Ritchie County, West Virginia          Biography of Joseph N. SHARPNACK

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 62

JOSEPH N. SHARPNACK, the efficient and popular county
clerk of Ritchie County, was born in Wirt County, this state,
on the 12th of August, 1868, and is a son of William H. and
Catherine C. (Smith) Sharpnack, the former born in Wetzel
County, this state, (then Virginia), April 15, 1842, and the
latter in Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1844. She was a
child when her father, Sinclair Smith, came with his family
to Wirt County, West Virginia, where she was reared and
educated and where her marriage was solemnized. William
H. Sharpnack represented West Virginia as a valiant young
soldier of the Union in the Civil war, he having continued
with his regiment until the close of the war and having then
returned to West Virginia, where he gave many years of
effective service as a teacher in the public schools, his peda-
gogic activities having continued until his death in 1912, and
his wife having previously passed away in 1906. Both were
earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr.
Sharpnack was a stalwart republican, and he served a number
of years as postmaster at Freeport, Wirt County. He was
actively affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. Of
the two children of the family Joseph N., of this review, is the
elder, and Minnie C. is the wife of R. C. Marshall, of Cairo,
Ritchie County.

Joseph N. Sharpnack received the advantages of the public
schools, and thereafter he worked in a store in his native
county. In 1897 he took a position as clerk in a general store
at Cairo, Ritchie County, and later he served as cashier of the
Bank of Cairo. In 1910 he removed to Harrisville, the
county seat, and initiated his service as deputy county clerk,
of which position he continued the incumbent until 1914,
when he was elected county clerk, an office in which he has
since continued his careful and effective service, he having
been re-elected in November, 1920. He has purchased an
attractive residence property since removing to Harrisville,
and the same constitutes the family home. He is a republican
n politics, is affiliated with the Blue Lodge and Chapter of
the Masonic fraternity at Pennsboro, this county, and his
wife is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1904 Mr. Sharpnack wedded Miss Mabel C. Mitchell,
of New Matamoras, Ohio, a daughter of Joseph and Mary E.
(Schwartz) Mitchell. Her father was an ex-soldier of an
Ohio regiment during the Civil war, and was prominent in the
politics of Washington County. He died in 1907. The mother
of Mrs. Sharpnack still survives, her residence being in New
Matamoras. Mrs. Sharpnack is a popular figure in the repre-
sentative social activities of Harrisville.