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Biographical Notes on Mary Sharp


SCRAPBOOK

 

Born to a Revolutionary War veteran in Henry County, Virginia several years after that war, Mary was the fifth of ten children. Her father, Jesse Corn, was both a very patriotic and religious man, and these values were instilled in his children. Also as the second of five daughters, Mary was the "middle child", which probably established in her a discipline that aided with the financial growth she and her second husband were able to later achieve in Winchester, Tennessee.

Born into a farming family in Virginia in the late 1700s, Mary would have lived with her family in a house made of logs as was typical for that time frame. Probably set in a clearing in the woods, her house was very likely located close to a stream to provide the family and their animals with a ready supply of water. In those days, children were required to assist with the farming and household tasks at an early age, and there were many tasks to be done- caring for the animals, fetching water and firewood, picking fruit and vegetables, helping with cooking and sewing, etc. Mary would have had chores like these and others to do, commensurate with her age and capabilities. 

Social occasions for Mary would primarily have been with her family in gatherings with neighbors at times such as harvests and other communal work events where the families could take that opportunity to make it a social event as well. Other social occasions would have been church meetings, births,  weddings, deaths, etc. It was through occasions like these that the young people were able to meet and interact with each other. Thus, it was common for the children of neighboring families to intermarry with one another. It was also common for them to marry at a young age.

So, like most young women of her time, Mary married while still in her teens. She married twice, and both husbands were sons of neighboring families.  In 1805 at the age of sixteen, she married Jesse Moore. Jesse was a brother of Mary Moore who married John Adam Corn, Mary's brother. No information has been found regarding what happened to Mary's first husband, Jesse. Presumably he died within the first four years of their marriage, because in November of 1809, Mary married her second husband, James Sharp. James was a brother of Richard and Nancy Jemima Sharp, who both had married siblings of Mary.

These three marriages forged a strong bond between the Corn and Sharp families.  Not long thereafter, these allied Sharp-Corn families would emigrate to Tennessee along with several other families from Patrick County, Virginia.  As Larry Christiansen points out in "Sketches in the Life and Times of Jesse Corn", the move by these families to Tennessee probably occurred over a period of several years, possibly beginning as early as 1808 and certainly completed before 1820. Mary's husband, James, appears on page 18 of the Franklin County 1812 Tax List, so presumably he and Mary were already residing there by then.

The emigration of these families was followed with another Sharp-Corn marriage in the 1820 time frame by Robert and Dicea, who were the two youngest siblings of James and Mary, respectively.  These events acted to further cement the relationship of these two families that would retain its closeness clear into the 20th century. 

James and Mary Sharp became very wealthy over his lifetime.  Sharp family lore regarding the parents of Mary's husband states "...  saving their money, and then buying land in Franklin County, Tennessee in the early 1800s. They bought more land, and became very wealthy. They loved land and money, but particularly land. The barns and pastures of their plantation were well equipped to care for the many fine animals (including race horses and hunting dogs) that they owned. The Sharps were nervous, high strung, very quick, and intelligent. They believed that no man was good enough to marry their daughters. The girls were indulged but made fine women."

Although only a few land transactions have been obtained for Mary's father-in-law, William Sharp,  it is clear from her husband James' land holdings, that the above family lore is applicable to James and Mary. Being far from wealthy when they arrived in Tennessee, James was to become a very successful planter. James, along with several other early settlers, built one of the earliest cotton gins in Franklin County. As can be seen from the record of his land deeds above, starting with his purchase of 283 acres in 1818, over the next twenty-eight years James extended his land holdings to more than 5,000 acres by 1846.

As a successful planter and land owner, James also became more involved in the civic affairs of Tennessee, and in particular, Franklin County (see item #2 in the scrapbook). Summarizing this data, beginning in 1819, James was the Masonic Hall lottery superintendent in Winchester. Over the course of the next twenty-five years, his involvement included:

The years 1836 - 1840 were difficult ones for James and Mary as death took not only Mary's youngest sister, but James' father (his father's will can be seen here), and two of his sisters. Most information that is written about Mary refers to her as being childless. Technically this is true, as Mary did not give birth to a child of her own. However, the view so often expressed is that she was "this rich childless widow" often with an implication that she had nothing better to do with her wealth than to give it away. This is far from the truth. Mary became the mother to three of her sister's children, one of which was still an infant. Mary's youngest sister, Dicea (Laodicea), who was married to James' youngest brother, Robert, gave birth to her sixth child in 1838.  Either during, or within the following two years Dicea died. After her death, James and Mary became surrogate parents, raising her three younger children- William W., Jesse M., and Susan Frances. Later, James and Mary adopted Susan Frances.

Also, beginning in the late 1830s Mary's mother, Nancy (Hancock) Corn, initiated her request for a pension based on the revolutionary service of her husband, Jesse. James and Mary provided crucial assistance to Mary's mother in that effort. Legitimately entitled to this pension, documents from Nancy Corn's Pension Request File show that had it not been for James and Mary's legislative connections, her claim would very likely never have been granted.  Included in this file will be found depositions that were taken from James and Mary. Additionally, a letter from Mary communicating the death of her mother to her lawyer is shown.

Mary's husband, James Sharp, died on August 12, 1847 and she had him buried on their homestead.  It is interesting that Mary would, by burying James at this location, establish another cemetery at this time, especially since both of   James' parents were buried at Sharp Springs Cemetery, also in Franklin County. Furthermore, her mother, who died just ten months after James, would be buried at Sharp Springs as would her sister, Elizabeth, and most of her family. It's clear, however, from this 1882 news article, that Mary chose this course to remain close to her husband and care for his grave.

At this time in Mary's life, she can be seen as very active with many issues. Upon James' death, Mary was named administrator of James' sizable estate (see her Dower Petition). Then, with her mother's death a short time later, Mary also became the administrator of her estate, for which litigation was ongoing to obtain her widow's pension.

It was during this time frame that Mary began to get involved to help establish a women's college in Winchester, TN. Issues regarding the need of a proper education for women may not have been new to Mary when she began her efforts in the 1848-1849 period.  Her husband had previously been a trustee for the Winchester Female Academy, and quite possibly Mary may have had some involvement in that activity. Through Mary's help a new college was founded in 1851, later named in her honor. (See Mary Sharp College for further information on it.)

Also after her husband's death, Mary began the process of freeing the slaves he had previously acquired. And by 1860 she released over thirty (some say eighty) slaves, paying their fare to Liberia.  A statement summarizing Mary's payments made for legal services during 1856-1864 by her nephew, John Chitwood, contains entries substantiating this fact. A copy of this statement was obtained from "Project Preservation" of Winchester, Tennessee and appears as item seven in the scrapbook. Some 77 years after being freed by Mary in 1854, 107 year old Abraham Jackson was found in Liberia by J. E. Sanders. Sharon Doubiago, a descendant of John Chitwood, provided a copy of J. E. Sanders' 1931 Chattanooga News article relating this story.

William Washington Sharp, the oldest of the three children that Mary raised, is shown in the 1850 census as a farmer in his own residence with property worth $100. William did quite well over the following ten years, as the 1860 census shows that his estate has grown to $23,000. It seems evident that William was successful in his own right, but it's also clear that his Aunt Mary provided him financial, as well as moral, support. An example of this is Mary's deed to William of  the 550 acre parcel where she was living, apparently as a Christmas present to him in 1859.

A moment in the life of Mary Sharp was captured in an article by Gilbert K. Hinshaw that appeared in a Tennessee newspaper in 1950. That portion of his article appears below

"Col. Peter Turney, who had been president of the board of trustees, raised the first regiment of Confederates in the state during March and April and left Winchester on May 2, with 2,500 men to join the Confederate armies in Virginia.

A member of the graduating class of 1861, Miss Fannie Landress [sic, should be Landess], tells how Mary Sharp bid farewell to the regiment: 'One bright morning in May the whole school assembled in front of the college to hear Col. Turney’s departing speech before he went to the front.  And when he had finished, there were waving handkerchiefs and cheering shouts and the daughters of the South saw the little army of Franklin County march away.  Mrs. Mary Sharp was at that farewell too, and nearly blind now, she sat silently trimmed in lace and veiled in black.'”

Near the end of the Civil War, on May 9th, 1864, to be exact, the now blind and feeble Mary Sharp died in Winchester, Tennessee. During Joy Gallagher's research of the Sharps buried in the cemetery, she found a book published in 1925 under the auspices of the Mary Sharp College Club of Nashville, Tennessee entitled "Dr. Z. C. Graves and the Mary Sharp College 1850-1896".  On pages 104-105 of Chapter XIII, this letter by Mary (Sharp) Mullins, a grandniece of Mary's, was published. Joy also provided this transcription that she made of Mary's last will. The sincerity of Mary's support for equality and to facilitate a better education for all can be clearly seen reiterated in these two documents.

Help with ongoing cemetery maintenance efforts would be welcomed from those recognizing her good will, as well as from descendants of hers and of those she freed.