Celtic Celebration - Peery's Egyptian Theatre

Idlewild is honored to be back at Peery's Egyptian Theatre with our old friends Celtic Beat and the Galway Pipers. The event is for Saturday March 17th, 2012 Saint Patrick's Day. The time is 7:30 pm to 9:15 pm.

Experience the authentic textures of Ireland and Scotland at Peery’s Egyptian Theater’s annual Celtic Celebration. High energy jigs and lyrical ballads weave an enchantment. Step dancers bring fire and energy to the stage. Haunting pipes and drums inspire images of lonely cliffs and brilliant green fields. Come celebrate the Irish in you.

Celtic Beat, Feet of Fire under the direction of LaRae Thackeray and the Galloway Highlanders Pipes and Drums will once again take the stage at the Egyptian. These phenomenal performers will be joined by the local Celtic group Idlewild. Dave Sharp on Irish Flute, Vocals, Storytelling, Cittern, Moutain Dulcimer, Carol Sharp on Whistle, Celtic Harp, Teresa Welch on Fiddle and Patrick Leary on Guitar.

Venue Details
The historic Peery's Egyptian Theater is a community performing arts center in downtown Ogden. It hosts live musical and theatric events and also cinema.

Peery's Egytian Theatre
2415 Washington Blvd.
Ogden, Utah

801-689-8700

http://www.peerysegyptiantheatre.com/

In past years the tickets have sold out some weeks before the event. In order to attend you may want to order soon.

Sincerely,

David S. Sharp

2012 Interfaith Musical Tribute

Salt Lake City Rountable Presents
2012 Interfaith Musical Tribute
Many Faiths one Family
Sunday February 26th, 2012 at the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square. Earth Based Music, Jewish Music, Unitarian Choir, LDS Children's Choir, Tahi Buddist music and dance, Christian Gospel Choir, Hindu music and dance, Little Taiko Buddhist Drums, Presbyterian Bell Ringers, Native American Flute and more. Flutes from various cultures are featured elements of each of the groups.
www.interfaithroundtable.org (free tickets are available)

INTERFAITH TRIBUTE 2012 – 10 year anniversary of Interfaith

Sunday, February 26, 2012

A. Organ Prelude - Bonnie Goodliffe

B. Welcome – Carole Mikita  (at podium)

C. Native American Flute (center stage mic) – Wayne Gardner – Northern Ute

D. Prayer – Lacee Harris (podium) – Northern Ute Piute

E. Elder Gary Crittenden, Area Seventy (podium)

Elder Gary Crittenden is a member of the sixth quorum of the seventy since

April 2007. Prior to that, he served as President of the Yorktown New York Stake

in Westchester County, New York and Fairfield County, Connecticut. He and his

wife, Cathy, have been married 32 years and are the parents of three married

children-two daughters and one son. They are also grandparents to six (soon to

be eight) grandchildren. They are members of the Manhattan First Ward in the

New York, New York Stake.

Sister Crittenden is a stay-at-home mom and enjoys a wide range of activities with

her children and grandchildren . She is a fine quilter, seamstress and pianist. Her

family would say that she is the heart of her family. Among her many church

Callings, she has served as a President of the Primary, Young Women's and Relief

Society.

Elder Crittenden works as the Chief Financial Officer of Citigroup, one of the

largest financial institutions in the world. Before his current position at Citigroup, he

was Chief Financial Officer of American Express, Monsanto and Sears Roebuck

and Company.

F. Governor’s Representative – Greg Bell? (podium)

F. Elaine Emmi – History of Interfaith – Interfaith Rountable Board Secretary (podium)

Elaine has been with Interfaith from the start. She is one of the driving forces that keeps Salt Lake Interfaith happening. By religious faith she is a Quaker.

TRIBUTE PROGRAM (Carole will introduce each number from podium)

1. Ogden Buddhist Taiko Group - (Buddhist) - Stan Hirai - director

The Ogden Buddhist Taiko Group is affiliated with the Buddhist Church of Ogden.   The Buddhist Church of Ogden is a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temple which is a Japanese form of Buddhism founded in the 13^th Century.  The group is comprised of members of all ages and has been in existence since 1977.  The group finds that performing is very satisfying both personally and spiritually.  The sharing of the art of taiko with others is a great way of expressing both the Japanese art form of taiko but also of sharing the spiritual aspects of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism.  In Buddhist taiko the goal for the player is to become one with the drum just as in Buddhism the goal of each individual practicing Buddhism is to become one with Buddha or to become enlightened.

They will be performing “Ashura”, which translated means War or Warring Demons.  Written by and played with the permission of Rev. Masami Kodani of the Kinnara Taiko Group.  In this case the war described in this piece is not one fought on the battlefield but one that is demonstrated in our interactions with people and relationships in our everyday lives.  In this piece the group plays as if in conflict with each other and then will end together as if in resolution of their conflict.

The second piece was written by the Japanese taiko group Ondekoza in tribute to the people of Hachi Jo Island, one of the islands of Japan, an island unique in its support of the performing arts.  The group Ondekoza taught this piece to Denver Taiko Group one of Ogden Buddhist Taiko Group mentor groups who in turn taught it to them.

2. Idlewild - (Earth based) David Sharp

Carol Sharp - Celtic Harp/David Sharp - Celtic Flute/Teresa Lynn Welch – Violin/Pat Leary – Guitar

To honor the Earth as our Mother is a common spiritual theme passed down to us from ancient times. This includes honoring animals as well as the spirits of every grove, spring, rock formation or other feature of nature. We humans are not separate from nature, but are one aspect of it. We must do our best to stay in harmony with the whole of the natural world.

Idlewild will be performing a medley of original songs:

Clackmannen ©2012 David S. Sharp – Is an air written in the Scottish

idiom. The Sharps were a family of Quarrymen, Stone Cutters and Coal

Miners from Clackmannen from 1500 to 1848. The village was named after the megalithic standing stone next to the naval cross in the town square. Clackmannen is Gallic for “Stone of the Manu” or Sea God.

Mary Hunter Sharp ©2012 David S. Sharp – is a Strathspey written in the

Scottish dance idiom. Named after the composers immigrant ancestor that

set out for Utah in 1848.

The Firth of Forth ©2012 David S. Sharp – is a Country dance reel

written in the Scottish idiom. Named after the inlet where the village of Clackmannen is located.

As an interesting side note: David’s family quarried and freighted the red sandstone foundations for the Tabernacle from their family quarry in Red Butte canyon in the east side of the valley.

3. Karadi Karagam - (Hindu) 

Presented by : Utah Tamil Sangam

Choreography: Divya School of Dance

Director: Anuradha Narayanan

Song: Pachai Malai Pavazha Malai

Kutrala Kuravanji is a grand musical play, set in the picturesque town nestled in at the foot of a mountain waterfall named Kutralam, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Written in beautiful ornate Tamil by Melagaram Tirikooda Rasappa Kavirayar in 1715 in praise of Hindu God Shiva and his son Murugan – the Tamil God for Valor, beauty and knowledge. A dance drama, set in verse and related by the young maidens of Kutralam, is one of both religious devotion and human love and paints a poignant picture of life in south India 300 years ago. The Kuravanjis are also known as Kurathis, who are the essential characters in the musical play. Kurathis are sooth sayers, and their tribe is very talented in craftsmaking. We are going to witness today one such song from Kutrala Kuravanji where the beautiful Kuravanjis dance about the pride of her beautiful rich mountain and land, -- the land that not only keeps them happy, but teaches them arts and also keeps them healthy in mind ,body and spirit, in short One with God !

4. Unitarian Choir

The First Unitarian Church of Salt lake City acts as a bastion of liberal theology and thought along the Wasatch Front. Established in Salt Lake City in the late 19th century, its permanent home was established at 600 South and 1300 East with the building of its church there in 1927. Lead by Seven Governing Principles, Unitarianism has a strong directive to  attend to social justice, mindful living and a conscientious awareness to the interconnectedness of all life and the well-being of our planet.  Reflecting these ideals, members of the Chancel Choir will perform"Liberty and Justice". Composed by our Director of Music, David Owens, this piece is a rousing call to 'Sing with One United Voice with Liberty and Justice for All'.

The Chancel Choir of The First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City:

"Liberty and Justice"

Director of Music: David Owens

Assistant Choral Directors: Holly Stuart and David A. Zabriskie

5. Reading from the Kuran (Muslim) Imam Muhammed Mehtar

(Still waiting for info from the Imam)

6. Mama's Temple Church Choir - (Christian Gospel Choir) –

Under the dynamic direction of Minister of Music Rosalind E. Cazares

 (Contenders for the Faith of Jesus Christ Inc)

Overseer & Founder (Mama) Dr. Rosemary Redmon Cosby (Apr 1932 –Jan 1997)

Pastors Elder Mark L. and Co-founder Rosalind E. Cazares

Assistant Pastors Elder Adrian and Rosae Jefferson

In the cold winter month of January of 1961 (Mama) Dr. Rosemary Redmon Cosby and her four young children left Indianapolis, Indiana by bus to Kansas and started out walking on the Highway to Utah in obedience to God after Mama received a call from God, To Go to Salt Lake City and seek His souls.  Mama worked her way to Salt Lake preaching revivals and God answered their prayers on their journey giving Mama and her children safe rides and warming the weather up for them as they walked along the highway.  After arriving in Utah, God richly blessed Mama after many hardships and years of faithfulness to God and hard work; truly a Rags to Riches story.  Since Mama’s passing in January of 1997, Pastors Elder Mark & Co-founder Rosalind Cazares, Mama’s faithful daughter, keeps Mama’s beautiful legacy and continues her great work.We believe in the water baptism in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and receiving of the Gift of the Holy Ghost according to Acts 2:38 preached by Peter on the Day of Pentecost.

7. (The African group was here, but they canceled. There may be a group we will slide in here, but I will have to do that last minute if it happens.)

8. LDS Children's Choir –

We will next hear from a group of children from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints singing a medley of Primary songs. The group is calling themselves the “Mormon Tabernacle Primary Children’s Choir”, and consists of children age 7-12 from the East Millcreek, East Millcreek North, Holladay North, Canyon Rim and Monument Park Stakes. They are under the direction of Susan Kaelin with Dean Kaelin at the piano.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the official name of the religion commonly called the Mormon Church. They believe first and foremost that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and the Son of God. While their backgrounds and experiences are diverse, Mormons are united by a belief that we are all children of God.  They believe God has called a prophet that is on the earth at this time to guide and help all of his children. The church believes in helping all people and is involved in humanitarian efforts throughout the world.

9. Khemera Dance Troupe - (Buddhist) - Chanda Chuon

Name: Robaim Choun Por (Cambodian Classical Blessing Dance) This dance depicts goddesses descending from heaven to offer the world a blessing of peace and prosperity. This dance is often used as a way to bless the audience at the beginning of religious events or a royal ceremony.

Names of performers to be listed in the program (directors, choreographers, etc): Performance by: Sinoeun Poeut, Sovanny May, Jenny Hor, Julie Hor, Samnang Loeung, Londa Loeung and Rannie Sin. Under the direction of Chanda Chuon.

Cambodian classical dance is a sacred art form that is passed down verbally from generation to generation. In it's original form, only the king and his honored guests were allowed to view the performances. These dances were often used as a bridge to bind this word with the celestial world of his (the king) ancestors. Robaim Choun Por is used in the beginning of many royal and religious ceremonies to ask the gods to bless the audience with peace and prosperity.

Director: Chanda Chuon

10. Sikh Blessing – JB Singh – Sikh Temple

A progressive religion well ahead of its time when it was founded over 543 years ago, The Sikh religion today has a following of over 25 million people worldwide and is ranked as the worlds 5th largest religion. Sikhism preaches a message of Devotion and remembrance of God at all times, truthful living, equality of mankind and denounces superstitions and blind rituals. Sikhism is open to all through the teachings of its 10 Gurus enshrined in the Sikh Holy Book and Living Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib.Sikh's are having main Sikh Temple, Known as GOLDEN TEMPLE, in Amritsar Punjab India, which is most visited religious   places in the world and more than 50,000 peoples (Devotees ) are having Free Food (Langar) every day. Sikh Temple in Utah is open for everyone, seven days a week, having special congregation and prayers on Sundays 11 am to 1 pm, followed by free Kitchen (Langar )

11. Reformation Ringers - (Christian) - Barbara Hartman

The "Reformation Ringers" are from three Protestant Reformed Tradition churches, Wasatch Presbyterian (Salt Lake City), Hilltop Methodist (Sandy) and Community Methodist (Ogden). The Methodist and Presbyterian churches grew from the Sixteenth Century reformation with leaders John Wesley and John Calvin.  Our (Their?) beliefs are of One God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, saved by grace through faith, and encouraged to follow Jesus' lead of forgiveness and reconciliation.  Presbyterians and Methodists differ from many other protestant churches in our (their?) emphasis of living out the mandate of Christ in actions of social justice. We will be playing "Fantasy on Kingsfold", believed to be written by Ralph Vaughan Williams, though also believed to be an English Folk Tune. Arranged for bells by H. Dean Wagner.  The Reformation Ringers are directed today by Claudette Rothwell.

12. Desert Wind - (Jewish) Alan Bachman

Members of Jewish Faith.  Jewish faith in Utah is diverse with several congregations.  Jews have been in Utah since the mid-1800s.

They will be performing and original composition called “OD TESHUVAH”.

Od Teshuvah means more ‘return to source’. Od Tefillah means More Prayer and Od Tsedakah means more charity and good deeds

 

Performers: Alan and Andalin Bachman, Rajab Harrous, Adnan Jasim

G. Final Remarks – Alan Bachman – Interfaith Chair

H. Let There Be Peace on Earth – ASL interpreter on stage

David Parker, Ed.D., (Methodist) Associate Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Center for Community of Caring Institute at the University of Utah

1^st time thru sung by Children’s choir, 2^nd time with entire congregation

piano

I. Benediction – Rev. Canon W. Ivan Cendese – Exec. Director SL Interfaith Roundtable

J. Organ postlude - Bonnie Goodliffe

The Railroad Bishop and his descendents

The Sharp family originally came from Clackmanan in the county of
Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The family worked their hands in stone as quarrymen, stonecutters and coal miners since the earliest mention of Sharps in Clackmannan around 1500. The Sharps were allies or a sept of the Stewarts of Apin. Clackmannan means "Stone of the Manu" in Scottish Gallic. Manu is the Scottish version of the Irish Sea God Mananon Mac Lir. The Stone sits on top of a stone pillar in the town square next to the navel cross that bears the coats of arms of the Wallace clan. Clackmannanshire was the kingdom of the brother of Wallace and is the smallest county in Scotland. It was there that John Sharp was converted to the Mormon Church and along with his brothers, parents and in-laws began their immigration to America in 1848 to join the "Saints" in Utah where the kingdom of Zion was being built. John brought his wife Jane Patterson and their son James, then four years old. Adam Sharp the next oldest brother came with his wife Janet Cook Sharp, and Joseph Sharp the youngest had yet to marry. Agnes Sharp Patterson the sister of John Sharp also came with her husband Robert Patterson. John Sharp senior and his wife Mary Hunter Sharp were the parents that came with their children as well.

They made their way south into England and in Liverpool they took passage on board the "Erin's Queen" that arrived in New Orleans late in 1848. From New Orleans they made their way to Saint Louis by Steam Boat like many of the converts to the Mormon Church. There in Saint Louis they went to work for a year in the Coal Mines of Gravois Diggins or Grave Diggins to accumulate money to buy and outfit wagons for the journey to Utah. It was during the winter of 1849 that a Cholera epidemic broke out in Saint Louis killing nearly twenty percent of the population. It was there that the Mother of the family, Mary Hunter Sharp died and was buried. John Sharp went forth to the sick in the community to administer prayers and healing working tirelessly while still working in the mines. Joseph Sharp met a young woman named Janet Condie the daughter of another family of Mormons that had been working in the mines. They were married there and she joined her husband’s family for the journey to Utah. That spring the Sharp set out for Salt Lake City along the old Mormon trail which was on the southern bank of the Platt River opposite the Oregon Trail on the North bank. The John Sharp Company led their family and some sixty other Mormon converts on the journey. They spread out for many miles along the trail.

It was during their journey that John Sharp had an additional child named Mary after their mother Mary Hunter Sharp. The Sharps were described in several journals of the company as being tough, strong, sturdy and reliable. John Sharp was especially noted for his refined and mature judgment. Upon arriving to the Salt Lake Valley late in the fall, the Sharp family came down immigration canyon and instead of going directly into Salt Lake City they skirted the foothills around to what is known as Red Butte Canyon. There they found an outcrop of sandstone and quarried out a square section where they put the wagon boxes over the top and built a stone wall in the entrance to wait out the coming winter. My wife and I went for a small hike in Red Butte Canyon and could not distinguish the Sharp family quarry from the many WPA quarries started by President Roosevelt's programs in the 1930's. The terrain is much like it must have been and Sego Lilies still bloom upon the hillsides, which had been a much needed food source during the late winter and early spring. That spring John Sharp made fast friends with Brigham Young and the success of the family depended much on his patronage. John and his brothers began quarry stone for the Tabernacle, the Tithing House and many of the brown stone buildings from the time period. Soon the Sharp brothers were teaching many of the newly arrived converts the methods of stone quarrying along with many of their neighbors from Clackmannanshire and Fife. It was during that spring that John Sharp Jr. was born.That spring John Sharp made fast friends with Brigham Young and the success of the family depended much on his patronage. John and his brothers began quarry stone for the Tabernacle, the Tithing House and many of the brown stone buildings from the time period. Soon the Sharp brothers were teaching many of the newly arrived converts the methods of stone quarrying along with many of their neighbors from Clackmannanshire and Fife. It was during that spring that John Sharp Jr. was born.

John Sharp next became the superintendent of the Church quarry where the huge blocks of granite were cut for the Salt Lake Temple and the massive wall around Temple Square, along with other structures on the grounds. (As a geologists son I knew that version of granite was called quartz monzonite and was one of the hardest variations of that stone. I did some stone carving in art school mostly out of Alabaster and some Sandstone which is very soft in comparison. Steel chisels would just beat the edges blunt on Granite and the secret of the tooling and carving of it has been lost until the advent of diamond saws and the like.)

Bishop Sharp represented Brigham Young at the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory, since Brigham Young was unable to attend. Sometime after-word the Union Pacific failed to pay the Mormon railroad workers for their work on the railroad. It was John Sharp, Joseph A. Young and Apostle John Taylor, whom Brigham Young sent east to do battle in the courts for the LDS Church. Sharp played a key role in the construction of the Utah Central Railroad as well in 1869-70, and became it’s superintendent in 1871, and its president in 1873. He was also named vice-president of the Utah Southern Railroad Company when that company was formed in 1870. As the purchasing agent for the this railroad, he became acquainted with some of the Union Pacific directors in New York City and eventually was named a UP (Union Pacific) director, which position he retained until he died late in December the 23rd of 1891 at his home in Salt Lake City. John Sharp became known as “The Railroad Bishop” and he did well in life having risen in status from a childhood as a miner in the coal pits of Scotland.

John Sharp’s son James Sharp became a stock holder in the Railroad company as well as Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah from 1884 to 1886. His oil portrait can still be seen on the second floor of the City and County building. This is a quote from the Utah Herald in 1886 about James Sharp’s tenure as Mayor. “James Sharp was the Herald’s candidate for Mayor two years ago, and his record has been such that this paper is proud that it advocated his election and stood by his administration. The gentleman may retire with the perfect assurance that he enjoys the gratitude, the esteem and the confidence of the public he has served so faithfully, and with so much ability, intelligence and integrity. It is ever a pleasant thing to be able to conscientiously approve the course of a public officer when he retires, and in Mr. Sharp’s case it is doubly enjoyable.”

James Sharp had several children and it was and still is a tradition of the family to name one of the kids John. So it was that John Francis Sharp MD became the next person in our family to bear the name. He was sent to New York City to study medicine and there he met his future wife Luella Ferrin from Huntington, Utah, while both were taking singing lessons from the famous Opera singer Madame Von Klenner. They named one of their first sons Klenner or ‘Klink’ for short. Luella had been sent by the LDS church to study Opera as the lead soprano for the Salt Lake Opera Company and both sang later with the Tabernacle Choir. John Francis Sharp MD became the head surgeon at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah as well as the commanding officer of the MASH unit from Utah. Serving as the units commander for both the Poncho Villa campaign and throughout World War I. (I ran in to an elderly woman at a rest home I played music at a few years ago. She said she worked at LDS Hospital and remembered Dr. Sharp as a gentleman that always said good morning and held the elevator door open for her and anyone else in the Hospital.) The sister of John Francis Sharp was named Cecilia Sharp (my father’s aunt) she was a well know pianist. She was married to Mahonri M. Young the sculptor (1877-1957) he was also the grandson of Brigham Young. Their oldest son Mahonri Sharp Young became a well known Art critic, art historian, writer and former museum director. After the death of Cecilia Sharp, Uncle Hon married Dorothy Weir an educator and daughter of the american impressionist painter J. Alden Weir. Mahonri taught at the New York Art Academy and was a well known member of the Ashcan School, an art movement of social realism during the depression, depicting both the poverty and dignity of the working class of America. Mahonri Young influenced many artists studying in both Paris and in New York. He was a great mentor to my father Byron James Sharp and my Uncle Gil Sharp, he took them on many sketching trips through out central and southern Utah. He and Dorothy Weir would stay at the home of John Francis Sharp whenever they traveled to Utah, and my Uncle Gil later studied art and taught at the New York Art Academy with Uncle Hon. Mohonri made an interesting sketch at the family duck club of the time with my father and his dog. “Byron and Terry on a raft” It’s a sketch of my father as a teen with his dog poling a boat through the cat tail reeds along Farmington Bay of the Great Salt Lake.

My father, Dr. Byron James Sharp, flew a glider on D-Day during World War II. He later received his degrees in Geology, Paleontology and Mineralogy from the University of Utah. His art ability gave him an ability to make geologic and topographic maps, interpret aerial photographs and cross into many fields to make contributions of all kinds, despite resistance from so called area experts in the sciences. He mapped many of the energy and metal resources for ERDA (Energy Research and Development Agency) throughout the western United States. He published many papers such as the “Asteriod impact theory” and discovered many fossils one with his name such as Pseudoarctolepus sharpi a soft bodied Cambrian pre-trilobite from the Wheeler shale of Southern Utah. The research he is proudest of is his many papers and artifacts on “Early Man in the Americas”, for which he won a scientific award for “The Study of the First Americans.” He also did many water colors and sketches much like the type of subject Mahonri did, having been taught by him on their many sketching trips. My father told me stories of his older brothers and sisters, of which he was the youngest. My Aunt Marion Sharp Robinson was a famous Opera singer with a Fulbright and career in Paris. She sang for the Paris and San Francisco Opera Companies and sang in many of the most famous halls in Europe. She collected art and started the University of Utah’s Art collection with donations of her paintings, she wrote books and poetry as well as dealt in real estate for a while. Aunt Martha Sharp Toronto the next sister in line, wrote an interesting book called “A Cherry Tree behind the Iron Curtain” about her experiences as the wife of a mission President in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi and then the Communist occupation. My Uncle John Sharp was a B-26 Pilot and later a A-26 fighter bomber ace during World War II, later becoming the commanding officer of the Air Force base in Sacremento. (Now of Hill Air Force Base in Utah.)

My generation came next David Spalding Sharp, Douglas Spalding Sharp and my sister Dianne Elaine Sharp-Roberg are the children of Byron and Elaine Sharp. My children Dylan John Sharp, Daniel Brendan Sharp and step children, (Carol's kids) Kory, Chris, and Georgianna including the grandchildren (Aspen) hear these stories from us. I believe it is important to tell them that we lived and worked and have something to measure up to, remember and be inspired by those of our family that have gone before. Someday it will be their turn and you don’t stop loving someone just because their gone.

David Sharp
Glastonbury duo

Joseph and Adam Sharp deliver telegraph poles and sacks of flour to Nevada

The Sharp brothers used the wagons they owned to haul other kinds of freight as well. After the stone quarries were well under way and the Temple quarry had its great blocks of granite delivered by the Sharp brothers to the Salt Lake Temple site. They turned to delivering telegraph poles to small settlements in Nevada. At one point flour became worth its weight in gold at the Silver mines in Carson City. The brothers decided to haul a wagon load of flour out to Carson City. The road from Salt Lake City through Winnemuca and onwards was troubled by highwaymen that were laying in wait for the return trip of any of the freight haulers that came across the desert with their pockets full of cash.

Joseph and Adam had devised a plan with the help of a non-Mormon friend they had met in Saint Louis. This friend was a gambler and had been very gifted at dealing cards. He could deal you just the hand he wanted to give you to reel you in and in the end when you begin to bet heavily he would deal himself a winning hand to take everything and leave the others at the table penniless. He lived in Corinne at the time, which was a notorious city competing with Salt Lake City as the Capital of the territory and railhead for the Continental Railroad during its day the anti-Mormon political faction resided at Corinne.

So it was that Joseph and Adam rode with their friend part of the way to Carson City, No one would suspect that they were friends coming from such opposite sides of the cultural climate of Utah. Some fifty miles from Carson City they parted ways and went into town from separate directions. There the Sharp brothers sold there flour for a whopping fortune. Part of the plan for them to ride home in safety was that Adam would slap Whiskey on his face like perfume and head for the saloon with the bank roll he had from the sale of the flour. With Joseph watching over him from a distance he began to play cards and a dapper gambler seemed to lose several hands to Adam. After becoming bolder from his success Adam began betting larger amounts of money until at some point all the money they had from the sale of the flour sat in front of the fancy gambler with the biggest grin on his face anyone had ever seen. Word got around town about the foolish Mormon boy that got liquored up and gambled away all his earnings. Many of the highway men and robbers had informants in the town and they knew now that the Sharp brothers were just plum busted. So with sad faces the Sharps started home for Salt Lake with an empty wagon and empty pockets.

Some fifty miles out of Carson City the Sharps met up with a dapper stranger that handed them a huge bank roll. They had a great laugh between them all, and Adam hid the bank roll wrapped in a seal skin, in a can of axel grease for the wagon wheels. No Highwaymen or holdup men did they see until they came well into Utah and parted ways with the stranger who took the turn off road north to Corinne.

Joseph and Adam Sharp deliver a message to Johnson’s Army

One day, since the Sharp family had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1850.Joseph and Adam Sharp used the wagons the family brought with them to ship the sandstone that was quarried from their camp site in Red Butte Canyon. Many of the first permanent stone buildings in the valley were built with the stone the brothers hauled and quarried under the supervision of the older brother John.

When Brigham Young spotted them he came over to ask a task of them, since Porter Rockwell was busy elsewhere. The Sharp brothers were youthful, fearless and somewhat handy with a rifle or a pistol. He asked the brothers to ride out to meet with Johnson's army that was camped at Fort Bridger at the time. The United States Army had captured two men of the Mormon militia and they were being held there at Fort Bridger. Brigham Young would have them pick up the militia men and deliver a message to the commander concerning consequences of the army’s incursion into Utah. So taking a couple of extra horses for the men of the Mormon Militia they rode north for Fort Bridger.

In the meantime John Sharp then a Major of the 3rd Infantry of the Navuoo
Legion had gone with a small group of men under his command to bring much of the church's portable property of value from Northern Utah of sequester it in a safe place further south.

Joseph and Adam upon reaching Fort Bridger were not well received by the men of Johnson's Army. The Army had campfires going and supper was being served to the men. Joseph and his brother were not even allowed a place by the fire to warm themselves.
They were called many names and given to many threats to their persons by the soldiers of Johnson's Army. When the Mormon Militia Men were saddled up and ready to go and the message from Brigham Young had been delivered, a soldier nearby made such threatening and insulting remarks that Joseph Sharp spat in his eye. Off they rode out of camp as Adam Sharp said, "It's a lucky thing, little brother, that he didn't reach for his side arm, or wed've had a shoot out for sure."

The Sharp family immigrates to America

The Sharp family originally came from Clackmanan in the county of
Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The family worked their hands in stone as quarrymen, stonecutters and coal miners since the earliest mention of Sharps in Clackmannan around 1500. The Sharps were allies or a sept of the Stewarts of Apin. Clackmannan means "Stone of the Manu" in Scottish Gallic. Manu is the Scottish version of the Irish Sea God Mananon Mac Lir. The Stone sits on top of a stone pillar in the town square next to the navel cross that bears the coats of arms of the Wallace clan. Clackmannanshire was the kingdom of the brother of Wallace and is the smallest county in Scotland. It was there that John Sharp was converted to the Mormon Church and along with his brothers, parents and in-laws began their immigration to America in 1848 to join the "Saints" in Utah where the kingdom of Zion was being built. John brought his wife Jane Patterson and their son James, then four years old. Adam Sharp the next oldest brother came with his wife Janet Cook Sharp, and Joseph Sharp the youngest had yet to marry. Agnes Sharp Patterson the sister of John Sharp also came with her husband Robert Patterson. John Sharp senior and his wife Mary Hunter Sharp were the parents that came with their children as well.

They made their way south into England and in Liverpool they took passage on board the "Erin's Queen" that arrived in New Orleans late in 1848. From New Orleans they made their way to Saint Louis by Steam Boat like many of the converts to the Mormon Church. There in Saint Louis they went to work for a year in the Coal Mines of Gravois Diggins or Grave Diggins to accumulate money to buy and outfit wagons for the journey to Utah. It was during the winter of 1849 that a Cholera epidemic broke out in Saint Louis killing nearly twenty percent of the population. It was there that the Mother of the family, Mary Hunter Sharp died and was buried. John Sharp went forth to the sick in the community to administer prayers and healing working tirelessly while still working in the mines. Joseph Sharp met a young woman named Janet Condie the daughter of another family of Mormons that had been working in the mines. They were married there and she joined her husband’s family for the journey to Utah. That spring the Sharp set out for Salt Lake City along the old Mormon trail which was on the southern bank of the Platt River opposite the Oregon Trail on the North bank. The John Sharp Company led their family and some sixty other Mormon converts on the journey. They spread out for many miles along the trail.

It was during their journey that John Sharp had an additional child named Mary after their mother Mary Hunter Sharp. The Sharps were described in several journals of the company as being tough, strong, sturdy and reliable. John Sharp was especially noted for his refined and mature judgment. Upon arriving to the Salt Lake Valley late in the fall, the Sharp family came down immigration canyon and instead of going directly into Salt Lake City they skirted the foothills around to what is known as Red Butte Canyon. There they found an outcrop of sandstone and quarried out a square section where they put the wagon boxes over the top and built a stone wall in the entrance to wait out the coming winter. My wife and I went for a small hike in Red Butte Canyon and could not distinguish the Sharp family quarry from the many WPA quarries started by President Roosevelt's programs in the 1930's. The terrain is much like it must have been and Sego Lilies still bloom upon the hillsides, which had been a much needed food source during the late winter and early spring. That spring John Sharp made fast friends with Brigham Young and the success of the family depended much on his patronage. John and his brothers began quarry stone for the Tabernacle, the Tithing House and many of the brown stone buildings from the time period. Soon the Sharp brothers were teaching many of the newly arrived converts the methods of stone quarrying along with many of their neighbors from Clackmannanshire and Fife. It was during that spring that John Sharp Jr. was born.

John Sharp next became the superintendent of the Church quarry where the huge blocks of granite were cut for the Salt Lake Temple and the massive wall around Temple Square, along with other structures on the grounds. (As a geologists son I knew that version of granite was called quartz monzonite and was one of the hardest variations of that stone. I did some stone carving in art school mostly out of Alabaster and some Sandstone which is very soft in comparison. Steel chisels would just beat the edges blunt on Granite and the secret of the tooling and carving of it has been lost until the advent of diamond saws and the like.)

In 1853 John Sharp senior, the father of John Sharp died just three years after entering the valley.
In 1854 he was ordained by Brigham Young as the first bishop of the Salt Lake Twentieth Ward. John Sharp and his brothers owned two blocks next to each other on South Temple. Later James built the manor that was to become the LDS business college for a time. Ten years later John Sharp was appointed as assistant superintendent of public works, and became the acting superintendent when Daniel H. Wells was called to preside over the European missions of the LDS Church. Bishop Sharp was a member of the council of fifty made up of the most prominent business men of Salt Lake City, he was a member of the council of Enoch, He and his brother Joseph were Salt Lake City's police chief and constable respectively for many years, he was on the board of ZCMI, and Zion’s bank for thirty years and held the rank of Major and later Colonel of the 3rd Infantry of the Nauvoo Legion.


Recognizing his industry and ability, President Young invited him to become a chief subcontractor on the Union Pacific contract, particularly to be in charge of the bridge and tunnel work, where his experience in stone cutting would be a valuable asset. So it was that three of the eldest sons of Brigham Young (Joseph Young, Brigham Young Jr. and John W. Taylor) along with John Sharp chief mining Engineer and contractor (who was also a lawyer) were brought together in the firm Sharp & Young they took on grading contract and the boring of tunnels they soon had some fourteen hundred men working for them in Echo Canyon. Upon reaching the Promontory region the two companies’ blasters worked very near each other and when the men of Sharp and Young’s Union Pacific first began their work the Central Pacific would give them no warning when they would set off their fuse. It was then that Jim Livingston, Sharp’s able foreman went to work loading a point of rock with nitro-glycerin, and without saying anything to the CP ‘let her rip.’ The terrific explosion caused the foreman of the CP to come down and confer with Mr. Livingston about the precaution of notifying each party when the other was ready to blast. An example of the danger involved in blasting operations and the need to advise each other when one was about to be set off can be seen from a Deseret News dispatch of March 5th, 1869, just two months before the railroad was joined at Promontory.

“The heaviest work on the Promontory is within a few miles of headquarters. Sharp & Young’s blasters are jarring the earth every few minutes with their glycerin and powder, lifting whole ledges of limestone rock from their long resting places, hurling them hundreds of feet in the air and scattering them around for a half mile in every direction.”


Bishop Sharp represented Brigham Young at the Golden Spike ceremony at
Promontory, since Brigham Young was unable to attend. Sometime after-word the Union Pacific failed to pay the Mormon railroad workers for their work on the railroad. It was John Sharp, Joseph A. Young and Apostle John Taylor, whom Brigham Young sent east to do battle in the courts for the LDS Church. Sharp played a key role in the construction of the Utah Central Railroad as well in 1869-70, and became the company’s superintendent in 1871 and its president in 1873. He was also named vice-president of the Utah Southern Railroad Company when that company was formed in 1870. As the purchasing agent for the this railroad, he became acquainted with some of the Union Pacific directors in New York City and eventually was named a UP (Union Pacific) director, which position he retained until he died late in December the 23rd of 1891 at his home in Salt Lake City. John Sharp became known as “The Railroad
Bishop” and he did well in life having risen in status from a childhood as a miner in the coal pits of Scotland.

John Sharp’s son James Sharp became a stock holder in the Railroad company as well as Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah from 1884 to 1886. His oil portrait can still be seen on the second floor of the City and County building in Salt Lake City, Utah. James was just a boy of four years when his family started out for Utah and he came with his father’s Pioneer Company from Saint Louis.

This is a quote from the Utah Herald in 1886 about James Sharp’s tenure as Mayor. “James Sharp was the Herald’s candidate for Mayor two years ago, and his record has been such that this paper is proud that it advocated his election and stood by his administration. The gentleman may retire with the perfect assurance that he enjoys the gratitude, the esteem and the confidence of the public he has served so faithfully, and with so much ability, intelligence and integrity. It is ever a pleasant thing to be able to conscientiously approve the course of a public officer when he retires, and in Mr. Sharp’s case it is doubly enjoyable.”

During James Sharp’s tenure as Mayor of Salt Lake City Brigham Young died and many of the official institutions flew their flags at half mast. The Federal government had forbidden Utah officials to fly the flag of the United States at half mast since Brigham Young had defied them in previous years. Yet Brigham Young was not seen in that light by most of Utah’s population and he had been a great benefactor to the Sharp family. So it was that James Sharp flew the flag over the City and County Building in Salt Lake City, at half mast. Soon Federal Marshals came knocking at the office door of the Mayor and fortunately James was out and the Deputy Mayor had to deal with the Marshals. One was a Union Veteran and the other was a Veteran of the Confederate States and they disagreed about the nature of the insult to the flag and James avoided being taken into custody.

by David S. Sharp

Don't look at the Cat

This is a story I don’t tell on stage, I usually tell this to friends that have met this particular Cat.

Years ago, I had more time on my hands than now days. One of my best friends and I used to go out to coffee every Friday, since we both had that day off for one reason or another. I would arrive around 10:00 am and we’d get some lunch at some place that had good coffee. Every morning as I would come over to pick him up he would open the door and as I came in he would say, “I’m gunna go finish getting ready." and "don’t look at the Cat.” I would wait in the living room, and for a couple of years I thought nothing of it since he said it in such a casual manner, and I mostly ignored the Cat. The Cat in question had been rescued off the street when it had been struck by a Car. My friends wife had nursed it back to health after many months, but the Cat’s behavior was strange since it was left a little cross eyed. We would all laugh at the story they told about the cat being taught to go through small panel door to the garage where the litter box was, it soon thought that it could walk through walls and would butt it’s head against the wall trying to move through the wall as it had with the panel.

One Friday I came over to pick my friend up for lunch and a bit of coffee, I came in the living room as usual, and as usual he said, “don’t look at the Cat.” Off he went in the back to finish brushing his teeth. I should say at this point the living room was connected to the kitchen by a swinging door the back door of the kitchen to a short hall and back you could walk into the living room. After my friend had disappeared I walked into the kitchen and there was the little cross eyed Cat glaring at me, as I looked down I just burst out laughing it was so comical. The Cat took offense as if it was a sign of aggression and started coming at me like a rabid Wild Cat, hissing, spiting, yowling. Terribly frightened I backed out through the swinging kitchen door only to realize the thing had gone around the back through the hall out into the living room. I quickly stepped back through the swinging door into the kitchen again. I prayed that the frothing, spitting creature could not understand or work the door. It whirled back around and came in the back door of the kitchen, and we did this little dance back and forth, as I would call out several times to my friend, “are you ready yet,” or sometimes, “help”! Finally the Cat faked me out and doubled back when it lunged at me glomming on to my pant leg, like a miniature Lion of the undead variety biting the neck of a small Gazelle. I was amazed that it didn’t hurt more than it did, since the attack was so ferocious. After much urgent pleading my friend made ready to go, he yelled, “Cat!!!!” and it slinked into a back room to sulk, and out the door we went. As he locked the door he said kindly, “I told you….don’t look at the Cat!