Kings County CA Archives Biographies.....Sharp, Benjamin V April 29, 1839 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Kellie Crnkovich markkell95@aol.com and Kathy Sedler December 21, 2005, 1:43 pm Author: History of Tulare and Kings Counties This prominent citizen of Kings county, Cal., whose office is in the court house at Hanford, is the present efficient horticultural comŽmissioner of that division of the state. Benjamin V. Sharp, a native of Schenectady county, N. Y., was born April 29, 1839. There he grew to maturity and gained his primary education. In 1858, when he was nineteen years old, he went to McLean county, Ill., and located not far from Bloomington. He began his higher education in the Illinois Wesleyan University. It was interrupted, however, in 1861 by President Lincoln's call to arms. Young Sharp enlisted in Company K, Second Illinois Cavalry, but was discharged on account of ill health after a year's strenuous service. Returning to his home in Illinois he resumed his college course and was duly graduated. After leaving college he was for two years superintendent of a soldiers orphans' home at Bloomington. Then he was for some time in the hotel business in that city. Later he farmed until 1900, when he settled in Kings county, Cal. He bought one hundred and twenty acres of land a mile and a half south of Hanford. It was mostly in fruit, but some of the trees have since been removed. He made his home on the property until 1905, when he rented it; in 1906 he sold it, and since that time he has lived in Hanford. In 1896 he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors horticultural commissioner for Kings county, an office which he filled with great ability and wholly to the satisfaction of the public until in 1904, when he resigned it. He was reappointed in 1906 and has served continuously ever since. As a citizen he is public-spirited and helpful to a remarkable degree, and so great is his faith in Hanford that he has invested heavily in its real estate. Fraternally he affiliates with the Masonic order. In September, 1864, Mr. Sharp married Elizabeth A. Hazel, a native of Ohio, but then a resident of Illinois. They have two sons, James A. Sharp of Chicago and Burns B. Sharp, a contractor well known in Hanford, which is the center of his business operations. Additional Comments: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 pp. 543-544 Transcribed by Kathy Sedler File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/kings/bios/sharp201bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 2.9 Kb