Madera County Biographies

L. ORRIN SHARP

Transcribed by Craig A Hahn

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

L. ORRIN SHARP, Postmaster at Madera, was born in Smyrna, Delaware, November 17, 
1839. His father, Lewis Sharp, was a tanner by trade, and during the gold 
excitement of 1849 came to California with a party of eleven men, who located 
the great Mariposa quartz mine, bringing a quartz-mill with them; but 
quartz-mining being little known the project was abandoned, and they followed 
placer-mining with varied success. Mr. Sharp found one nugget near Mariposa 
which weighed fifty and a quarter ounces, and owing to its peculiar shape, and 
fineness was sold for $1,100. In the fall of 1851 he returned to the East, and 
in January, 1852, with his family, embarked again for California to permanently 
settle at Mariposa and follow mining. 
     The educational advantages of our subject were extremely limited, as at the 
age of thirteen years he began his mining experiences, which he actively 
followed for many years in California and Nevada, and has always been more or 
less interested in mining securities. In 1865 he located several oil wells in 
the Coast Range, but owing to the expense of transportation the project was 
abandoned after about one year of labor. From mining Mr. Sharp turned his 
attention to the sheep business, which he followed with marked success for many 
years. He was married in Mariposa County in March, 1867, to Miss Frances Wilson 
Smith, a native of Ohio. Mr. Sharp then established his home in Buchanan, Fresno 
County, and continued the raising of sheep. In 1876 he opened a general 
merchandise store in Buchanan, which he continued until 1880, and then sold his 
sheep and store interests and came to Madera to reside. He then engaged in 
mercantile life, as a partner of Edwin Moore for about three years; then, 
selling his interest, he engaged in the sale of agricultural implements, which 
he has since continued to follow. In 1881 Mr. Sharp bought land near the town, 
and has devoted much of his leisure time to the culture and development of new 
and rare grapes and fruit trees. 
     In 1888 Mr. Sharp was appointed Postmaster by the Cleveland administration, 
and after the office was made third-class and a Presidential one, he was 
reappointed by President Benjamin Harrison. In this instance the evidence of 
popular esteem and confidence is not emphasized so much in the reappointment as 
in the original appointment by Mr. Cleveland, as Mr. Sharp is and always ha been 
a stanch Republican, and has voted for every Republican President. He has been 
active in all county and State elections, and at one time was the only 
Republican in his precinct. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp have three sons and two 
daughters, all of whom are occupied in and about Madera.
 
Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, 
California Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892, p. 470-471