Husband Hon. John McDowell Sharpe 1 2 3
Born: 7 Oct 1830 - Newton Twp, Cumberland Co, PA 1 4
Christened:
Died: 23 Aug 1883 4 5
Buried: - Falling Spring Cemetery, Franklin Co, PA
Father: Andrew Sharp ( - ) 2 6 7
Mother: Rosanna McDowell (1806-1882) 2 6 7
Marriage: 7 Mar 1857 8
Wife Emma L. King 9 10
Born:
Christened:
Died: Aft 1887
Buried:
Father: John King (1776-1835) 11 12
Mother: Mary Sharpe Maclay (1790-1850) 11 13
Children
1 M John King Sharpe 14 15
Born: 1858 14
Christened:
Died: Jul 1859 14
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
2 F Rosanna McDowell Sharpe 15
AKA: Rosa McDowell Sharpe 14
Born: 1859 14
Christened:
Died: 1861 14
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
3 M John McDowell Sharpe 14 15
Born:
Christened:
Died: in infancy
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
4 M Walter King Sharpe 14 15
Born: 24 Dec 1863 14 16
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Helen McKeehan Cook ( - ) 16
Marr: 6 May 1897 16
General Notes: Husband - Hon. John McDowell Sharpe
He studied at Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, 1844-46, and completed his collegiate course at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, from which he was graduated in 1848, with the highest honors of his class. He studied law with Frederick Watts in Carlisle, and was admitted to the Cumberland County Bar, in November, 1850. Soon after coming to the Bar he determined to settle in Chambersburg, and was admitted to the Franklin County Bar, March 11, 1851. When he hung out his modest "shingle" in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the greatest jurist in a state remarkable for great jurists, was in his last year on the Common Pleas Bench. To have practiced, if only for a few months, under Judge Black was itself a distinction. From the beginning of his career as a lawyer he took an active part in politics. At first he followed the traditions of the Sharpe family in his political affiliations. His great-grandparents on his father's side, Thomas and Margaret (Elder) Sharp, were Covenanters, a stock from which descended many of the most zealous Republicans of 1856. His grandfather, Alexander Sharp, was a Federalist. His father, Andrew Sharp, was a Whig. The last of the Whig candidates for the Presidency, General Scott, in 1852, had no more ardent or eloquent advocate on the stump than McDowell Sharpe. The tendency of family tradition and religious principle was to make him an uncompromising opponent of slavery. But after the disruption of the Whig party, the political condition of the country was chaotic. The Know-Nothing movement that dominated state and nation for a number of years afterward, disgusted him by its vagaries. He failed to foresee the greatness of the mission of the Republican party at its inception. His environment may have clouded his perceptions of the political future. There was no Republican party in Pennsylvania until after the election of Lincoln in 1860. He lived on the border line of the slave system. Fremont in 1856 must have seemed to him as to many others a young adventurer. Buchanan was of a Federalist ancestry like his own. There was the glamour of a distinguished career around the brow of Fremont's opponent. Besides James Buchanan was a native of the county. And the picturesque surroundings of Buchanan's birth-place at Stony Batter were among the associations of Sharpe's student days at Mercersburg. How far these influences affected a sensitive and susceptible mind it would be difficult to say, but there was great surprise when it was learned that McDowell Sharpe had become a Democrat. It is a sign of the prominence at the Bar and in the county that Mr. Sharpe had acquired in five years that his change of political faith, in 1856, caused a great sensation in both parties. The Democrats welcomed him with great effusion. The men with whom he had previously affiliated were indignant-they were more than indignant, they were grieved. "How can it be possible," men said. "that a man like Sharpe should go over to the Democratic party." Some called him an "apostate" and "turn-coat," and other hard names, but the prevailing tone was one of surprise.
Mr. Sharpe was essentially a lawyer, and a great lawyer-one of the greatest that ever graced the Bar of any court, however distinguished. After he had been at the Bar a few years he entered into partnership with the Hon. Wilson Reilly, who was elected a Representative in Congress in 1856. There was little in common between the two men, except the genial temper that distinguished both and their acknowledged eminence. Reilly was perhaps the more persuasive before a jury, but Sharpe had the greater erudition and the completer mastery of the case in hand. In court there was a marked contrast between the two men. Reilly had an air of easy indolence that could be quickly aroused into impetuous energy or fiery invective. Sharpe was quiet, gentle, self-contained, watchful, alert, and intense. He was often discursive but never missed a point in eliciting truth. Before a jury he was not eloquent, but he was convincing. His manner was colloquial rather than oratorical. Sometimes he demolished an opponent's case with the swift sweep of a torrent. In arguing to the court he was a general marshaling his forces in battle-sometimes a Napoleon in the swiftness of his movements; sometimes a Fabius in guarding his defenses and his lines of retreat. He was sometimes beaten, but never until the last line of attack or defense had failed. His cases were never finally lost when the court was against him until the Supreme Court had passed upon them, and they were often won in the court above after being lost in the court below. When he won in the Common Pleas he seldom lost his case in the Supreme Court. In this continued round of professional employments, in the courts and out, always exacting and often involving petty issues,-his career of thirty-two years at the Bar was spent, and that too without adequate reward in money for his services, or fame commensurate with his abilities and learning.
For one content with great achievements in a narrow sphere Mr. Sharpe's professional life may have been satisfactory, but for a man of his abilities, who knew his own worth, his political career was singularly barren. Only once was he chosen for a work that was worthy of his talents in the fullness of his powers. That was as a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1873. In that body he occupied a high place, but his true sphere would have been as a representative in Congress, or better still as a Senator from Pennsylvania. Either position might easily have been possible to him as a Republican. As a Democrat he was compelled to be content with three terms in the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, as a member from Franklin and Fulton counties in 1863, from Franklin and Perry, in 1864, and from Franklin in 1883. His pre-eminence was fully recognized in the House, but death closed his career prematurely. His death ended the possible fulfillment of the promise that seemed to open before him in his early manhood.
It was impossible that Mr. Sharpe should be a sympathizer with secession or rebellion. His moral rectitude, his personal independence, and his elevated patriotism alike forbade his acceptance of the unfortunate Democratic pronouncement of 1864 that war was a failure. In 1862 when the state was threatened with invasion for the first time, before the battle of Antietam, he left his books and clients and went out as a private in one of the "Home Guards" companies, to meet the advancing Confederates. The enemy was near at hand. The town was in a panic. Many of the more timid of the citizens had fled. An attack was expected. The "Home Guards" were summoned to do military duty, and were encamped south of the town, near where the works of the Chambersburg Engineering Company were later situated. Pickets were thrown out, and on the outer picket line, on the Greencastle road, was Sharpe. Fortunately the foe did not put in an appearance, the battle of Antietam saving the valley from an invasion that came a year later.
Mr. Sharpe possessed an attractive personality. His manners were refined, and his face showed the dominating quality of the man-intellectuality. He mingled little in society and devoted much of his leisure to study. He was buried in the beautiful graveyard of the Falling Spring Presbyterian Church. His funeral was attended by representatives of both Houses of the Legislature and by the Bars of both Houses of the Legislature, and by the Bars of both Cumberland and Franklin counties.