Elisha Sharp House

Elisha Sharp House, also known as the Sharp-Wasson-Worth House, 1820s

This information was compiled from the research notes of Nell Worth (1923-2010).

Elisha Sharp was born July 25, 1792, and died December 6, 1863. In 1817, he married Elinore Ellen Huff (1801-1874). She was sixteen years old, and he was twenty five. They came to Meigs County in 1822 (known as Rhea County until 1836). The Sharp cemetery is located just around the corner from the Sharp House, on Union Grove Road, also known as county road 508. The earliest headstone still in this cemetery is dated 1830. Most of the gravestones are of the Sharp family, though there are also about six from the Culvahouses, a family who, until roughly 1955, owned the farm on highway 58, west of the Sharp-Wasson-Worth House.

The Sharp House was built between 1820 and 1830, probably after 1825, and is located about twelve miles north of Decatur, Tennessee. The Sharp farm was around 226 acres. Elisha Sharp owned it for around 61 years, from 1816 to 1877. In 1877, the Wasson family purchased it, and owned it until 1932 or 1938. Near this time, electric lines were installed in the area. There were two additional owners between 1938 and 1955.

In 1955, the Sharp House was purchased by James Archibald (aka “J.A.” and “Nub”) Worth, originally from Sevier County, Tennessee. He married Nell Jeanette Fields Worth in 1957, though they did not move to the Sharp house until 1959. The Worths raised cattle on the surrounding farm for over forty years. J.A. Worth died in 1999, and Nell Worth sold the house and farm to Jerry Swanks, a neighbor and also a farmer, in 2007.

History

Elisha Sharp was killed on December 6, 1863, in front of the front door (in 1863 the house had no porch) of the house. He was killed by Isaac Preston Knight (1834-1907), a local man from Meigs county, who was a union soldier. This is the version of the history as written by Nell Worth. Apparently, Elisha Sharp had directed his rebel soldiers to steal tools. When Elisha Sharp did not return the tools, apparently some owned by Knight’s father, Knight shot him. (For these details, see: http://www.angelfire.com/biz6/dciris/ellison.html; for the claim that the tools belonged to Knight’s father, see: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bcoll30038&id=I1996). Other sources confirm Knight was a union soldier, from April 1863, to August 1864. (See: Papers of Andrew Johnson, page 229-330; and http://genforum.genealogy.com/triplett/messages/1619.html. Note that this source confirms Knight’s Union service, and lists him as a doctor rather than a farm hand: http://genforum.genealogy.com/triplett/messages/1619.html).

Elisha Sharp owned slaves and supported the Confederacy. The Sharp House was made with bricks, fired in a home kiln, and these bricks were probably made by slaves. The bricks were made from clay that was most likely taken out of the bank of Hurricane Creek, just few yards away from the house. The interior walls throughout the first floor are about two feet thick.

Little is known about the slaves owned by Elisha Sharp. In a case wherein Elisha Sharp was named as a defendant, it is stated that in 1832 he purchased a woman named Amy (then twenty years old and pregnant), and her children Phillip (age 5), Betsy (age 4). Her child Nancy was born afterwards. It is unknown if this enslaved family lived on the Sharp farm. Amy was the daughter of a woman named Nan. The case challenged Sharp’s right to purchase Amy and her children, because the claimants argued that Amy belonged to the estate of a prior owner, and the woman who sold her and her children had no right to sell them to Sharp. The claimants not only accused him of buying the slaves improperly, but that he knew the sale was illegal and even kept the salves hidden after the sale. Sharp later claimed that he subsequently sold the family to an unknown slave trader in 1836, and had no knowledge of the family’s subsequent whereabouts. This information is taken from the court case, “ELISHA SHARP VS. ELI KING ET AL., CASE #206,” State of Tennessee, Bradley County Chancery, Court Case Files 1836-1860, Original Bill, 3 June 1843, as transcribed by Joyce Disharoon (http://sites.google.com/site/familytiesprojectsite/john-king-jr-of-tn). A summary is also available through the Digital Library of American Slavery, Petition 21484332 (http://library.uncg.edu/slavery_petitions//details.aspx?pid=13421).

A few names of other slaves owned by Elisha Sharp can be gleaned from his will. Tom, Guy, Alexander, Sally, Susan, Martha, Nancy, and Alley, French, Townley and Joseph, Daniel, Simon, Taylor and Nep are all bequeathed to various relatives. Sharp must have owned other unnamed persons—or presumed he would own, , acquired through either purchase or birth, other slaves at the time of his death—because he also bequeaths all slaves not named within the will to his children and grandchildren. The will was dated March 4, 1863, and probated April 3, 1865. The will is transcribed here (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bcoll30038&id=I1996).

There are no other known records about the names or lives of the slaves who built the house on the Sharp farm.

In the 1960s, while pulling down old wallpaper in the upstairs bedroom above the downstairs living room of the Sharp House, Nell Worth found the following inscription on the wall above the fireplace.

“Remember Me for I may be in these Western hills where men folks are free Yours respect. Moulton Wood August 28, 1898”

In 1898, the time of the inscription, the home was owned by the Wassons. It is still on the wall as of August 2010, along with the strips of wallpaper that Nell Worth decided not to change for fear of damaging the inscription.

Subsequent Renovations Late in the year in 1959, a septic tank was added to the property. A metal roof was put on by Bill Innman and another man in 1976; they took off previous wooden and asbestos shingles. The roof was repainted in 2000.

The maple tree in the front yard is around 100 years old. In 1958, there were six, though three of these died. Nell Worth planted one in 1989.

Recent Memories This story was related to Nell Worth by Dr. John Odom and his son Nathan Odom, of Colorado. The uncle of Dr. John Odom and Nathan Odom was riding a horse in front of the Sharp-Wasson-Worth house, around 1903. It was during a very bad thunderstorm and he went into an open building near the barn. Then, lightening struck his horse and killed it, though the man He was still on the horse! That was when the second family, the Wassons, owned the home. The Wassons were not relatives of this man. There are many Odoms in the Edgemon Cemetery, and perhaps these are descendants.

In 1986, the FCE Club made a quilt for a state project, the Tennessee “Homecoming 1986.” This included a square that represent the Sharp’s house. This square was made by Nell Worth, who quilted the bottom rows at her friend Bernice’ house. The quilt now hangs in the Meigs County Historical Museum, in Decatur, Tennessee.

Near May 19, 2008, the descendants of I.P Knight came to Decatur, in search of the Sharp Cemetery. Elisha Sharp was killed by Isaac P. Knight, in 1863, during the Civil War. The Knights went west after Mr. Sharp was killed. Mr. Sharp was killed on the doorsteps, not the porch that is here now [as of 2008]. This porch was built by one of the other owners of the farm, much later.

The Sharp’s descendants, Michael and Francine Locke Bray, visited the Sharp-Wasson-Worth House on August 31, 2008, at 3:00 pm, and met with Nell Worth. Francine Locke Bray is Elisha Sharp’s (probably) great great grand niece. She and her husband now live in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their photograph is in the book, a history about the Locke family, that she gave Nell Worth. This book is now in the Meigs County Historical Museum. One of the Lockes was Elisha Sharp’s daughter. It is likely that this was Mary Sharp Locke.

One of Elisha Sharp’s great great grandsons is J. Thomas Decosimo.