Joseph C. Sharp

Cecilia related this story about Joseph in Rush Valley

One day her brother, Joseph C. Sharp (later missionary to Scotland, deputy sheriff, then sheriff of Salt Lake County, later chief of detectives for the Salt Lake City Police Department) was herding sheep in Rush Valley. This was when he was a boy. He related that living out of doors he got used to cold weather. He didn't wear an overcoat even in the middle of winter while herding sheep or thereafter during his life.

Once in early winter a heavy fog came over the area and Joseph got lost. For three days and nights he wandered, trying to find his way back to the sheep camp. Just as he was about to give up a man appeared out of the fog and inquired of Joseph, "Do you know who I am?"

Joseph replied, "No, I have never seen you before in my life."

The man said, "I am your father."

Joseph said, "You can't be my father. He died when I was only three years old."

To which the man responded by showing Joseph a scar on his body and telling Joseph, "When you get back to Salt Lake, tell your mother about this scar." Joseph looked at the man closely and was able to describe him accurately later.

The man asked Joseph to come with him and he would find the sheep camp. He did this in a short tine. The fog lifted sufficiently for the other man with the sheep camp to see them coming. He rushed into the sheep camp to prepare food. But when Joseph got into the sheep camp the stranger had disappeared and they could find no signs of him.

When Joseph got back to Salt Lake City and described the man and his scar, his mother, Margaret Condie, told him, "That was your father!"

Contributed by Ruth H. Barker, uploaded by ebf 2010.