"Joseph Sharp, aged 80 years, who found time for great and helpful activity in the building of this county and town, died at 1:30 o'clock this morning in his home at 215 South Star Street. He had been in failing health several months and bedfast since Sunday night. Since Monday noon he had not recognized members of his family. He had never before been confined to his bed with a serious illness. Until Sunday night he was able to be out, was down town Saturday and out for a walk Sunday. His death is a shock to many friends.

The body will lie in state at the home from 11 o'clock Friday morning until one o'clock. Funeral services will be held at 3 o'clock Friday afternoon in the Christian Church. Rev. Fred W. Condit, pastor of the church officiating. Interment will be made in Belle Vista cemetery. The Hammer Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Pallbearers will be six sons in law of Mr. Sharp, including R. A. Riddle, Dale Downing, William Opperman, Homer Hill, Ernest Elson and Harry Hart. Honorary pallbearers are Robt. H. Hazlett, M. M. VanDenberg, George W. Elson, W. E. Stone, Judge R. S. Scott, Judge A. L. L. Hamilton, Judge V. P. Mooney and Manley L. Arnold.

Joseph Sharp left upon El Dorado the impress of an active achieving, modest citizen. In his quiet way he made scores of friends who sorrow because of his passing. His was an interesting personality and he enjoyed telling reminiscences of the El Dorado of sixty years ago. He was a devoted husband and father. In all their fifty years of married life, he and Mrs. Sharp had moved but twice. That section of El Dorado now known as Sharpville was their earliest home. Two years ago Mr. and Mrs. Sharp celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, entertaining more than 100 friends. They lived happily and prospered materially throughout their long years together in El Dorado. Mrs. Sharp was Miss Rosa Burnham before the marriage on August 13, 1879.

As a youth, Mr. Sharp became a member of the Methodist Church. The only other organization to which he belonged was the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge. Which he joined in 1882.

Mr. Sharp is survived by Mrs. Sharp, four sons and seven daughters, They are John Sharp of Kansas City, Mo., Charles Sharp of Emporia; Ray and Russell Sharp of El Dorado, Mrs. W. F. Opperman, Mrs. Mattie Scribner, Mrs. Ernest Elson, Mrs. Dale Downing, Mrs. R. A. Riddle and Mrs. Homer Hill of El Dorado, and Mrs. Harry Hart of Coffeyville. He is also survived by seventeen grandchildren.

The only previous death in the Sharp family was that of the eldest son, Earl Sharp, who died eleven years ago last night.

Joseph Sharp was for a number of years one of the extensive contractors and builders of butler County, but in recent years had not been actively engaged in that work, although his sons, operating under the name of Sharp Brothers became among the chief contractors and builders in Kansas.

Joseph Sharp was born in New York in 1851. His parents, John and Zella (Payne) Sharp, natives of Yorkshire, England, died when he was eighteen months old. He had one brother, Frank who was reared by a family namped Tipton, near Columbus, Ohio, and Joseph grew up in the home of his cousin near Worthington, Ohio. Joseph Sharp learned the mason and stone cutter's trade when a youth and in 1870 he and his brother came to Butler County. Frank went to Wichita where he became a carriage and wagon manufacturer.

The brothers came to Butler County by rail as far as Emporia and from there to El Dorado by stage coach, which crossed what was to be Mr. Sharp's front yard in his first home. El Dorado was then a hamlet, with practically no settlement west of the Santa Fe Railroad and part of the present court house block was a cattle corral.

Upon arriving at El Dorado, Joseph Sharp engaged in the meat market business, his shop located where the Seth Frazier lumber Company office now is. Mr. Sharp homesteaded a claim in Fairview Township and managed to spend enough time on that in connection with his market business, to comply with the homestead law, proving up and receiving his deed from President U. S. Grant. In the meantime he had engaged in building, his first work in that line being on the construction of the Farmers and Merchants bank building. During the next forty years he erected important buildings in El Dorado and also built a great many bridges in Butler county. He built the Central school building, which was later destroyed by fire; the opera house, drug store building. Smith Building, I. O. O. F. building which was built in 1881, the Conley building and the building formerly occupied by Ora Wyant and also a great many private residences. He built the arch bridge on North Main Street, the bridge on South Main street, and furnished stone for the bridge near the pumping station, as well as for a great many stone and concrete bridges throughout this section of the state.

Mr. Sharp was a pioneer horticulturist of Butler County. He was successful in raising small fruits and demonstrated that small fruit can be profitably grown in this section. He held the record as a strawberry grower in Kansas, having raised 206 bushels on one acre.

During sixty-one years in Butler County, Mr. Sharp witnessed many changes. When he came here buffalo were plentiful just west of El Dorado and he frequently went on buffalo hunting trips. His last trip was as far west as Medicine Lodge in 1877. Mr. Sharp was a life-long Republican and served as a member of the Republican Central Committee for years, being several times a delegate to county conventions. He also served a number of years on the city council." El Dorado Times (El Dorado, Kansas), February 26, 1931