Ephraim Sharp, 1815-1898, for whom Sharp County was named, was an early Arkansas pioneer. He also served in the state legislature during the 15th and 17th sessions of the Arkansas General Assembly.
Ephraim Sharp was born on July 30th 1815, in Hamilton County, Ohio, he was the ninth of ten children born to farmers John Sharp and Elizabeth Elston Sharp. His mother died when he was three. When he was twelve years old, his father moved the family from Ohio to Indiana.
On October 29th 1833, Sharp married his first wife, Margaret Stevens; the couple had five children.
In 1837, Sharp and his brother, William, moved their families to Arkansas and settled as farmers in Sugar Loaf Township, near the present town of Shirley Arkansas. After 1848, Sharp moved to the Evening Shade area in what was then Lawrence County. Sharp’s wife died in July 1853. His brother had moved away to Independence County in 1847, but in 1853 he joined Sharp in Evening Shade, where the brothers began their joint business ventures and lifelong relationship as business partners.
On January 8, 1854, Sharp married Malinda Eliza Murphy, they had one child. In August 1856, he purchased land in Reed’s Creek Township near Strawberry from Thomas Cochran and built a double log residence into which he moved his family. His second wife passed away in 1857, and the following year in 1858, he married Elvina Godwin; they had two children.
With the war between the states beginning, Sharp tried to remain neutral, staying on his Lawrence County land and farming.
In 1864, Sharp was selected to represent Lawrence County in the Fifteenth Arkansas General Assembly, comprised of individuals willing to serve the Union cause, as opposed to the Confederate state legislature.
In 1868, Sharp was elected to represent the Second District, which consisted of Lawrence, Greene and Randolph Counties. During this session, he presented the bill, which he and his brother had drafted, proposing to break off a portion of Lawrence County for a new county, the seat of which would be at Evening Shade.
On July 18, 1868, Governor Clayton signed the act and named the new county in honor of “Ephraim Sharp, the gentleman from Lawrence.”
Sharp returned home and finished his days on the homestead he had built near Strawberry Arkansas.
Sharp’s third wife died in December 1872, and Sharp married his 4th wife Nancy Croom Smith on April 27, 1873, they had no children.
Ephraim Sharp died on November 17, 1898, and is buried in the Hibarger Cemetery in Lawrence County.