, was born on the 25th day of November, 1836.  (M.C.’s note: “SAM” m. Martha J. ERVIN)

NANCY SHARP, wife of JOSEPH SHARP, died on the 30th day of August, 1838.

SARA ANN SHARP, daughter of JOSEPH and RUSHIA (Jarushia) SHARP (2nd wife of Joseph) was born on the 18th of _______(?  water stained).

LUCY, Negro girl, was born on the 18th day of December, 1848.

(M.C.’s note: 1 child is missing from above list, may have been born before Elizabeth, Thomas SHARP m. ? TAYLOR)

Aunt Nannie Sharp Campbell has two newspaper articles with pictures of John W. Will written by Sharon Hendrix for the Mirror. I assume this is/was a Gibson County newspaper. MaryCarol.

#1 picture of Mr. Hill holding receipt for taxes: “GIBSON COUNTY TAXES on 100 acres of land was $2.49 in 1843, according to this receipt made to Joseph Sharp, Mr. Hill’s great-grandfather.  The Sharps were headed west in covered wagons when they decided to settle in Gibson County in 1838.”

#2 picture is of Mr. Hill kneeling beside the tombstone of his great-grandmother. “Mr. J.W. Hill found the grave of his great-grandmother recently in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, where she was buried in 1838, one of the oldest known graves in this area.”

Newspaper article CEMETERY STORY REKINDLES MEMORIES by Sharon Hendrix

“When J.W. Hill read a story in The Mirror a couple of weeks ago about the old graveyard near Milan, it brought back memories.

And after a search through old documents belonging to his family for generations, Mr. Hill discovered that the oldest grave in the cemetery, that of NANCY SHARP, 1838, is really that of his great-grandmother.

Mr. Hill, 72, a retired farmer who lives near Skullbone, was born and reared near the cemetery.
“It’s Mt. Pleasant,” he said, “and as some of the stomes reveal, it dates back 140 years or so. Years ago one side of the plot was for white people and the other side for blacks. In fact, lots of slaves are buried out there.”

Coming from North Carolina in covered wagons pulled by oxen and headed west, Mr. Hill’s ancestors arrived in Gibson County and decided to stay. And in those days taxes on 100 acres of land in the county were only $2.49. Mr. Hill has a receipt to this effect made out to his great-grandfather, Feb. 13, 1843.

Walking across the cemetery with Mr. Hill is like a history lesson, as recalls people he knew as a child, and those he knew only from stories from his parents, “Joseph Sharp had 2 bales of cotton to sell during the Civil War, but because of the war, he refused to sell it.  It would have brought $1.28 per pound, after the war was over he sold the cotton for 38 cents per pound. And old man Burnes, over there, he made molasses for my daddy...”

Minerva Jerden, a former slave woman is remembered by Mr.Hill. “She lived to be will over 100, had bought a little house and ground by taking in washing after she was freed.  She was about 102 when I was a young’un.  Too old to work then, my mother cooked her breakfast every morning ...it’s probably the only meal she had all day.”

And that’s the way it was a century and a half ago.”




Armistead Coats had one brother, Charles, and one sister, Sallie. We have no record of any other member of his family. *note...(.we have found a brother, Peyton on Rutherford county TN marriage list about the same time as Armistead.)

Charles lived in Dresden.  According to family anecdote, when the new court house was built, Charles decided to do #  1  on the courthouse. He did. He was fined but did it again.  He was a great joker, especially when he was drunk.

About 1833 Armistead Coats rode a mule to Rockingham County, North Carolina to visit his mother.  This was the year that “the star fell”.  When he returned to Tennessee she gave him a beautiful home woven counterpane or coverlet.  It is still in possession of the Allen Sharp family.


Armistead Coats was born in 1802 in Rockingham County, North Carolina.  When he was about 20 years old he came to Murfreesborough, Rutherford County, Tennessee. He married Nancy Brown who was from Georgia.  One son, McNairy Coats was born in Murfreesborough in 1826.

The Armistead Coats’ old farm in Weakley County was the farm now owned by Leonard Cantrell located on the Greenfield Dresden Highway (54). My father, Allen Sharp was born in a two story log house on that farm in 1861.  It was later used as a barn.

Hollis Coats found an old broken sword in Spring Creek bottom, evidently left behind by soldiers of the Civil War.


An autobiographical sketch of the life of ALLEN SHARP who today has with many thanks to the LORD, enjoyed his 85th birthday.

I shall go back to the beginning of this period of years and try to pick up a few facts and experiences of the same.

A son of James Hamilton and Sallie Sharp, born in 1861, when the clouds of the Civil War were hanging heavily over our citizenship.

On February 27th, 8:00 p.m. the stork delivered a 10 lb. boy into the hands of GRANDMOTHER COATS  and GRANNY HORNBEAK, all under the brilliant oldtime grease lamp.  The Civil War began with the first shot at Fort Sumpter in April.

I grew up a husky baby to the age of 4 years, not able to speak plainly.  Then I was always afraid of a man in the dark.....the same fear stayed with me until I reached full manhood.  I played around my mother’s loom and spinning wheel many, many days.  Father made shoes for women and children until the close of the War in 1865, then went back to the Carpenters bench for a number of years.

My parents experienced many hardships during the conflicts of this War between the States of the North and the South, all brouht about by the enslavement of the Negro.  The speculators stole the Negroes from the shores of Africa and sold them to the cotton growers of the South, then after they found that the planters were making great financial benefits by working the slaves, throught envy, the North set about to emancipate the slaves...and that is what brought on the cruel, bitter, bloody war called the war of rebellion.

Children, many of them, were ill-fed and neglected in dress and care.  They ate anything and everything from kernels of weatherbeaten peachseeds, walnuts and hickory nuts, popcorn and peanuts.  A balanced diet or ration had not been thought of, much less put into action.  The mortality rate ran high with the children.  Many of them died of choleramorbus, indigestion, intestinal worms, chills, agues, etc.

When I was about 3 1/2 years old I had two sweet little sisters, one 1 1/2 years and the other about 5 1/2 years of age who died inside of mone month of bloody flux.  Our hair grew long and shaggy, often infested with vermin (lice)...all because our mothers were overworked with carding, spinning, making garments, knitting socks, and doing cooking, housework, etc.

With all this, I spent a good many happy hours playing with Uncle “Mac” Coats children.  Little brother JOE died when I was about 16 years old.  Joe was 1 1/2 years old at death.  Mother had six children who grew to full maturity: FANNIE, ALLEN, JANE, SAMUEL, EDWARD, and ROBERT.

When I was 8 years old my father bought a farm and opened up a lifes work for me.  I soon learned to hoe, to plow, pick cotton, gather corn and make hay, while father left off carpentering and led the way in farming and stock raising.

At the age of six, I started to school with my new Webster’s Blueback Spelling Book, with my little tin bucket and a bottle of milk.  The bucket contained meat, bread, and a little bottle of molasses and sometimes a piece of pie, a baked apple or a roasted potato.

Our schools were all subscription and of only 2 or 3 months duration. The teachers rarely got over 20 subscriptions at one dollar a month....making teacher’s salary the fabulous sum of $20 a month of 20 days....while a good farm hand got $12.50 per month of 25 or 26 days and his board.

We had no canned fruit or vegetables and no refrigerators.  We had dried apples, peaches, festoons of dried pumpkin seeds and sacks full of dried peas.  I never saw a strawberry until I was about 15 years old, and our tomatoes grew in little clusters and were about the size of marbles.  Asparagus was yet in dreamland.

Wheat was cut with a cradle or scythe.  Hay was mown with a scythe blade or a snathe.  The turning plow, the single shovel, the V-harrow and old eye-hoe was our stock of farming tools.  The hayrake was of wood.

He didn’t finish, health not so good. following by his daughter, Nannie Louia SHARP

Allen Sharp kept a diary for many years until a few months before his death.  He died in 1948.  The last two books he bought were a new bible and a new webster’s dictionary.  He kept a record of all money spent or received and knew to the penny what he had spent or had on hand at the end of the year.

In 1917 or 1918 bought a Delco Farm Plant which used coal oil as fuel.  It was primed with gasoline.  The Delco Plant stored electricity in 10 or 12 large storage tanks, for lights for the house, barns, and henhouses, for a complete bathroom, electric sheep shearers, electric churn, water in the kitchen.

He spent all of his time and most of his money to make life pleasant and easy for the “Queen” and the children.




Allen was the son of  James Hamilton SHARP  b. January 5, 1833  d. November 20, 1886 m. September 20, 1855 to Sarah Louise “Sallie” COATS  b. February 9, 1834  d. 1927  both died in Greenfield, TN buried in Hornbeak Cem.

Kate was the daughter of Presley Sevier Dunlap b. July 16, 1833  d. June 20, 1914 married on December 2, 1857 in Weakley County, TN to Nancy Bragg b.  September 22, 1821 d. March 1, 1899 both buried in Meridian Cem.

Allen Sharp’s daughter, Nannie, planned to continue his life story after the short autobiography that he had started -- but she decided to tell about some of the “High Spots” in his life and some of the “comings and goings” of his life with his widowed Mother, his brothers and sisters.  Also about his three children -- Mary Catherine Sharp, Nannie Louisa Sharp, and Hamilton Sevier Sharp. Nannie intends to tell some glad and some sad happening with Allen’s friends and members of his family.

First came his wife, Matilda Katherine Jane Dunlap, whom he married on May 14, 1890.  She was known as Katie or Kate to some, Cousin or Aunt Kate to others, but to Allen Sharp she was “The Queen”, Katherine, or “Your Mother”.  Although she and Allen lived together for over 68 years, Kate always called him “ Mr. Sharp” which sounded like “MySharp”.

Their 3 Children:

Mary Katherine Sharp  b. July 24, 1891 - The smart one of the family.
Nannie Lousia Sharp b. October 11, 1893 - she was the Happy go lucky child
Hamilton Sevier Sharp - The beautiful, happy son named after his 2 grandfathers - Hamilton from James Hamilton Sharp and Sevier from Presley Sevier Dunlap

The day Hamilton was born, Allen was so excited, happy, and thrilled that he had a son to carry on the Sharp name, that he climbed to the top of the house, sat astride a gable on the North of the house and blew several strong blasts on his bugle.  Friends in Gibson County just South of the Sharp Farm heard the sound and told their wives that Allen Sharp had a new son.

About Allen’s Bugle: When Allen was a small boy he always wanted a bugle, he had a good home, nourishing food, clothes, etc but there was no extra money for toys.  So, when Allen became a man on his own and he had the money, he got a tinsmith, John Dudley, to make him a long tin bugle.

Allen Sharp’s Siblings
Allen had 2 sisters, Fannie and Jane who lived to ripe old ages and he had 2 other sisters who died when they were very young.  He had 3 brothers who lived to be grown with families of their own - Samuel, Edward, and Robert.  Then there was brother,  “Little Joe”, who was Allen’s pride and joy, often riding on Allen’s Shoulders for hours while Allen was plowing or working on the farm. When Little Joe was 3 or 4 yrs old, he was stung by a bee or bumble bee and died before the Doctor could get there. (There were no telephones so someone had to ride for the Doctor, often many miles.)

Fannie Sharp married William Ethelbert GALEY and they had 9 children, seven boys and two girls.  The grew up in the same neighborhood and attended the same school and church as Allen’s family.

Herbert Galey, son of Fannie Sharp Galey
One of Fannie’s sons was Herbert Galey.  When a young man working with a crew baling hay on the E. H. (Stokes) Elam farm about four miles Southeast of Greenfield, Herbert got his arm caught in the hay baler - his arm was so badly crushed that it had to be amputated below the elbow. 

This accident did not make Herbert feel helpless or handicapped.  He worked on learning to do many things.  At one time I saw him wrap and tie a package as well as any person with two good arms.

He met and married a sweet girl, Maxie Mullins from Greenfield, Tennessee.  She was a real musician and played the piano beautifully and she made Herbert a good wife and helped him in all of his undertakings.

In the early 1900’s Ed and Sam Sharp bought a dry goods store in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and named the store “ Sharps-Sell-It”.  They had many customers, more than they could serve so they had to have some help.  Herbert and Maine moved to Oklahoma and Herbert worked for them for some time.

Herbert then went out on his own and soon made a small fortune in grain and oil.  He built a beautiful home for Maxie and their two boys, Kirk and Joe.  The boys have done well and are Kin that we are happy to claim.

--------------

Jane Sharp married Dempsey Hezekiah Swindell.  They lived for many years just North of Allen Sharp’s Maplewood Farm.  They had four children, the two boys, Jesse and Houston were born several years before the two girls, Lizzie and Irene.  The boys were playmates of Mary and Nannie Sharp and the girls were students of Mary and Nannie’s school room at Earl’s School.

Jesse E. Swindell  Taught school for a few years. He served in WWI, was shell shocked, developed TB, entered TB hospital in Outwood, KY.  His TB was arrested, took Civil Service examination and worked in the post office in Memphis, TN for awhile.  Then came back to Greenfield and bought a farm.  He built a nice home and farmed until his death on March 12, 1959 (he was fishing at Kentucky Lake, had a heart attack and died alone.)

Houston Swindell  Taught school for twenty years in several country schools in Gibson and Weakley Counties.  He owned a farm and a pretty home.  He loved his farm and farmed until his health got bad.  He died suddenly in 1966.

Lizzie Swindell  Was a seamstress..and a good one!  She married young and was the Mother of one son, Charles who died of a brain tumor.  Lizzie became ill and died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 29.  Her family and friends always wondered WHY, and they were greatly saddened.

Irene Swindell  She was the pretty one of the family.  She taught school for several years, then married Raymond Adams.  The had two sons, Jack Dempsey Adams and John Raymond Adams.  Jack married and had two children.  He has done well and is well-liked by all who know him.  John R. married Beverly Rogers and they had two children, John Scott and Julia Ann.
When  Scottie and Ann were quite young (2 and 4), Beverly was stricken with polio. She was taken to Memphis, then to Nashville.  Her Mother stayed with her. The cost was enormous.  Family and friends from everywhere donated thousands of dollars to the fund. Grandfather and Grandmother Adams cared for Scottie and Julie while there Mother was so ill.  The money given was partly used to buy an iron lung for her to use at home.  Beverly recovered to the extent that with the respirator she could live a rather normal life, and seems really proud of her family.

John Raymond Adams entered the University of Tennessee at Martin when he was 30 years old, though it had been 13 years since he finished high school in Greenfield, Tennessee.  After three years he received his B. S. degree with honors, in Elementary Education.  He taught as Principal in the Sharon, Tennessee school.  Shortly after that he received his Masters degree.  He pressed on and did post-graduate work in Elementary Education and received his Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi.  He became Dr. John R. Adams.

Aunt Nannie's writes about you and your sister....Soon after high school, Scottie passed a CLEP test and received 45 quarter hours of academic credit toward a college degree.  In three years he graduated in Secondary Education with endorsements in two separate areas: Social Science and English.  He finished with 11 quarters at University of Tennessee at Martin, Bethel, University of Mississippi, and Rust College in Holley Springs, MS.  He got his B.S. in education in three years.  He is teaching and is working on higher college credits (Masters Degree).

Julie Ann Adams, John and Beverly Adams daughter, now lives in Statesboro, Georgia.  She was selected for WHO'S WHO IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES.  She was one of Mississippi's students chosen from a student body of over 10,000.  Selection was based on scholarship, leadership and cooperation in educational and extra curricular activities, general citizenship and promise of future usefulness.  Julie was a Senior majoring in Elementary Education.  She is ambitious and should go far.


---------------

Samuel Sharp - oldest brother of Allen Sharp.  He was a “Lady’s Man”.  A man for girls and women to love.  He was a salesman who could have sold refrigerators to the Eskimos.

When he was rather young, he married pretty Susie Lowrance.  Their children: Jake, Mabel and Paul (his twin died at birth).  Sam and Susie lived in Greenfield, TN and Sam clerked in Allen & Shannon Drygoods Store.  He was rather handsome and knew it.  He flirted with ALL the pretty girls and women and Susie grew jealous.  Things got worse, they separated and got a divorce.  DIVORCE was almost unheard of at that time.  The entire Sharp family felt that they were disgraced by having a divorced person in their family.

Poor Susie was left to rear her family.  The children never entirely forgave their Father for leaving them.

Sam was a salesman for men’s clothing out of St. Louis, MO and was very successful.  Next Sam and Ed  Sharp bought a Drygoods store in Tahlequah, OK (Old capital of the Indian Territory). They named the store SHARPS-SELL-IT.  It prospered for the next several years then went broke. 

In the early part of the 20th Century, while in Tahlequah, Sam met and married Jenny Crutsinger.  He seemed crazy about her. He and Jenny had a lovely little boy, Samuel Sharp Jr. (Allen Sharp and dau Nannie visited pretty little Samuel Jr abt 1909).

In a short time this marriage was over and Sam was back in circulation, flirting with all the pretty girls and women again.  The entire Sharp family loved Sam very much.  He was at heart a fine person.  Anything he did he did well.  He was probably born with “itchy dancing feet”.  He MADE money, but he was a soft touch to his many friends.  When he died, his brother Ed buried him in OK, not beside any of his Kin.

Edward Sharp - After the death of his Father, James Hamilton Sharp, in 1886, Ed lived for several years with his Mother, Sallie [Sarah Louise Coats Sharp].  Bob and Allen also lived there.  Ed taught in the country schools nearby (Earls, Coats, etc.). He later attended college in Chicago, IL for several years.  When he came home from college, he, as Co-Principal, with Dock Wrenn, taught in Greenfield College and Greenfield Academy.

In April 1898 the U.S. declared war on Spain and drove the Spanish from the Philippines.  In the Treaty of Paris on Dec 10, 1898, the Spanish gave up the Philippines in return for $20,000,000.

The U.S. did not want the Philippines, it was under our protection.  In about 1900-1902, to get the Philippines to be self-governing, the U.S. sent 100 young men as teachers to the Philippines to teach them English and to help them to be self-governing.  Ed Sharp was one of the 100  teachers chosen for this project.
 
Some of Ed’s experiences while in the Philippines and until he was back in the U.S.A.

Ed had a Filipino man as cook and companion who accompanied him everywhere he went.  Ed was collecting items to take back to the U.S.A.  On one of Ed’s collecting trips he and his cook were in a small canoe on a small Salt Lake.  To get a plant that he wanted, Ed leaned too far over the edge of the canoe and fell overboard.  His hat was left on top of the water.  When Ed came up the cook grabbed Ed by the hair, pulled him back into the canoe, thus saving his life.  It was said that a person ONLY came up once in that Salt Lake.

At one time while in the Philippines, Ed thought that he was dying.  He thought that his heart was acting up.  He would have a bad spell and begin writing his will for brother, Allen Sharp.  Another spell, more writing to Allen, then a letter to his cook concerning the disposal of his personal property.  By the next morning Ed was much better and he knew by then that his “attacks”  were caused by indigestion and his stomach pressing against his heart.  Ed sent the will to Allen who treasured it.

Some small islands of the Philippines were OFF LIMITS to American teachers because a tribe of headhunters lived there.  Several of the teachers planned a trip to the forbidden islands.  They asked Ed to go with them but he refused.  The teachers did not return and in a week or so their naked, headless bodies were found in their canoes, floating near the forbidden islands.   The U.S. papers carried an account of 3 or 4 of the teachers and their headless bodies found in canoes.  Ed’s family was frantic until they got a letter from Ed telling them that he did not go with the others.

At one time Ed contracted a tropical fever and was sent on a cattle boat to Hong Kong, China where he recuperated.  While in China he collected many items to bring back to the U.S.A.  When he recovered he continued to travel, almost around the world, collecting specimens as he went before returning to the U.S.A. and to Greenfield, Tennessee in 1904.

He returned home with 4 large wooden boxes the size of caskets filled with many odd and beautiful things from many countries that he visited on his travels. Some of them were:

A bamboo trunk with a copper lock and key
Silk and paper umbrellas
Bamboo and ebony rulers
Walking canes made of rattan and bamboo
Filipino hats for grown-ups and children worn in the rice paddies
Japanese shoes for bound feet
Beautiful silk folding fans - silk over metal frames
Chopsticks made of ivory and ebony
Daggers made of sharp steel
Imitation daggers made of twine and coins with square holes in their centers
Coconuts with the husk on
Copra - dried pieces of coconut
Coconut oil
Coconut butter
Cocoa beans
Ebony letter openers
Silk bolts of Tussa silk
Bolts of banana cloth
Bolts of chinese silk - raw silk made by silk worms
Paper weights of large bamboo joints
Bottles of spices
Stalks of sugarcane
Cakes of sugarcane sugar
Elephant tusks
Ivory paper weights
Wooden castanets - used to beat time to music, especially by the Spanish
Spurs used on the cock’s feet when Cock Fighting.
and many, many more items.

Soon after coming home, Ed met, fell in love with, and married Floy Berson, a lovely brown-eyed, well educated young lady from Brownsville, Tennessee.  They had one daughter, Evelyn, who taught in a private school for many years and wrote 4 or 5 books on “New Math”. In the late 1970’s, Evelyn was living in a lovely home in Tulsa OK and caring for her Mother, Floy Sharp, who was 100 yrs old.

Robert Sharp - the youngest of the Sharp brothers. Bob was young when his Father, Jim Sharp died.  His older brother, Allen was made his guardian, and wanted Bob to go to school but he resented being pressured, or so he thought.  It worried his Mother very much, for she dearly loved her Bobby.

At about the age of 17 he married a neighbors daughter, Linnie Moody, who played the “squeeze box” (accordion) so well.  They were the parents of 13 children.  They lived for awhile on Bob’s plot of land that he inherited from his Father’s estate (part of the Kate Elam Hick’s farm).  He later sold his farm to Allen and moved on.

He made money at anything he tried.  At one time Allen was with Bob and expressed his anxiety over just where he would get money to operate his farm during the upcoming year.  Bob took out his check book and wrote a check to Allen for $1,000 and asked if that would be enough.  Allen cried a little, hugged Bob, and tore up the check.  Allen made money enough to make out all right, but the WARM feeling remained.

Bob was a “free soul”.  If he FELT like pulling off his shoes and going barefoot on Front Street in Greenfield, he DID.  Dress him up and he looked like a King!

Allen’s entire family loved “Uncle Bob”.  He visited in their home often.  He was liked by many people, had many friends.  He never saw a STRANGER.  He enjoyed hunting and fishing.  At one time he is said to have sold “white mule” (moonshine) for the men who made it.  Late in life he and his wife separated and were divorced.  Then he married again but it only lasted a short time.  Through all the ups and downs, Bob came out the same laughing, singing scalawag that everybody loved.

When his wife Linnie died it really got under his skin.  It seems that he had forgotten that he loved her very much.  It was sad that they were buried in different cemeteries.

Later he got in poor health and went to live with one of his daughters, Ruby S. Jones, where he had time to review his life and he was converted.  He had REALLY changed.  He read his Bible, prayed often, stopped using rough language (cuss words, etc).  We all really hope and believe that his Mother, Sallie Sharp, who had been dead for years, looked down on her “Bobby” and was happy with the change.  If Bob’s Father, Jim Sharp, had lived longer Bob’s life would have been different.  Bob left some FINE children who have helped make the world a better place in which to live.




Jim Sharp was the son of Joseph Sharp, born June 30, 1802 and Nancy Joyce. He was the grandson of James Sharp and Jenny .  Joseph, who lived much of his life in Gibson County, near Milan, Tennessee died August 18, 1872 and was buried in Old Concord Cemetery 1.5 miles west of Milan, 1/2 mile North of the L & N Railroad.  He had a brother William and a sister Sallie.

Jim Sharp’s Mother, Nancy Joyce, born July 28, 1808 and died August 30, 1838 was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery (CME Church) in Gibson County, Tennessee.

Joseph next married Jarushia Taylor on March 17, 1839.  She died February 11, 1872 and buried at the Old Concord Cemetery.

Jim Sharp was a master carpenter and built several large houses some of which were:

1. Joe Hatcher house near Highland Cemetery - Greenfield area. House burned in 1979.
2. Peter Moseley old home located on the Meridian road about 4 miles southeast of Greenfield - still standing but in bad shape [in 1980]
3. Buford Sims old home located in the Liberty area, 6 miles northeast of Greenfield, Tennessee.

Jim Sharp was also a cobbler.  When the Civil War began in 1861 and many of his friends enlisted, he was left at home to make shoes for the women, children, and enlisted men.  He never liked being left at home.  Jim’s old cobbler’s bench which was owned by a great granddaughter burned in cabin near Kentucky Lake.

As Jim’s family increased he needed more land so he bought 180 acres for $10 per acre from Kate Elam Hicks, a daughter of Robert Elam.

He died on November 20, 1886 at the age of 54 years.  The cause of his death was THEN pronounced “Cramp Colic”, later it was diagnosed by several doctors as a ruptured appendix.

At Jim Sharp’s death, his son Allen was made administrator of the estate.  Sallie, Jim’s wife, was given the home and a dowry.  Sallie lived there for 40 years and never remarried, passing away in 1927.

Allen was left with a widowed Mother and three brothers - Ed and Bob were minors.  Bob was 16 or 17. Allen wanted to send him to school, but instead of going to school he got married.  The two sisters were married by then.  Frances (Fannie) married William Ethelbert (Billie) Galey and Jane married Dempsey Hezekiah Swindell.

Some of Jim Sharp’s children sold their interest in the Jim Sharp estate to Allen Sharp.  The 2 girls and their husbands bought Sallie Sharp’s dowry at her death.  As fate would have it, both husbands died before Grandma Sallie.  She lived to the ripe old age of 93.


By the time Allen was old enough to begin thinking seriously of girls, his Mother was a widow and he was the guardian of his two younger brothers, Ed and Bob.  He had several girlfriends who lived in his community.

Then when he attended Burritt College in Spencer, Tennessee, he had two special girlfriends - Dora Billingsby and Lou Anna Kuykendall.  After his two years at Burritt he came back to Weakley County, Tennessee.  He met and courted Matilda Katherine Jane Dunlap. They were very much in love.  She was the only daughter of Presley Sevier Dunlap, an Elder in the Meridian Cumberland Presbyterian Church. She was an ardent believer and member of the church.  Allen was a member of the Christian Church at Greenfield.  When he proposed to Katherine she cried and told him that she could not marry a “Campbellite”.  Allen went home feeling very sad, but the next day a friend rode up to the Sallie Sharp home with a sweet little note saying that she could not live without him.  So they agreed to disagree on church affairs.

They were married on May 14, 1890, and as a honeymoon trip, Allen took Kate to her C.P. Presbytery at Union City, Tennessee.  They went to their new home 4 miles southeast of Greenfield where they lived and reared their 3 children.  They lived there for 58 years when he died of cancer of the liver in 1948.  She remained a member of the Meridian Cumberland Presbyterian Church until her death in 1958.


Allen was converted in a cotton patch on his Father’s farm in Weakley County, Tennessee.  He joined the Christian Church when a youth.  His Mother and most of her family were Baptists.  He taught Sunday School Class for many years and was an Elder in the Greenfield Church of Christ.  He loved his church and when he prayed, you somehow knew that he was really talking to the Lord.  Many nights before bedtime he would read from the Bible to daughters Mary and Nannie, son Hamilton sitting on the stairs and to his wife, Kate, who sat nearby knitting, sewing or crocheting, I remember so well how much we enjoyed Daddy Sharp’s reading and explaining the passages he had just read.

At the time, most churches had services only one Sunday a month.  The entire Allen Sharp family attended Sunday School and Church one Sunday a month at the Church of Christ and one Sunday a month at Meridian Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  The remaining Sundays we attended other churches in our community.


Both Allen Sharp and Kate Dunlap Sharp attended the country schools near their homes for a few month each year.

The Sharps and Dunlaps wanted more education.  In June 1886 Allen entered Southern Normal School and Business College in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he completed a course in bookkeeping.  He used the knowledge he gained there in keeping tab on his farm accounts.  He kept books on all of his business dealings until his death in 1948.  When he balanced his accounts at the end of the year, he knew to the penny the amount he had spent and for what and the amount on hand.

He attended Burritt College for 2 years - 1883-1884 and 1884-1885.  Burritt College was a small College located at Spencer, Tennessee, near Sparta in the foot hills of the Cumberland Mountains.  The college was owned and run by the Church of Christ.  Allen too teacher’s examinations and taught for several years in country schools - Earls, Pittman, Coats, etc.

Kate Dunlap’s father moved his family to McKenzie, Tennessee where Kate and her brother, Monroe [John Monroe Dunlap] were enrolled and Kate lacked 1 quarter finishing at Bethel College.  She studied Greek, Latin, and French.  Also in math she studied higher algebra, geometry, solid geometry, analytic geometry, trigonometry and plenty of history, science and English. Her children were helped very much and she helped one daughter translate “Caesar’s Gallaec Wars” especially 13th chapter of indirect discourse.

Allen was also a great help to his children.  He helped with arithmetic, in partial payments, extracting square and cubic roots, in English diagramming long sentences.  He taught them diacritical marks so they could pronounce ANY WORD at all.


The Allen Sharp family worked to have all of their debts paid, to finish paying for the “just built” front part of their home, and to have money in the back to send the Children to school at The tuition based private Greenfield Training School.

They Grew asparagus, strawberries, blackberries, and red raspberries as money crops. The children all helped.

The Sharp children had horses to ride, mules and horses for work on Maplewood Farm, buggies for travel in good weather, wagons for travel when the roads were deep mud or snow.  Also their pride and joy was a new surrey with the fringe on top.  The surrey was pulled by a pair of  black horses named Dan and Julian.  A perfect match except Julian had a white star on his forehead and Dan had not one white hare.  The children felt that they were really traveling in style.

Now Kate Dunlap Sharp was the only daughter of doting parents and was an excellent seamstress.  She made lovely dresses for Mary and Nannie - also articles of underwear as pretty or prettier than undergarments bought at a swanky shop.

Daddy Sharp was ahead of his time in farming practices.  He rotated crops, terraced fields that needed it, selected seed corn - often from the field, tried new seed corn that had been tested at the Jackson Experiment Station, etc.

He said time after time, “We don’t own land, it is loaned to us to feed and care for our families during our lifetime and if we do not leave it in better shape than when we “bought it”, we are FAILURES.”

He attended all Farmers Institute meetings each year at Jackson, Tennessee.  He was President of the Institute for several years, and benefitted by the lectures and the many experiments on the Jackson Experimental Farm.

Allen Sharp, father of Nannie, Mary, and Hamilton Sharp,  was a member of the Weakley County School Board for several years.  All of the County schools burned wood for heating the school buildings.  Every year he would see that all schools under his supervision had the wood they needed, often cutting and hauling it to them himself.

Also he helped good primary and secondary schools for his children and his friends’ and neighbors’ children.

Some of the GOOD teachers selected for Earl’s two teacher school were:
Harvey Haley
Guy Abernathy
Narry Wharton
Edward Sharp
Cullie Foust
Jenny Morrow
Adrian Abney
Jenny Abney
etc.

By abt 1909 the Sharps were out of debt, had prospered enough to build more rooms to their home.  So they turned the story and 1/2 part built before 1890 around to face west and began a 2 story part north of the 1890 part - 4 rooms, 2 halls, and porches to the north.  The big log room used as a kitchen was moved to the orchard and used to store many things too good to throw away.

In 1909 a new school building was built in Greenfield to train students for Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.  It was called Greenfield Training School.

Both Mary Sharp and Nannie Sharp finished grades 1-8 at Earls School.  Allen then enrolled Mary and Nannie in the Greenfield Training School when it opened its doors in 1909.  The tuition was $5 per month.  The girls boarded in Greenfield with the Daniel Brock family.  Later they boarded at Grant Clarks and Robert Berrys.

Mary Sharp attended one year of high school at the Greenfield High School. Her teacher was J. B. Reed.  Then she attended Greenfield Training School for three years and graduated in 1912 as the only graduate that year.

Nannie attended Greenfield Training School for four years and graduated Salutatorian of her 1913 graduating class.  The class of 1913 consisted of Dorman G. Stout, Valedictorian of the class, Mamie Brasfield, Clarence Abney, Harrison Abernathy and Marvin Brock.

Mary Sharp taught as Principal at Earl’s School  1912-1913 after graduating in 1912.  Little brother, Hamilton Sharp was one of her students.  Hamilton entered Greenfield Training School in 1913.

Nannie entered the University of Tennessee Knoxville as a “Special student” which meant she did two years in one - 1914-1915.  Domestic Science and Domestic Art teachers were Miss Harris and Miss Turner.  She had chemistry under Dr. Charles Wait, called Daddy Wait. She loved every minute of his chemistry class, made yearly average of 99.5 %.  Dr. Wait exempted Nannie Sharp and Lucille Simpson - first students he had exempted in his 40 years of teaching chemistry - Nannie felt humble but very happy.

The school girls wore middies and baggy black sateen bloomers and hat to “race” up Cumberland Ave to old Tennessee Hall for Physical  Ed., cooking or sewing lessons. 

The Sharp family never ate a meal without a blessing given by Allen or Kate.  When Nannie entered the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, at her table at the dormitory, she automatically bowed her head for the “Thanks”.  She really got the “Horse laugh”!  Poor little cornfed country girl!!!  So from then on she just whispered her thanks to herself and felt sorry for the children or grown-ups from homes without “Thanks” before meals.

Nanny took a FANTASTIC course in Landscape Gardening - visited many beautiful estates and studied different types of landscaping in the “wealthy “ part of Knoxville.

Nannie made credits in second year math (she had enough math in Greenfield Training School to count for 1st year college math - Trig and higher Algebra.) She was also given credit for 1st year college English so took 2nd year in college under Dr. William Burke.    Nannie had borrowed money to attend college from sister Mary so now she went back to Greenfield area and taught school at Earl’s School for school year 1915-1916.

Then  Mary enrolled in University of Tennessee at Knoxville for school year 1916-1917.  Nannie had repaid the borrowed money.

Then came World War I.  Nannie, who had been engaged for over two years to Jesse E. Campbell, her sweetheart of several years, married him June 4, 1917.  They lived in a small house built on the Gilbert Patterson land that Jesse had bought.  Jesse was called into service and left September 18, 1917.  Before leaving, he moved Nannie back to her Father’s home until he returned.

Jesse trained in camps in the U.S., then he was in the Engineer Corps doing his best to have the war over and come home.  He was overseas for 11 months, came home April 1919.

Both Jesse and Nannie taught at Gardner, Tennessee, Earl’s School and Greenfield School in Weakley County, Tennessee.  Jesse worked for 22 years for the Post Office and Railway Mail Service.  Nannie took extension work from the University of Knoxville and lacked 1 quarter from a degree.  Nannie and Jesse had permanent teaching certificates.  They taught together 24 years (22 at Earls and 2 at Greenfield School).

Jesse retired from the Postal Service in 1963 after 19 years and from the Railway Mail Service after 3 years with a total of 22 years working for Uncle Sam plus 27 years of teaching.

Nannie retired from teaching after 38 years.  She taught from grade one to second year High School.  She retired before she had to for her Mother, Kate, who was too ill to be left alone.
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Mary Catherine was serious and a “Little Lady” who read many books and magazines and really enjoyed siting on the stair steps (out of sight) and listening to “Women talk” between her Mother and visiting neighbors, who very often shared gossip that was not meant for young ears.

Mary “tied up” and doctored al the “ stubbed toes”, skinned knees, nosebleeds, etc. that country children all had [which probably accounts for why she married a Dr.].  She cooked food and made sandwiches for the many picnics that Ham and Nan insisted on having real often - in the front lawn under the maples, or in the shady wood lot south of Maplewood.

Hamilton and Nannie were real “buddies” who had much fun and exciting experiences among which were climbing all the trees on the farm, driving wild calves harnessed to homemade slides ( the harness was made by Ham & Nan), and cooking on their little iron stove.  The stove was kept hot by burning small 4 inch sticks of wood cut by Hamilton.  The biscuits were made from a chunk of dough and rolled out with a very small rolling pin and “cut out” with their Mother’s largest thimble  They also cooked bite-sized pieces of ham, plenty of potatoes, asparagus, soup, etc.

Still another very enjoyable experience was playing in a large Spring Branch that ran through the farm on its was to the South Fork of the Obion River.  The Branch had much sand and many interesting rocks, and several deep holes that held water most all of the year.

Their neighbor and very dear friend, Veda Drewry, visited them often and Mrs. S. [Kate Dunlap Sharp] would give permission for play in this branch, but not to go too far north or too far south.

There was a very large deep water hole just west of Grandma Sharp’s [Sallie Coats Sharp] home.  A neighbor, Mrs. Paralee Cantrell, had a dozen or more large grey greese that liked to swim in that particular water hole.  The three “fun seekers” had read the story of “Three Men in a Tub” - So without permission, they borrowed a large wooden tub from the Sharp’s youngster’s “Granny”.  They launched the tub in the water hole.  All 3 stepped in the tub, kids and all sank to the bottom of the hole.  They were like 3 half-drowned rats.  They all knew what they’d get if they told their Mother, Kate.  It was a very hot July day, so they stripped down to under panties, spread their wet clothes on the hot rocks to dry.  They decided to Finnish their trip by having a Baptizing ...Veda and Nannie caught the geese and Hamilton took a forked stick and while saying what a preacher says at all Baptisms, pushed each goose under the water.  The poor half-drowned geese returned to Mrs. Cantrell’s home.  The children now dressed in their dry clothes, returned to the Sharp home, looking like or pretending to be little tired Saints.

One summer a few years after the “wading spree”, Daddy Sharp [Allen] got sick ( Walking Slow Fever).  Hamilton and Nannie were given the job of shucking corn, for feeding the hogs, chickens, horses and mules.  Daddy Sharp had 6 young mules running loose in the horse-lot.  Hamilton and Nannie decided to have a little fun.  Nannie sat in the crib door, Hamilton caught a mule and brought each mule up to the crib door. Hamilton lifted the mule’s tail and Nannie placed a long white corncob under each tail.  The mules went MAD! They ran all over the horse-lot and Hamilton and Nannie rolled over laughing, it was so comical seeing the mules running until they lost the cobs.  The Sharp kids should have gotten a good licking but Mrs. S [Kate] didn’t hear of it until later.



The McNairy Coats [William McNairy “ Mac” Coats] boys always accused their nephew, John Paschal of telling “ Tall Tales” or exaggerating quite a bit.  One very hot afternoon, John Paschal, riding a mule bareback and beating the mule with his hat to make him go faster, rode by the
Shafter country store where several of the Coats boys were loafing.

The boys asked him where he was going in such a hurry.  They asked him to stop and tell them a “ Big Lie”.  He replied that he didn’t have time that Grandpa had fallen off the porch and broken his leg and he was going to get the Doctor.

All the Coats boys got on their mules and rode as fast as possible to Grandpa’s and found Grandpa “Mac” Coats rocking away on his front porch.

So they had been told a John Paschal “Big Lie” AFTER ALL.
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The 4 grown Sharp boys, Allen, Edward, Samuel and Robert,  always enjoyed a good joke.  One of their favorites was about a fire in a rubber factory. 

The story went like this:

There was a man who worked on the 10th floor of a rubber factory.  Fire broke out in the factory and the man was trapped on the 10th floor.  He saw no way of escape until he finally thought of a way out. He was a small man.  He put on rubber suits, over rubber suits, rubber boots, over rubber boots, rubber hats , over rubber hats and rubber gloves over rubber gloves until he looked somewhat like a huge rubber ball....(pause)

“Then what happened?”, one of the Sharp boys would ask..

So the man jumped out of the window.  He bounced for three days and three nights and finally a policeman shot him down so he wouldn’t starve to death.

All of the boys would act distressed and act as if they had never heard the story before.

Perhaps it would be a year before the Sharp brothers would all be together again, so the Sharp boy who thought of the “Rubber Factory Fire” first would tell it again.  It was told over each year and was still funny.  We children really got a big kick out of hearing the story over and over at our Sharp reunions.
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In the latter part of the 19th Century and in the early part of the 20th Century, there lived on the Allen Sharp farm the Hayes family - Uncle Frank Hayes, his wife, Aunt Sal Hayes, their daughter, Tinsy Hayes, and uncle Frank’s sister, Lace Hayes.

They were poor and uneducated but kind and good people.

They were sharecoppers on Allen Sharp’s farm.  They  lived in a small box house with one large room, and a  “side room” built onto the house used as a kitchen.  There was an attic over the large room used as a bedroom.  The house was located on the west side of a spring brach.  The Hayes lived there for several years.

Tinsy, when a rather pretty teenager, would pretend to have a high fever followed by a chill or shake, eyes rolling -slightly like an epileptic siesure.  When she would quiet down after an attack, there would be bits of cotton in the corners of her nose, eyes and mouth.

Word got around about the “ Cotton Witch” and Tinsy became a celebrity.  Many people, especially Doctors, for miles around came to see her and try to see just what was going on.

The curious people made a dusty lane down from the road to the Hayes home.

The many Doctors who came from other states to observe her found that Tinsy was a “fake”.  They came to the conclusion that the fever and shaking or ague was CHILLS, commonly found where there were many mosquitoes.  They watched closely and found that Tinsy was pulling bits of cotton our of a quilt and placing in the corner of her eys, nose, etc.

Tinsy got much pleasure playing the “Cotton Witch” bit.

I do not know what became of the Hayes family after they moved from Maplewood Farm.
I have pleasant memories of the many times that “Uncle Frank” took a giant stick of peppermint candy and with a stick or hammer and his barlow knife, cut “big wheels” of peppermint candy for each little visitor- the Sharp children and their friends.
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Many years ago, when Allen Sharp was still farming, using mules and horses to pull the plows, harrows, etc. that he made a crop with, he and Jesse were working in the same field. 

In each field there was always a large tree for the workers to rest and let their teams rest and cool down a bit.

Allen and Jesse would talk awhile and Allen would take out a large purse and take out many $1 bills and very carefully spread them on the ground around him.

He wold always say, “ I am airing my money.  Dont’s want my money to mildew.”  Then he’s gather up his $1 bills to be used again and again as he and Jesse planted the farm in corn, hay, etc.

Hollis Coats’ Sow Story

When the Coats family moved from Gibson County to Weakley Couty in the mid 1800’s, they moved a sow soon to farrow [give birth] behind one of the wagons used to move the household goods a distance of 30 or 40 miles.

The next morning the sow was gone.  They inquired about he sow near and far and finally gave her up as LOST.

A few weeks later, a friend from Gibson County came to visit and told them that their sow had gone back to her home in the old hog shed and had a nice litter of pigs there.


One day Virgil Doran, (a good friend and neighbor of Allen Sharp’s) Jesse Campbell, and Allen Sharp were plowing and getting the fields in shape for planting.  They stopped to rest themselves and their teams.  Allen laid his money out of his billfold on the ground “to air it and keep it from mildewing”.  When they were ready to go back to work, he stuck his pocket-book in his hip pocket with the corner of it sticking out.  Jesse quiety took it out, put it to one side and put a little loose dirt over it.  The 3 plowed for awhile before Allen noticed that his pocket-book was gone. 

He was distressed, thinking that they had plowed it under!  They helped him hunt frantically for a short time, then Jesse brought it out of hiding.

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One Saturday afternoon, Nannie, who was not very romantic - still wore her hair in pigtails, had just climbed a tall scaley-bark hickory nut tree by the front gate to the front lawn.  A lovesick “ would be” lover or beau drove up  to make a date for Sunday.  Above him , astride a large limb sat  Nannie, afraid to breathe for fear he’d find her in the tree.

However, her teasing brother, Hamilton, who had threatened to tell where she was, told a nice little “white lie”. He said that Nan was around somewhere and would tell her that he, the beau, had come by.

Hamlton and Nannie had many adventures.  They wer so close they knew what the other was thinking - probably E.S.P. - runs in the family.

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Mary had many boyfriends when she was real young and as her Mother did not allow her to go on dates when there was just one couple - Mary’s beau always brought a boy for sister Nannie who would reluctantly stop climbing trees, driving wild calves, etc. long enough but as soon as Nannie got home it was back to pigtails and fun.  Later, when Nannie’s friend, Jesse Campbell, came into the picture, she bid “good-bye” to hair ribbons and pigtails.

Some of Mary’s special boyfriends were: Clarence Abney, Henry McUmber, Henry Akin, Harry Lipscomb, Lottis Edward Littleton, Jack C. Grimes, John Clark, and Dr. Henry G. Edmonson.  She married Dr. Edmonson and they were the parents of two fine sons, Allen Sharp Edmonson, and John H. Edmonson who became noted doctors.


The first real sorrow in the Allen Sharp family was the death of Hamilton Sharp, the only son of Allen and Kate Sharp. The whole family was crushed.

Hamilton returned from England after 3 years in the Navy.  He married Carrie Barton, lived with her for 11 months when he had an attack of appendicitis - waited too long, the appendix ruptured and he lived about a week in the Baptist Memorial Hospital until the infection “got him”.  There were no “wonder drugs” then. He passed away April of 1923.  It took a long time for Nannie to be reconciled to his death.  She had prayed so hard for God to let him live. She felt that God had let her down.  Although she had been a Christian for many years, she had to pray and pray to get back where she could mean it when she said to the Lord, “They will be done.”

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Next in the sad happenings came the wounding and almost killing of our daughter, Mary Price’s sweetheart, Nicholas Cutulle during WWII.

Mary Price and I went to Halloren Hospital on Staten Island, New York City to visit Nick.  We made 2 trips to New York.  They married and came home to Maplewood. Mary Price had a difficult pregnancy, had to stay in the hospital in Martin quite a bit.  We were so afraid we would lose her.  On June 10, 1946, Nicholas Cutulle II was born, and on April 24, 1948, Doris Catherine, a precious little girl was born.  Then happiness ruled. 

Nick liked to fish.  Early one morning he was on his way to fish in Kentucky Lake and was forced off the road by a person on the wrong side of the road.  Nick “took the ditch” to keep from hitting head on but his truck turned over and over.  He was so badly injured that he died in the Baptist Hospital, Memphis, TN while on the way to the operating table.

Several years later, Mary Price was in a terrible car wreck, killing one and nearly killing Mary Price.  We were frantic, but she recovered.  This happened on the road to Paris, TN, not very far from where Nick had his fatal wreck.
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