Abraham Sharp, son of Mathias Schaup and Catharina Engert, was born about 1744, Augusta County, Virginia. Rebecca Ann Armstrong was born in 1755 in Bedford County, Virginia. He married Rebecca on 22 March 1779, Bedford County, Virginia, after he completed his service in the Revolutionary War.
About 1776, Abraham Sharp was a private, then a lieutenant in the Virginia troops during the Revolutionary War, fighting on the colonial side. He was a rifleman with the independent companies of Culpeper Minutemen and, as a lieutenant, in the Bedford County Virginia Riflemen. The Culpeper Minutemen are remembered for their company flag, a white banner depicting a rattlesnake and the phrase “Liberty or Death” or “Don’t Tread on Me.” Abraham served as a private in the southern Division of the left wing of Dunmore’s Army commanded by General Andrew Lewis. He served under Colonel Charles Lynch at Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
He was a volunteer under General George Rogers Clark on an expedition against the Shawnee north of the Ohio River in 1774. In response to attacks on British-controlled outposts, Clark’s troops obliterated well-established towns and asserted control over lands ceded by Great Britain. Abraham was in the famous battle of Point Pleasant on 10 October 1774 when the Shawnees under Chief Cornstalk were defeated.
In 1784 he moved to Kentucky with his wife, Rebecca, his nephew Solomon Sharp, and the William Armstrong family. There he settled on the grant of land received for services in the war. In September 1784, Abraham surveyed 400 acres of land on Salt River, and in January 1785 he added 725 acres on Cove Spring Branch. He built his first cabin near the Kirkwood Church.
Abraham died 1842, Mercer County, Kentucky. Rebecca died May 1842, also in Mercer County, Kentucky.
Children of Abraham and Rebecca:
According to family tradition, Shawnee raided the Sharp homestead while Abraham and his nephew Solomon (son of John Sharp and Anne Dooley) were away. The cabin was burned and Rebecca and two of her children, Catherine and Mary, and her nephew William (son of John Sharp and Ann Dooley) were captured. Another child, Priscilla, escaped by hiding in the well. Rebecca’s sister Mary Margaret was killed by a Shawnee warrior as she crossed a stile. The Shawnee demanded a ransom in horses for the release of the four prisoners.
The family could collect only enough horses for the release of Rebecca and Catherine. The other two children, Mary and William, were taken to a Shawnee village north of the Ohio River and were released after several years by a party of white men who attacked the village. Returning to Kentucky, the party stopped at Corn Island (Louisville) and Mary escaped and returned to the Shawnee village, where she married a chief and raised a family. William also yearned to return to the Shawnee, but was watched closely by his family to prevent him from doing so.
Theodicia Darland Sharp, daughter of Abraham Sharp and Sally Brewer, had nine children with Stephen Brown and died at the age of 77.
Franklin Democrat, Friday, 26 September 1902Death of Mrs. Brown. Dorothy D. Brown was born June 19, 1824 in Mercer county, Kentucky; died Thursday, September 25, 1902 at 3:10 a.m. Deceased came with her parents when but a child to Johnson county, her parents settling west of where Whiteland now stands on a section of land which her father entered. She was married to Stephen Brown in June, 1843, to which union nine children were born, six of whom are still living: John Brown of Kokomo; Mrs. Jane Curry of Tipton county; Mary Bridgman of Hopewell; William and Lee Brown of Whiteland, and Mrs. Magdalena Ritchey of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Brown moved to Franklin in 1884 and have resided here ever since that date. Deceased was a member of the Whiteland Presbyterian church, although, since moving to Franklin, she had been an attendant of the Presbyterian church here. Funeral services will be held at the home on North Main St., Saturday morning at 10:00, conducted by Rev. L. P. Marshall. Burial at Hopewell. In the death of Mrs. Brown the community loses another of its most respected pioneer women. The memory of her good deeds and kindly disposition will be long cherished in the memories of family and friends.
History of Johnson County, Indiana, by D. D. Banta, 1888Stephen Brown, one of the leading citizens of Franklin, Johnson Co., Ind., and one worthy of mention in a work of this character, is a native of Wythe County, Va., where he was born on February 8, 1821. He is the son of John and Frances (Bridgman) Brown, both of whom were also natives of Virginia. The parents immigrated to Indiana in about 1835, and were among the pioneers of Johnson County. They located in what is now Pleasant Township, where a few years later they purchased a farm, and where they resided until their deaths. The father died in July, 1836, and the mother died in December, 1872. To this union eight children were born, seven of whom survive. Our subject was reared on the farm in Pleasant Township. He followed farming up to 1884, and then removed to Franklin, where he now lives a quiet and retired life, renting his farm of 305 acres. He owns and lives in a large comfortable brick residence, and is surrounded with all the comforts of life. Though he has never held nor sought public office, he has always taken an interest in public affairs, and is a democrat in politics. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and takes an interest in all church and school affairs, and is a man generally known and respected for his sterling traits of character. He was united in marriage in 1843, to Miss Dorotha Sharp, the daughter of Abraham Sharp, who was born, June 19, 1825. To this union nine children have been born, six of whom are living; the children are as follows: John S., born April 5, 1825; Abraham D., September 4, 1844, deceased; Catherine Jane, July 5, 1850; Mary Ann, April 24, 1853; William Martin, March 14, 1856; Isaac Edward, June 17, 1859, deceased; Francis Leonidas, March 1, 1863; Sarah M., October 25, 1867; Charley J., April 7, 1872, deceased. All of the children are married. The mother and three children are members of the Presbyterian Church, and one son of the Union Mission Church.
Aaron Sharp is said to have served longer in the Civil War than any other person, and was living in the same area of Wisconsin as many other family members; however, we have found no record of his connection to the descendants of Mathias Schaup.
“Tales the Tombstones Tell” by S. W. Fogo, Republican Observer:There is more than passing interest in the army life of AaRON (that is the way he wrote it) Sharp, of the town of Dayton. If you ever asked how he spelled his name, he would say “Big A, little a, R, O, N,” and that is the way it appears upon his tombstone in the Dayton Corners cemetery. Mr. Sharp had a long, long period of service as a member of Co. F, Second Regiment, Wisconsin Calvary. There were many Richland County men in Co. F, and one of the captains was Francis M. Poynter, Richland Center, father of Frank Poynter, retired barber, now residing in Richland Center.
Roswell R. Hamilton of Dayton was a 1st Lieutenant in Co. F, and William F. Fogo, father of the writer of this article, was a bugler in the regiment at one time.
When Mr. Sharp enlisted he did not know that his services would continue for quite some time. When the war ended and the members of the Col. F were mustered out on November 15, 1865, Mr. Sharp appears to have been passed by for some reason or other. He, along with others, returned to Richland county and took to peaceful occupations.
The next few years passed by and pensions were being talked about among the veterans. At last the day came for all who served to apply for a pension. Mr. Sharp applied for his and this started a long drawn out affair. The war department said that Mr. Sharp did not appear to have been a member of Co. F, and asked for his discharge papers or a copy of them. These he could not furnish as he did not receive any back on November 15, 1865. Letters went back and forth between Richland Center and Washington. Captain Poynter and other members of Co. F came to the aid of Mr. Sharp. Judge J. H. Miner, Richland Center, special pension agent, took in hand the matter, all knowing that Mr. Sharp did serve in Co. F and was entitled to a pension if anybody was. Time went by and more letters followed and at last the war department acknowledged its mistake, and gave Mr. Sharp an honorable discharge and a pension. The date of the discharge was July 31, 1884, being dated back to 1865. Thus it was that Mr. Sharp, no doubt, held the record for Civil War service; he served 20 years in a four years war.
Richland Rustic, 28 November 1913, p.8:Aaron Sharp, 83 years old, a veteran of the civil war and many years a citizen of good standing in this community, died at the Milwaukee Soldier’s Home, last Thursday. The body was brought to the house of a son, Isaac Sharp, in this city, Saturday, and interment was made in the cemetery at Dayton Corners.