Past and Present of Appanoose County, Iowa - 1913 - Sharon Twp

Appanoose County >> 1913 Index

Past and present of Appanoose County, Iowa: ... 
L. L. Taylor, editor.  Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1913. 

Sharon Township


Biographies submitted by Alice Wayne Daniels.

Page 413
Sharon township, was organized in 1858 and its first election was held in the month of October of that year. It is only four sections in width and six sections in length. Douglas township is on the north, Washington on the east, Caldwell on the south and Center on the west. The Chariton waters the soil, which is productive and fosters the various cereals grown in this latitude. The township has good schools and churches and the farms show care and good management. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and Keokuk & Western enter this township.

Harvey Cochran was born in Van Buren county and when an infant was brought by his parents to Appanoose county, in 1843. He was one of the pioneers of this community and a valued citizen.

Peter McCoy came into this community in 1849 as did also Gilbert M. McCoy, who entered one hundred and ninety-seven acres of land on section 15. William McCoy came in the same year and settled on section 14.

Samuel Benge was a native of Kentucky and removed to Indiana with his parents. He became a citizen of Appanoose county in 1846, the year that Iowa was admitted into the Union as a state. He married Elinor Caylor in 1851.

John C. Wright was a Pennsylvanian by birth. He came to Appanoose county with his parents in 1847 and was one of the sturdy men who assisted largely in the growth and prosperity of this section of the county.

Jacob Shilts settled here in 1854 and acquired over six hundred acres of land. Besides being an excellent farmer he was a carpenter and worked at his trade for many years.

Martin Van Dyke was here as early as 1854. He served in the Civil War.

SHARON AND KIRKWOOD

Sharon was and is no more. It was laid out on section 33, by William O. Packard in 1856 and the survey was made by John Potts. By the following year there were five or six dwellings, two stores and a saloon, or tavern. Wilkinson, the proprietor of the rum shop, met an accidental death, but before that he had caused the board of county commissioners and others in authority, more or less trouble. His sudden “taking off” caused but little, if any, anguish; on the contrary, there was rejoicing, not for the death of a bad neighbor, but for what it entailed, which was the closing of the saloon and the appearance once more in the neighborhood of the bird of peace. There is not a vestige of the town remaining. Close by, on section 35, was the old hamlet of Kirkwood, where was established a postoffice and a Baptist church in 1852. The former is gone and latter is not strong in numbers.