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Enlisted in Company B, Fourth Infantry Regiment, South Carolina Reserves at age 16. Paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina.
History of South Carolina Volume III page 160
edited by Yates Snowden, LL. D.
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York 1920
Winfield Kennedy Sharp, M. D. For thirty years Doctor Sharp practiced medicine at Townsville in Anderson County. That long professional career entitles him to deserved prominence in that community. For the past fifteen years he has enjoyed the owndership and possession of a fine country estate near Pendleton, and is still active in the management of his extensive affairs.
Doctor Sharp was born near Walhalla, Oconee County, December 28, 1847, (Note: pension application gives date of birth as December 27, 1848) a son of John and Catherine (White) Sharp. His father was born in Orange County, N. C., a son of John Sharp, a native of Germany who came to America at the age of twelve years. John Sharp, Jr. moved to Oconee County at the age of eighteen, and married Catherine White in that county. Her father, ALexander White, was from Abbeville County and an early settler and farmer and tanner in Oconee County. Doctor Sharp's mother was born in Oconee County. A curious fact regarding Doctor Sharp's parents is that both were born in the same year, and both died on the same day at the age of seventy-nine and were buried in the same coffin. They were the parents of fourteen children, thirteen of whom reached mature years, Doctor Sharp being the last survivor.
Doctor Sharp lived on his father's farm in Oconee County and acquired a common school education. He studied medicine under Dr. L.B. Johnson of Walhalla and in 1874 graduated from the Louisville Medical College in Kentucky. He at once began practice at Townville in Anderson County, and was a popular and much esteemed physician and surgeon there for thirty years. When he retired from active practice in 1904 he bought the well known plantation Rivoli, the old Adger homestead, and there he enjoys every comfort to make life congenial and happy. He has always had some farm interests. Doctor Sharp is a Master Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
In 1870 he married Mrs. Maria (Ledbetter) Alexander, a daughter of Daniel Ledbetter. They have nine living children, and one other died at the age of thirteen. Their sons Frank Augustus and Joseph Newton Sharp were both soldiers in the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Their son Windfield Kennedy Sharp, Jr., is now connected with the United States Public Health Service.
Thursday, March 18, 1920
DR. W. K. SHARP DIED PENDLETON TODAY
WELL KNOWN PHYSICIAN HAS PASSED AWAY
One of the Oldest and Best Loved Physicians of Anderson County.
Dr. Winfield Kennedy Sharpe, one of Anderson county's oldest and best known physicians, died at his home between Sandy Springs and Pendleton this morning at 9 o'clock. His death came as the end of a period of illness of a serious nature which followed his declining health of the past several years.
Dr. Sharpe was the youngest of fourteen children of John and Catherine Sharpe of Oconee county. He waas born near old Bethel church in Oconee county and was educated at Walhalla, attending the old Newberry College which was located there at the time. Though Dr. Sharpe was always peculiar in the fact that he would never tell his age, he was about 74 years of age at the time of his death, according to friends who have known him for years.
Dr. Sharpe was but a lad during the civil war, but during the last few months of the struggle, left his father and mother at the farm and joined his eight brothers then engaged in the army of the Confederacy. His action, however, was brief, for he was shortly forced to return to his home to care for his parents. Dr. Sharpe's parents both died in 1884, the old couple having both died of natural causes within a few hours of each other. They were buried together in the same coffin.
Dr. Sharpe received his medical education in Louisville, Ky., and after his graduation came to Anderson. He entered business in the firm of Sharpe and Ledbetter at Townville engaged in general merchandise. A saw mill, cotton gin, and the nucleous of the thriving community were operated by this firm. Dr. Sharpe also had an extensive medical practice during this time.
Dr. Sharpe was married to Mrs. Maria Alexander, a sister of the late D. A. Ledbetter of Anderson, and to this union was born ten children, one of which died in infancy and the others surviving him.
Some 15 years ago, Dr. Sharpe moved to the old Bowen place near Pendleton and has made his home there since that time.
Dr. Sharpe is survived by his widow and the following sons and daughters: John Sharpe, of Sandy Springs; Joe Sharpe of Columbia; Oliver Sharpe, now a medical student in Atlanta, Ga.; and Mrs. James M. Moss, of Walhalla; Mrs. Floyd Stevenson, of near Fair Play and Mrs. Bertie Ligon of near Townville.
The funeral arrangements have not been learned, but is is thought will be held tomorrow at the home.
Occupation: doctor and merchant
Religion: Presbyterian
Excerpt from JOURNEYS INTO THE PAST - The Anderson Region's Heritage by Frank A. Dickson, pp112-113
Since the development of Townville shortly before the 1800's stories of the existence of gold there have passed from one generation to another. Winfield K. Sharp III, a resident of Sandy Springs, who has a large collection of relics, including Indian handiwork, tells how a marvel of his youth was a bottle of gold ore that his grandfather, Dr. Winfield K. Sharp, cherished through his life as a memento of his gold prospecting years at Townville.
Sharp says that as a young man his grandfather moved to Townville with Judge J. S. Fowler from Dahlonega, Georgia, the gold mining center where Vice President John C. Calhoun, who lived at Fort Hill, the site of Clemson university, operated the old Parks gold mine with his slaves during the slack seasons of farming. Seized with the gold fever even after his removal to South Carolina, Dr. Sharp yieled to the stories of gold in the Townville soil and started mining operations with two experienced miners from North Carolina.
The physician and his workers realized profit from their activities in a fascinating hobby for Dr. Sharp at a mining location which has not been revealed by his descendants.
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