J.R. Sharp was a member of the Colfax Public Library’s first board of trustees.[1] He was also a member of the Board of Library Trustees at the time the Colfax Carnegie Library was dedicated May 14, 1913.[2] He served as vice president of the board from 1913 to 1921.[3] On January 28, 1929, “Mr. Sharp tendered his resignation from the library as he is not a city resident anymore. Which was accepted. Mr. Sharp has been a very faithful trustee for many years and will be greatly missed from among us.”[4] Joseph Russell Sharp was born in Ardie, Scotland, October 16, 1845, the son of John and Marry Russell Sharp.[5] His father died when he was just 4 years old, so he was sent to live with an uncle.[6] With this uncle, Joseph, at the age of 15, went to Australia, where he lived about five years.[7] He returned to Scotland and later came to America.[8] From early life he worked in the coal mines of Scotland and Australia.[9] In America his occupation was that of a miner, in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, and Iowa.[10] Joseph Sharp is listed as a coal miner in Oswalt, Iowa, in the 1880 census.[11] He also operated a hotel in that mining town.[12] He operated coal mines in the Colfax vicinity in connection with James Leonard, Sr., and his own sons.[13] Sharp was also a farmer, and his farming operations were considered “most prosperous.”[14] He was elected the first president of the newly-opened Valeria Creamery, in which he was a stockholder, in 1895.[15] In 1897, Sharp purchased from the firm of H. G. Stouffer & Co., their interest in the City Grocery and Bakery. He and John H. Hahn (q. v.) operated the Colfax business under the firm name of Hahn & Sharp.[16] Sharp held many township offices.[17] Active in Republican politics, he was a member of the Jasper County Central Committee.[18] In 1901, he was nominated by his party to fill a vacancy on the Colfax City Council.[19] Sharp was an unsuccessful candidate for Jasper County Auditor in 1906.[20] In 1918, he was again elected Colfax city councilman.[21] Sharp married Miss Elizabeth Berkshire (1847-1928) in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on June 24, 1868.[22] They were the parents of six children: Henry, John, Richard “Dick,” Elizabeth “Betty,” Joseph “Joe,” and George.[23] Sharp died October 31, 1931, age 86 years and 15 days.[24] R. G. Anspach, M. D., a Colfax physician, certified that he died from “chronic Septicaemia from infected Prostate,” with age as a contributory cause.[25] “Uncle Joe” Sharp was identified with the Presbyterian Church in his native Scotland; it became his church of choice in his new home in America.[26] He was a member of both the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges.[27] He was a charter member of Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 476 at Colfax[28], which had charge of the burial service at the cemetery.[29]
-Larry Ray Hurto
[1] Colfax Centennial History: Our 100th Anniversary, July 21-24, 1966 (1966), p. 33. He was on the building committee in 1901-2 and 1907-8; the minutes also mention his building committee assignment on July 26, 1909. Email, April 12, 2024, from Lisa Van Gorp, Library Director, Colfax Public Library.
[2] Colfax Centennial History: Our 100th Anniversary, July 21-24, 1966 (1966), p. 34; Newton Daily Journal, May 15, 1913.
[3] Email, April 12, 2024, from Lisa Van Gorp, Library Director, Colfax Public Library. His membership on the building committee was also noted in minutes of September 27, 1915.
[4] Ibid. He spent the last ten weeks of his life in the household of his daughter, Mrs. F. M. (Betty) Gagle. Mr. & Mrs. Walter R. Lister moved into the Sharp property on East Howard St. following their marriage. The Colfax Tribune, May 30, 1929.
[5] Ibid., November 5, 1931.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] 1880 United States Federal Census; Mingo, Iowa, 1884-1984 [1984], p. 116.
[12] The First Presbyterian Church – Colfax, Iowa Centennial History, 1868-1968 [1968], p. 23.
[13] The Colfax Tribune, November 5, 1931.
[14] Ibid.
[15] The Weekly Clipper, Colfax, IA, April 19, 1895.
[16] Ibid., June 4, 1897. “The business is a good one,” the paper opined, “and now, being disconnected from and independent of any and all other firms and influences, can greatly extend its business and usefulness. We congratulate both gentlemen upon such good company in business and prophesy that the new arrangment [sic] will prove mutually profitable and agreeable.” Sharp’s son, Richard, succeeded to the business in 1898. Lee Schmitt, The History of Restaurants, Bakeries & Ice Cream Parlors in the Town of Colfax, Iowa before the Year of 1940 (1993), p. 9.
[17] The Colfax Tribune, November 5, 1931.
[18] The Colfax Clipper, May 11, 1900.
[19] The Newton Herald, October 25, 1901; The Newton Record, October 31, 1901. He was nominated to succeed Geo. H. Meier, resigned.
[20] The Newton Journal, November 7, 1906. “J. R. Sharp informs us that he has concluded to leave his name on what has been termed the progressive ticket. The nomination for auditor came to him without solicitation on his part and he feels that no harm can be done by having his name on the ticket.” Ibid., September 12, 1906.
[21] Newton Record, April 18, 1918. He replaced William Lenihan, resigned.
[22] The Colfax Tribune, November 5, 1931.
[23] Iowa, U.S., State Census Collection, 1836-1925 for Joseph Sharp. Elizabeth “Betty” married Frank M. Gagle. Elizabeth Westfall in the Iowa, U.S., Marriage Records, 1880-1947.
[24] Iowa, U.S., Death Records, 1880-1972 for Joseph Russell Sharp.
[25] Ibid.
[26] The Colfax Tribune, November 5, 1931. His obituary stated that “for many years Mr. Sharp has been looked upon as the spiritual father of the Colfax Presbyterian Church.” He was elected a ruling elder and appointed clerk of the session August 1, 1898. Sharp continued as elder and clerk of the session until his death. The vacancy on the session was not filled for a year after his death in honor of his 33 years of continuous service. The First Presbyterian Church – Colfax, Iowa Centennial History, 1868-1968, p. 23. Sharp was elected by the Presbytery alternate delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly which met in Denver in 1909. The Newton Journal, April 21, 1909. He was elected delegate to the General Assembly in 1922. The First Presbyterian Church – Colfax, Iowa Centennial History, 1868-1968, pp. 26, 57.
[27] The Colfax Tribune, November 5, 1931.
[28] Ibid. The Odd Fellows at Colfax organized May 24, 1884. Sharp was the first past grand. Gen. James B. Weaver, ed., Past and Present of Jasper County, Iowa, Vol. I (Indianapolis, IN: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1912), p. 198. In 1901, he was installed as J. W. of Spring City Encampment, No. 170, I. O. O. F., of Colfax. The Colfax Clipper, July 12, 1901. He took the degree of Canton Chevalier Bayard in 1904. The Newton Herald, December 9, 1904.
[29] Burial was in Highland (Colfax) Cemetery. Jasper County Genealogical Society, comp., Jasper County, Iowa, Cemeteries: Washington Township, Colfax Cemetery (Des Moines: Iowa Genealogical Society, 1996), p. 833.