Joseph Sharp by RHB

"Joseph, lawful son of John Sharp, Miner, and Mary Hunter, Spouses, was born 8^thand baptized July 1830 by the Reverend James Smith, Minister of the Parish."

Much confusion has developed over the years regarding the birthplace of Joseph. Some records have Alva, Clackmannan, and some Stirling — including the baptism record found in the Stirling Parish as above. To straighten this matter out, a map must be consulted to see the physical location of Alva centered between Tillicoultry and Menstrie, in the District of Clackmannan. His baptism is listed in Stirling because Alva was included in the Stirling Parish until 1891 when it was transferred to Stirlingshire.Other Sharp family members were born in Alloa which has been easily confused with Alva because there was little knowledge of the terrain. The fact is that they are two different towns.

Stirling has been compared to a "huge brooch, clasping Highlands and Lowlands together." Its royal castle sits atop a protruding bed of Dolomite rock and has seen some of Scotland's most famous, such as William Wallace's victory at Stirling Bridge in 1297 and Robert the Bruce's victory during the summer of 1314.

Stirling Castle

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/stirling/stirlingcastle/

The Sharps would have fallen within the Stewart clan but the Sharp family did not parade about in dress kilts and tartans attending royal feasts at the castle. This area was a fertile farming area as far back as the feudal system of the Middle Ages. Farmers and miners began harvesting shallow sites of coal in Clackmannan prior to 1550, and by about 1625 coal mining began in Sauchie. As the demand for coal increased, more of the farm laborers were diverted to the mines, and conditions became severe and dangerous as they went deeper into the earth to harvest the coal. Several generations of Sharps probably lived and died as servile workers in these mines. Men hewed the coal with pick, shovel and wedges in the dark, damp, cramped and dangerous coal mines dragging home exhausted after up to 16 hours of harsh physical labor. Sunday would indeed be a special day, as they would only see the sun on Sunday. Instead of going off to school each morning the children also went down into the dark pit. Often wading in water up to their calves and breathing black damp air. These "putters" were harnessed over their shoulders and back with a strong leather girth, an iron hook at the end attached to a coal-cart to drag along the coal. Where the passage was narrow they'd get down on all fours and may indeed feel like a work horse pulling its load. The women were sometimes "putters" and then became "coalbearers.” The coal was loaded into their basket/backpacks and hoisted onto each back with straps over the forehead and the body bent in a curve to support the coal as the arduous journey of climbing up ladders began. The life span for most of the mine workers was short, with few reaching the age of 50. Most died of black lung disease.

It became the custom at baby christenings for the coal master to get a signed “arling” contract witnessed by the minister for the sale of the future labor of the child in return for a meager sum of money. The families agreed to this practice because of the extreme poverty.

Joseph's six elder siblings were born in Clackmannanshire in the towns of Alloa, Clackmannan, Sauchie and Devon – all within an area of about five miles of each other and all situated near mines. From the town of Clackmannan, the parish was about one mile south-southwest; Alloa Parish was about 2.2 miles west, Old Sauchie was 2.5 miles northeast – 200 yards from the Devon River, which at that time marked the boundary between the territory of the Lowlanders and the Highlanders.

Clackmannan Town Center, Scotland

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/clackmannan/clackmannan/images/mainstreet-450.jpg

Historian Andrew Jenson, states that Joseph's eldest brother John Sharp was born at the Devon Iron Works in Clackmannanshire on November 8,1820, and that he went to work in the coal pit there at the age of eight. Not only were father and eldest son John hewing coal, it is known that both Cecilia and Helen worked the mines, as well. Since Joseph's eldest brother John began working in the mines at eight years of age it's probable that Joseph would have done likewise.

"Collier" follows the name of father John Sharp (1785). It was an extremely degrading term for the lowest of low in the social structure. In 1606 Scottish colliers were made into economic slaves by an Act of Parliament which was meant to solve the shortage of coal labor. The Act of 1661 bound a worker to the mine for the rest of his life.

Living for numerous generations in the same small area seems to be more a factor of birth than choice. The Sharps, Russells, Hunters, and Condies all seemed embedded for generations in the Clackmannan mining area. Clackmannanshire is the smallest county in Scotland, stretching 10 miles to the north and south and 11 miles east and west. On the south it rises gently from the River Forth, broken by undulating hills, the river Devon, and the Ochil hills framing the northern border.

The Sharps were probably among the many mining families moved around to suit the work demand and conditions as decreed by the mine owner. Fishcross, a town in the center of Clackmannanshire, built a windmill in the early 18^th century to drain a coal pit. This windmill would have been a familiar sight for the Sharps since the 1841 Clackmannan Census found: "John Sharp 56, coal mining, Mary Sharp 54, Joseph age 13, Adam age 16 and Anne (Agnes) age 18 at Fish Cross, Colliery Village, East of Turnpike Road. Enumeration District 1, Description - In much of the parish of Clackmannan as lies to the north east of the Stone quarry at the last end of the village of Sauchie & is bounded on the east end of Gartmorn Dam leading to Coalsnaughton. Turnpike Road leading from Alloa to Tillicoultry." (The Sauchie they refer to is no longer a town – there is a New Sauchie that exists today but it is not the same town). Gartmorn Dam is almost in the center of Clackmannanshire. It is the oldest man made reservoir in Scotland still used as a Public Water Supply. It was created about 1713 by the Earl of Mar to provide waterpower to drain his coal mines at Holton. The beautiful rolling mountains in the background are the Ochils.

The second born child of John Sharp and Mary Hunter, Cecilia, died about 1830, and Joseph's three other elder siblings were married and would have been living on their own.

Fishcross was "built shortly after 1783 to house the workers in the Devon Iron Works or possibly the pits along the Coalsnaughton Road. It was comprised of five rows of stone built houses arranged around the cross roads at its center. A mining village, now like most of the neighboring villages, a dormitory town for Alloa and other larger towns."(Sauchie and Alloa - A People's History by John Adamson)

[image missing of Clackmannanshire, ebf, 2010]

"Each Coal hewer has a free house and yaird, twenty merks of money, half ane boll of meall, Six quarters of Iron (to make the fireplace) and his fyre Coall free yearly." He got a raise when he married, as well as wood planks to make a bed, and extra bonuses when children were born and the mother returned to work. If they married and brought a wife from another parish they received an additional bonus. When the children began working they earned a meager amount which rose as they became more competent and able to handle harder work. Sometimes the men were paid by the amount of coal they extracted, which was easier until the pit got deeper, then the wage dropped because it took longer to get it out. In 1799 all bound colliers became legally free. July 1^st became celebrated for them as their liberation day. Barbour Brace penned the meaningful lines:

Ah, freedom is a noble thing!

Freedom makes man to have liking

Freedom all solace to man gives!

He lives at ease that freely lives!

Even though the families still worked in the mines the door was opening for future options that were previously unavailable. By this time at least half of the miners had some ability to read which opened the world for them.

Alexander Wright, a young Scottish man, immigrated to Canada and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then wanted to share his new religion with his family so he sent a copy of Parley P. Pratt's "A Voice of Warning." From this small beginning the church established root. Alexander was called as one of the first two missionaries to Scotland and he returned with another Scot and they preached to their families and friends with much success in the area around Glasgow. Scotland in the 1840's was a period of religious tension and there were many seeking the truth. Orson Pratt came to preach in Scotland and wrote "Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions," published in Edinburgh. "Angry at the success of the missionaries in Clackmannan, a mob burned Joseph Smith in effigy in 1842."'

Elder William Gibson brought the gospel to the Sharps in Clackmannan and the LDS Church records lists five of them being baptized in 1847. "According to the records of Aunt Maggie Condie Sharp, John (1820) was baptized May 2, 1847 and ordained an elder shortly thereafter. .. .he performed 105 baptisms in the 12 months from September 12, 1847 to September 13, 1848. He baptized his sister Agnes Sharp Paterson and her husband; his parents; and his brothers, Joseph and Adam, in the two weeks from October 24 to November 6,1847. He baptized his wife Jean Paterson Sharp December 12, 1847. His sister Catherine Sharp Wilson, then a widow, was baptized February 7, 1848. He baptized Janet Cook August 27, 1848. The next day she married Adam Sharp in the Clackmannan Parish Church."

Clackmannan Parish Church

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/clackmannan/clackmannan/images/church.jpg

Thomas Condie, father of Margaret Condie, ran "The Crown" and the Latter-day Saints rented the upper part for meetings. Howard Sharp Bennion writes:

"although the great majority of these who joined the Mormon Church were the lowly esteemed colliers, the anger of the Clackmannanshire clergy was stirred and mob action aroused. When I visited the Parish Clerk of Clackmannan, Mr. James Alan Hunter, in August 1919 in his butt and bame two-room house across the street from the (Clackmannan) parish church, he said, 'This is the verr hoose where the Mormons were holdin’ a meetin’ when the mob came and rapped on the door and demanded entrance. My grandfather held them talking while the Mormons slid out the back windows and through the garden and went back through the fields to Sauchie." Mr. Hunter also said that his mother told many times of being taken by her father in the early morning to the top of the Clackmannan tower and there, as the sun was coming up, she saw the Mormons with their donkey carts stretching out for two miles or more on the trail from Sauchie on their way to Glasgow. The distance would be 35 to 40 road miles, a journey they made in a day and part of the next day, with an overnight stop on the way. There were no bagpipes singing farewell; only the sound of the donkeys' hoof and the axles squeaking as they walked beside these small carts leaving with what little worldly goods they could take with them as they left their known world behind and walked into the unknown.

When the Sharps left Sauchie in September of 1848, they left forever the life and cares of a region where they and their forebears had lived and labored honorably.

[image missing of The Crown, Clackmannan, Scotland, ebf 2010]

At least seven thousand Scots embraced the gospel and left their homeland to join the Saints in America. They made the two day journey to Glasgow and then down to Liverpool probably by train to their port of departure from England headed to New Orleans, Louisiana. (They may have actually left prior to the beginning of September to make it to Liverpool in time to leave September 7.) "John Murdoch, of New Cumnock in Ayrshire, composed these lines of farewell to his homeland:

Oh Scotland my country, my dear native home,

Thou land of the brave and the theme of my song,

Oh why should I leave thee and cross the deep sea,

To a strange land far distant lovely Scotland from thee...

But why should I linger or wish for to stay.

The voice of the Prophet is 'haste, flee away..."'

The essence of an 1848 Millennial Star edition had been to urge the faithful to immigrate as soon as possible. They requested lists of those arriving in Liverpool and the number prepared to immigrate in February. They were to forward their names and one pound deposit to secure the ship passage. They were told to calculate 7 pounds to travel to St Louis — children under 12 years old were half price. The "whole" price from Liverpool to Council Bluffs would be 10 pounds. The boats didn't go up to Council Bluffs when the water level was lower so it was most desirable to leave in early Spring for the Great Salt Lake. If more means were needed they "may tarry at St. Louis until sufficient can be earned to carry them forward." They were instructed that all should work for the gospel with contentment. The faithful are building the kingdom and will not be forgotten. The eyes of the Lord are upon them. Then a suggested supply list was given. A later Millennial Star entry states that the Saints were more pleasant travelers than normally on board, so other non-members began wanting to travel with them.

The Sharp's actual journey on the Erin's Queen is also mentioned in four Millennial Star issues as well as the diary of John Pidding Jones who was also a member of the ship’s company. Brother Jones wrote:

"when we set sail the wind was rather unfavorable but when we got out of the sight of Liverpool the wind took a sudden change in our favor which wafted us speedily over the mighty deep in the short time of 7 weeks we landed in New Orleans on Saturday morning Oct 28 about 6 o'clock a.m."

Other notes:

"Thirty-fifth Company - Erin's Queen 232 souls. The ship Erin's Queen sailed from Liverpool for New Orleans, September 7^th, 1848, having on board two hundred and thirty two second cabin passengers, including infants; all of these, with the exception of two or three persons, were saints. The people of Liverpool were astonished to see the order and regularity among them; for while large companies of emigrants upon other ships generally were conspicuous for their cursing and swearing, and were continually finding fault with each other, songs of praise and prayer were ascending up to heaven from the Erin's Queen.

Elder Simeon Carter, an American elder, who had labored as a missionary in the British Isles two or three years, was appointed president of the company, which had a prosperous voyage. While a number of passengers who had crossed the ocean about the same time, died on board, not one of the Saints on the Erin's Queen was lost, and only a very little sickness prevailed among them. The officers and crew were kind and courteous to the passengers; but there were some complaints in regard to the provisions served out on board, the fare not being as good as that provided by law.

From New Orleans, passage was secured on a steamboat, with which the journey was continued up the river to St. Louis, Missouri, where the company arrived November 6^th, 1848, well and in good spirits. All the Saints stopped at St. Louis for the winter, except four families who went up to Alton, Illinois. Nearly all got employment immediately after their arrival in St. Louis."

They were very blessed to have no deaths on the crossing and arrived in St. Louis "the day after the great fire which burned up 23 steamboats and about one third of the business part of the city. The cholera had been raging before the fire broke out. When the excitement caused by the conflagration was somewhat abated, the cholera broke out again with redoubled fury, until its victims numbered over 100 in a week."

The Sharps located seven miles from St. Louis in Grove Diggins and worked in the Gravois coal mines. Joseph's brother John had presided over a branch of the church in Clackmannanshire and was again appointed to preside over the Church in the St. Louis area. Ruth Martin in her book, Twentieth Ward History: 1856-1979 said, "Many members of the Church were stricken with the dread malady (cholera), and he, with others of his Brethren, went freely among the cholera patients administering to them. The cases of miraculous healing, by the power of God, under his personal administration, were marvelous." He wasn't able to save his mother; however, and she died and was buried in June of 1849.

In contrast to the sadness of losing saints to sickness and disease was the rejoicing when steamboats brought in new arrivals from Scotland. The thirty-seventh company on the Zetland brought 358 saints from England and Scotland to St. Louis on April 12^th 1849 which included the Thomas Condie family.

Meanwhile the Sharps worked in the coal mines until they could accumulate enough money and supplies to make the trek westward. They came by covered wagon in the John Sharp Independent Company of 1850. Their departure date in unknown and they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley between August 28, 1850 and September 1, 1850. This small independent company left St. Louis in the spring and was one of the earliest to arrive in Salt Lake Valley. Sharp family members in this company were:

John Sharp, 62, father of the brothers.

Adam Sharp who was 22 and his wife Janet Cook who was also 22 and their infant son, John Adam Sharp.

John Sharp who was 29 and his wife, Jane Patterson aged 31 and their children: John aged 8, James aged 6, Margaret aged 4, and an infant son, John C.

Joseph Sharp aged 20 and his wife, Jannet Condie aged 18.

There were also eight members of the Howard and Martha Jane Coray family that traveled with the Sharps.

James P. Sharp has an interesting story about the arrival of the Sharps. They did not like the appearance of the arid valley, nor their reception (little notice was paid them, says James P. Sharp) and so they decided to go on to California. But, it was too late in the year to move on, so they dug out a shelter at the mouth of what is now known as Red Butte Canyon. They were still there when winter snow set in so they used their wagons for roofs, and used stones to wall up the front and spent the harsh weather there. Workers came and were quarrying red sandstone for building the Council House, kitty-corner to the site of the Hotel Utah – now the Joseph Smith Building in downtown Salt Lake City. These workers were not skilled at quarrying. The Sharp brothers had been coal miners and quarrymen in Scotland, so they showed the others how to do the job. Brigham Young put them to work immediately.

These three Sharp brothers took up land in Salt Lake City. A plat in the office of the State Historical Society shows that John had the entire block now bounded by South Temple, E St., 1^st Ave. And D St. Adam took the east half of the block immediately east and Joseph took the west half of the block.

When the overland telegraph lines were being installed, no one could be found who was willing to freight the poles across the desert from Rush Valley to Deep Creek, near Nevada, nearly 200 miles away. At the request of Brigham Young, the Sharp brothers took the contract, and under the direction of Adam, the nearly 8,000 poles were delivered in spite of insurmountable hazards.

So the brother's engaged in the freighting business. Joseph made many trips across the plains to purchase oxen and wagons and supplies and then heading west to sell the goods in Salt Lake City. He traveled into both Montana and Nevada.

Joseph was about five feet eight inches tall and of moderate build. He could hold fifty pounds at arms length for one full minute and could shoulder 150 pounds of wheat with his feet together.

Joseph first married Jannet Condie, born August 4, 1831 at Clackmannan, Scotland. They were married at Grove Diggins, a coal mining camp near St. Louis, Missouri on August 25, 1849. They had a son and four daughters. Jannet died January 19, 1859 in Salt Lake City.

Joseph also married Jannet’s younger sister, Margaret Condie on March 13, 1857. They were the parents of Agnes Sharp, who died at the age of four, Joseph Condie Sharp, and Cecilia Sharp. After the death of Joseph Sharp, Margaret, at the age of 25, had the responsibility for rearing her own children and the younger children of her elder sister. Margaret had crossed the plains to Salt Lake Valley, walking much of the way, as a girl of 13. She arrived in the valley with her parents, Thomas Condie and Helen Sharp on September 2, 1852. After the marriage of her daughter, Cecilia to Frederick Ellis Barker, Margaret Condie lived in the Barker home until her death on June 20, 1928.

Joseph died September 7, 1864 at Willow Springs, about 300 miles east of Salt Lake City, apparently from a hernia. Joseph was a very strong and capable teamster. In 1864, as Joseph was preparing to go east, he was asked by Brigham Young to take only a skeleton crew with him, and to let some of the newly arrived emigrants go with him as drivers, and return with their families. Against his better judgment, he agreed.

With the inexperienced help, the train moved slowly, with many wanderings and strayings. At Willow Springs in Wyoming, one of the new drivers allowed his wagon to get off the trail and the rear wheel sank into a mud hole. After five men couldn't budge it, Joseph brushed them aside, placed his shoulders against the wheel, grasped two of the spokes and lifted the wheel clear of the hole and the oxen then pulled the wagon ahead. He died the next morning of a ruptured blood vessel at the age of 34 years.

An account from the “Biography of Andrew Christian Nielson” says of this incident: “Joseph Sharp from Salt Lake City came up from Kansas and hired 52 young men to drive teams with merchandise across the plains. He got 22 Danes and 30 Scotsmen. Took us 16 miles down the river to Atchison, Kansas where they was filling out buying their goods, oxen and wagons. Here we laid a month in a place called Mormon Grove and herded cattle and helped to fit out. We were to have 20 dollars a month and board and we though we had a snap of it, but before we got to Salt Lake City we found that snap was in the wrong place. Here was between 400 and 500 wild fat four or five year old steers bought up – only a few had ever had a yoke on and still worse very few of the boys had ever seen an ox. Some was tailors, some sailors, and every kind of tradesmen, mostly colliers. While we fitted out we had stampedes galore. I should wish very much if I could show the young generation now living some of the scenes of that trip. Think of a condition here one forenoon in July after a tremendous struggle in getting those wild animals yoked up and hitched to the wagon – three to six yoke to each wagon loaded with goods from 3500 to 8000 pounds on each wagon – then think of the teamsters just as wild and ignorant about their business as the oxen. And then most of them could not understand a word of English, so the captain hollering and commanding only caused confusion. An hour after we had started out from camp that memorable day with our wagons, you could for five miles all around the plains see oxen, wagons, teamsters and a dozen horsemen going at break neck speed, and it was a miracle that none got hurt, nor anything broke, but under these conditions I have seen strong men cry. But on we went. We had 1200 miles from Atchison to Salt Lake City. We struck Platt River at Fort Kearney then traveled to within 88 miles of Julesburgh, there it took us two days to cross the Platt River. Sometimes it took 20 yoke of cattle to pull one wagon and water waste deep. But it went all right ‘til we got toward Fort Laramie. Then our oxen commenced dying and before we reached Sweetwater we had lost nearly half of our oxen and of course, the loads got too heavy for the others. At Willow Springs our captain (Joseph Sharp) died and James Sharp went 50 miles to a telegraph station and sent a dispatch to Salt Lake City for a metal coffin and 80 yoke of cattle, also provisions. Meanwhile we made a rough coffin. I washed, shaved, and cleaned him as well as I could and John Smith, the Patriarch, who had been our captain from Copenhagen and took the independent company across the plains, hitched his horse with the captains and him and me drove with the corpse. It was calculated to take him to Salt Lake City or ‘til we met the metal coffin, then put him in that, but the next day we had to bury him as we could not keep him in the hot weather. We drove through Devil’s Gate in the middle of the night and buried him at tree crossing, then when the coffin came we took him up and put him on the train, but before the oxen and provisions came we had been without grub for several days. All we had was a little chop feed that the captain’s horses had left. In the meantime I had left the train and got to drive a mule team 300 miles to Salt Lake City and had a good time, while the oxen had a pretty hard time. I arrived in Salt Lake City the 26^th of September 1864, two weeks before the oxen came in.”

Another account of this fateful event from his daughter, Cecilia states, "His last trip was to Kansas City. He returned with freight and Danish emigrants who were to drive the oxen, but did not know how, and were afraid to ford the river." He was in charge of a company of emigrants who had little or no experience as teamsters. He had to cross and recross the river to drive each team across and got soaking wet; he caught cold, and Joseph died at Willow (or Soda) Springs, about 300 miles east of Salt Lake City apparently from a hernia (and exposure to cold). He lifted beyond his strength, in his weakened condition, in getting a wagon out of a mudhole. (Both Mama and Grandma emphasized the lifting, rather than the exposure as having caused his death.) His body was buried temporarily, while a zinc coffin had to be brought to the place where he died. The body was brought to Salt Lake City and buried in the City Cemetery.”

Compiled and edited by Ruth H. Barker

Sources: Clarence Sharp Barker Life History, by himself

Joseph Sharp by Bonnie Rice, 2001

Biography of Andrew Christian Nielson in possession of David McKay Barker