Bio: Martin H. Sharp, Caddo Parish La Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890 Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker ************************************************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ******** MARTIN H. SHARP is an extensive planter residing near Longwood, La., but his birth occurred in Montgomery, Ala., on December 11, 1833. His parents, Cunningham and Elizabeth (Gibbons) Sharp, having been born in North Carolina, moving to Alabama after their marriage. The father was of Irish descent, a Democrat, a planter and a soldier in the War of 1812. He died at the age of seventy years and she at sixty years of age, they having been members of the Presbyterian Church and the parents of ten children, the subject of this sketch being the youngest of the family and the only one now living. In 1855 he came to Caddo Parish and commenced to till the soil, but in 1859 settled in Ward 3, and in 1868 one mile northwest of Longwood, where he has a well improved plantation of 400 acres, his entire acreage amounting, however, to 1,800,500 being under cultivation. On coming to Louisiana he was without means, but by industry he has become one of the wealthiest planters in this section. In 1863-64 he was in Harrison's regiment, Third Louisiana, and for some time held the office of sergeant. He was a heavy loser by the war, in fact lost all he had accumulated, but has since retrieved his fortunes. In 1886 he opened a store to supply his own plantation, and has since conducted the same, doing well. His marriage took place in 1866 to Miss Sallie Parnell, daughter of John Parnell. She was born in this parish and died in 1881, on December 30, having borne a family of seven children, four now living: Joseph, Richard, James and Pearl, the two youngest being at home. Anna died in 1885, when fifteen years of age, and the other two died in infancy. In 1882 Mr. Sharp was married to Miss Jennie Arnold of Kellyville, Tex., and by her has one child, Percy. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, his first wife having also been a member, and he is a Democrat, politically, and a member of the K. of P.