Richard Alexander Sharp

SHARP, Richard - Richard Sharp, who has been in poor health for several months, died at the Fayetteville City Hospital Tuesday afternoon, May 17, 1927, where he was taken the day before for treatment. Mr. Sharp was 83 years of age and was born in Washington County where he spent most of his long useful life. He was a valiant soldier of the Confederate army, serving in Company K, Arkansas Division and was the last surviving member of that Company. He fought in the battle of Prairie Grove. Mr. Sharp was a member of the Methodist church at New Sulphur where the funeral services were conducted on Wednesday afternoon by Rev. Edward Forrest, pastor of the Prairie Grove Methodist church. Burial was in the Sharp cemetery with the Masonic lodge of Prairie Grove, of which he was a charter member, in charge. Mr. Sharp is survived by one daughter, Miss Evelyn Sharp of California and by four sons, John Sharp of Prairie Grove, Alf Sharp of Lynchburg, Virginia, Sidney Sharp of Liberal, Kansas and Edwin Sharp of Denver, Colorado. [Prairie Grove Herald 5/19/1927]

R.A. Sharp receives Gold Star Medal - Mr. R.A. Sharp of the New Sulphur Community has just received word from the Stone Mountain Memorial Association that his name has been enrolled in the “Gold Star Book of Memory” as a living Confederate veteran. This book will be deposited in Memorial Hall at Stone Mountain. He is proudly exhibiting a living veterans Gold Star Medal. The enrollment of his name in this book and the receipt of this medal was secured through the courtesy of his son, A.L. Sharp of Augusta, Georgia. Stone Mountain is in DeKalb County, Georgia, about twenty miles northeast of Atlanta, near the geographical center of what was the Southern Confederacy. It stands alone in the midst of a plain, isolated and solitary, uncompanioned by nature, a giant without an equal upon the face of the earth. Stone Mountain is the largest solid body of exposed granite in the world. As its name implies, it is literally a mountain of stone eight thousand feet long; seven miles around the base; a mile to the summit up the sloping side. The size of the figures is to be in scale to the size of the mountain, which will result in sculpture of such stupendous magnitude as was never projected by the imagination of man in all the past history of sculpture. Some idea of the size of the figures may be conveyed by the statement that General Lee from the top of his head to the feet of his horse will be as high as a ten story office building. Hardly less imposing than the great military procession sweeping across the mountain will be Memorial Hall, dedicated to the women of the Southern Confederacy, whose fortitude and sacrifice were an inspiration of their soldiers on the fields of battle. This will not be a structure built stone upon stone, but an immense semi-circular shrine cut into the mountain; a vast, vaulted grotto quarried out of solid rock immediately underneath the central group; the most enduring and beautiful shrine of the ages; a temple of sacred memories in the breast of a granite mountain. [Prairie Grove Herald 4/14/1927]

Prairie Grove, Ark., May 17 - Funeral service was held here Wednesday afternoon for Richard Sharp, Confederate veteran who died at a Fayetteville hospital Tuesday following a brief illness. Burial was in Sharp cemetery. Mr. Sharp was 83 years old. He is survived by four sons, John Sharp of Prairie Grove; Sid Sharp of Liberal, Kansas, Alf. Sharp, of Linksburg, Virginia, and Edwin Sharp, of Denver, Colorado, and one daughter, Evelyn Sharp, of San Francisco, California. Mr. Sharp, a participant in the battle of Prairie Grove was the last surviving member of his company. He was a charter member of the Masonic lodge here and was well known throughout Washington County. [The Arkansas Countryman 5/19/1927]

SHARP, Richard A. - Uncle Dick Sharp Dies Here Tuesday; Burial At Prairie Grove - Richard "Uncle Dick" Sharp died Tuesday about noon at City Hospital where he was brought Monday following illness with heart trouble. Funeral services will be held at his home south of Prairie Grove Wednesday and burial will be in the Sharp family graveyard. Prairie Grove Masons will have charge of services at the grave. Mr. Sharp was a member of their lodge.

Mr. Sharp was 83 years of age. He was a Confederate soldier and the last surviving member of Company K. [Fayetteville Democrat 5/27/1927]