Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/809

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 699 Thomas B. Sharp, who is ably filling the office of marshal of Frederiektown, ilissoiiri, has been the popular and efficient incumbent of a. number of important offices of public trust and responsibility since his ari-ival in this place, in 1892. He was sheriff of iladi- son county for four years and for two j'ears was county collector. He is loyal and public- spirited in his civic attitude and is ever on the qui vive to do all in his power to ad- vance the be^t interests of this section of the state. Mr. Sharp was born in Iron county, Mis- souri, some five miles south of Ironton, the date of his nativity being the 2Sth of July, 1855. His father, John Q. A. Sharp, was a son of Robert L. Shaip and he died in 18SS, at the age of sixty- two years. John Sharp was a small boy when his father worked at the mine LaMotte. As a youth he became interested in a colliery, engaging in the manu- facture of charcoal until the Pilot Knob mine was started, when he secured employ- ment in it as a miner. He also owned a farm sixteen miles southwest of Fredericktown, on the St. Francis river, where he resided dur- ing the closing years of his life, his death having occurred in 1888. He married Miss Jane Sutton and they became the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this review was the third in order of birth and four of whom, two sons and two daughters, are living at the present time, in 1911. To the public schools of Iron and Madison county Thomas B. Sharp is indebted for his preliminary educational training. He was a child of ten years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Iron county to the vicinity of Fredericktown, where he has since passed the greater portion of his life. For three years he was engaged in I'anehing and stock-raising in Texas and he holds a reputa- tion for being the first man in Madison county to feed a carload of stock here. He is the owner of considerable farming property in Madison county and he also owns land in Oklahoma, his holdings in this county amount- ing to eight hundred acres, the same con- taining timber and valuable mineral deposits. A portion of this land is under cultivation. In 1892 Mr. Sharp was honored by his fel- low citizens with election to the office of sher- iff of Madison county and that year marks his advent in Fredericktown. His work as sheriff covered a period of foi;r years and during that time he was instrumental in greatly raising the standard of law and order in the county. In 1896 he was elected county collector and in 1908 was chosen for the of- fice of city marshal. He was re-elected to the latter office in 1910 and is serving in that capacity at the present time. In politics he is an uncompromising supporter of the prin- ciples and policies promulgated by the Demo- cratic party, in the local councils of which he is an active worker. On January 27, 1877, Mr. Sharp wedded Miss Alma S. King, whose birth occurred in Madison county and who is a daughter of Alexander King, a farmer near the St. Fran- cis river. Mr. and Mi-s. Sharp are the jjar- ents of four children, concei-ning whom the following brief data are here recorded : jMillie Emeline is the wife of William T. White, a farmer in Madison county, and they have one child, Thomas; Robert L. remains at the parental home; Flavia Eveline is a stenog- rapher in the Third National Bank building at St. Louis; and George Gilbert is in the United States Marine service, his headquar- ters being at Norfolk, Virginia. In fraternal circles Mr. Sharp is a valued and appreciative member of the time-hon- ored Masonic order and he is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Brother- hood of America and the Modern Woodmen of America. In religious matters he is a con- sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. The life of Mr. Sharp is a noble illustration of what independence, self-faith and self-reliance can accomplish in America. He is absolutely self-made and for that reason his admirable success in the business world of this section of the state is the more gratify- ing to contemplate. George W. Tarlton. M. D. One of the prominent and well known physicians and surgeons of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is Dr. George W. Tarlton, who in connection with his medical work, conducts a large and flour- ishing drug business at Cape Girardeau. Dr. George W. Tarlton was born in the state of Kentuck.y, just across the river from New Madrid, the date of his nativity being the 13th of October, 1849. He is a son of Alexander C. Tarlton, who was born in 1828, at the old Tarlton home in AVayne county, about four miles northeast of Wappapello, on which beautiful estate he was reared and where he was engaged in agricultural opera- tions during the greater part" of his active business career. In 1864, on the 18th of