JOHN WESLEY SHARP

Sacramento County

Biographies

JOHN WESLEY SHARP

JOHN WESLEY SHARP—An early pioneer of the Walnut Grove section of Sacramento County, whose brief life and manifold accomplishments were fraught with more than ordinary interest and significance, was John Wesley Sharp, who from the date of his arrival in Walnut Grove, in1850, until the time of his death, was effectively engaged in constructive effort in the vicinity of the town and community he helped there to establish.

John Wesley Sharp was born in New York in 1823, and there spent his early days, later coming to Ohio. There he was married, in 1845, to Miss Sophia Barrett, born at Uniontown, Ohio; and soon after their marriage, the young couple located in Iowa, where their two eldest children, Mary Ann and Robert W., were born, the latter in1849. In 1850,

the young couple, with their two children, came across the plains, in wagons drawn by ox teams, via the overland trail, through Salt Lake City. They stopped for a short time at Dry Creek, a settlement near Coloma, Cal.; and at that place a daughter was born, whom they named Elizabeth. From Dry Creek they came down to Sacramento with their little family, and after stopping a short time in the city, came on, in 1850, to Walnut Grove. Mr. Sharp was so impressed with the favorable aspects of the country in that locality that he stopped and there settled and lived out the rest of his days. He named the place Walnut Grove, on account of three very large walnut trees under which they camped on the bank of the river the first night after their arrival. In all, eight children were born to John Wesley and Sophia Sharp: Mary Ann and Robert W., both born in Iowa; Elizabeth, born at Dry Creek, Cal.; and Berdine, Martha, Jane, Sherwood, Alpharetta, and Clara Belle, born at Walnut Grove. Elizabeth became Mrs. Dye, and passed away at Walnut Grove in 1913; Sherwood died in1917; and Berdine, Martha Jane, and Alpharetta are also deceased, the last two having died in infancy, Robert W. Sharp was for years a captain on the Sacramento River boats. Elizabeth (Shanklin) Sharp, John Wesley Sharp’s mother, came to California in1859, and died in 1867.

John Wesley Sharp was a blacksmith by trade, and built and ran the first blacksmith shop in Walnut Grove. He also conducted the first hotel there, and an old document dated 1859 mentions this as the first polling place in the town. He built and ran the first store in Walnut Grove, erected the first residence, did the first farming in the vicinity, and ran the first ferryboat across the Georgiana Slough to Andrus Island. Through Mr. Sharp’s efforts, the post-office was established at Walnut Grove; and he was appointed the first postmaster, holding the office until his death, after which Sperry Dye succeeded him; and when Mr. Dye resigned, Mr. Sharp’s daughter became postmaster. Mr. Sharp gave the site for the first schoolhouse at Walnut Grove, and also gave to the California Transportation Company the site for the first steamboat landing there. With a prophetic foresight, he also said that some day there would be a railroad along the river, to haul the farmer’s produce to the city markets. Among his other activities he purchased a ranch of 360 acres on the Sacramento River, reaching from the river to Snodgrass Slough, and on this land conducted a large dairy. Mr. Sharp was most enterprising and progressive. He crowded a full life into but a short span; for his death occurred at the age of fifty-three. His wife survived him, living to see her seventy-first year.

Transcribed by Gloria Wiegner Lane.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 504. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.