San Joaquin County
Biographies
PETER GEORGE SHARP
P. G. SHARP, a farmer of
Castoria Township, was born in Hudson, New York, in 1815. Leaving New York he
went to Ohio, where he remained until 1849, when he started for California with
a company called the Belleville Mining Company, of which he was the organizer
and the principal moneyed man. The company was composed of some twenty people,
and they crossed the plains with mule teams, arriving at Hangtown, where they
intended to do some digging, but, for some cause or other, they decided to sell
off everything and divide the proceeds between them. In this they had the
advantage of our subject, as he had furnished almost everything in the first
place, and now received but a twentieth share of his investment. He and his
brother went to mining, however, and had good luck, making $10 a day. At the
end of two weeks the subject of this sketch determined to go to Mariposa. He
was the first white man to cross the intervening mountains with a team. On
reaching Mariposa he and another man built a cabin together, intending to put
in a stock of provisions, but a heavy snow prevented them, and he sold out his
part of the cabin to a man, named Powell, for $300; he also sold 600 pounds of
flour he had on hand to the same man, at $1.25 a pound. He then bought a team
and went to freighting goods for a man named Blackburn. He hauled $1,600 worth
of goods, and then Blackburn busted, owing him the sum of $1,600, for which he
took his note, but it is needless to say that he failed to get the money.
During the years 1849-’53 Mr. Sharp had very bad luck, and lost in all $17,000.
He was married in Bellville, Ohio, in
1862, to Miss Woodburn, and they have two daughters: Sophia and Emma.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Page 576. Lewis Pub. Co.
Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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