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The Barney History Project: The people, places, and stories of Barney, Georgia

Hamilton W. Sharpe (c. 1807–1890)

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An evidence-based dossier on an early settler of Lowndes County, Georgia

Research completed: August 18, 2026
Geographic scope: original Lowndes County, present Brooks County, and connected records in Tattnall and Thomas counties
Name forms searched: Hamilton W. Sharpe, Hamilton Wynn Sharpe, Hamilton Sharpe, Hamilton Sharp, H. W. Sharpe, H. W. Sharp, Hamp Sharpe, Sharpe's Store, and Sharp's Store

Conclusion

Hamilton W. Sharpe was an early merchant, postmaster, justice, legislator, Methodist lay preacher, militia correspondent, planter, and slaveholder in the part of original Lowndes County that became Brooks County. The record chain begins with his March 5, 1827 marriage to Jane Perry in Tattnall County and places him in Lowndes County by the 1830 census. Later accounts say he reached the Sion Hall settlement on the Coffee Road in 1826 or 1827 and opened a small log store nearby. That early-store chronology is credible local tradition, partly derived from Sharpe's own late-life recollections, but no located deed, daybook, or contemporary 1826 record proves the exact date or footprint.[2][18][20]

The postal evidence requires a distinction that earlier summaries often blur. Folks Huxford reported from Post Office Department records that Sharpe's Store opened April 2, 1828 with Hamilton as postmaster. The original federal appointment register directly inspected for this dossier begins later and proves Hamilton's January 28, 1837 reappointment when the office changed back from Magnum to Sharpe's Store. It does not independently prove the 1828 opening.[2][8]

Sharpe's place in the community is otherwise unusually well documented. Original 1836–1838 letters show him communicating with Georgia's governor about militia horses, fraudulent muster claims, and Florida-border troop rotations.[9] Census and tax records trace his household and wealth from 1830 through 1880.[4][6][10][13][14][15] His signed 1846 postal letter, contemporary newspaper uses of Sharpe's Store, his own 1884 history articles, and an 1885 character sketch show the public identity remembered locally as “Judge,” “Rev.,” “Captain,” and “Uncle Hamp.”[16][17][18][19] The titles “Judge” and “Rev.” have documentary support. “Captain” is a strong local tradition, but no commission or original roster was located.[2][9][19]

Identity and family

The 1827 Tattnall County marriage register identifies the couple as Hamilton W. Sharpe and Jane Perry.[1] The recurring middle initial, Jane's continued presence, the Lowndes/Thomas/Quitman migration, and consistent occupation and age patterns join the later records into one life. The census ages vary: the 1850 entry implies birth around 1800, the 1860 entry around 1808, and the 1870 and 1880 entries around 1807. Later cemetery compilations give April 10, 1807. No original birth or baptismal record was located, so the exact date should be treated as derivative rather than contemporary.[13][14][15][21]

Online family trees and cemetery pages identify his parents as John Sharpe and Elizabeth “Betsey” Wynn. That parentage may be correct, but it was not established here by an original record. It is therefore a lead, not a proved conclusion.[21]

The 1850 Thomas County census places H. W. Sharpe and Jane in an extended household with apparent children William, Ellen, James, Jane, and Betsey Thomas. The manuscript's surname conventions are not perfectly clear. A contemporary 1867 marriage announcement independently calls Betsey Thomas the youngest daughter of “Rev. Hamilton W. and Jane Sharpe,” making her identification strong even though the census indexing is awkward.[13][22] William H. Sharpe later appears in Morven records and must not be merged with his father. A Florida probate record sometimes returned in Hamilton searches belongs to that son, whose wife was Frances A.; it is not Hamilton's estate.[23]

Arrival, store, and the formation of Sharpe's Store

Huxford's 1948 history says Hamilton came from Tattnall County in 1826–1827 and built a small log store on the Coffee Road near Sion Hall's residence and inn, about a mile or more northeast of present Morven. Sharpe's own April 5, 1884 recollection likewise connected his merchant activity, Hall's settlement, the mail route, and the place-name Sharpe's Store.[2][18] An 1899 Morven history gives a more complicated merchant succession: Bradbury & Hayden began nearby in 1826, followed by Judge H. W. Sharpe and later W. H. Sharpe. These accounts confirm Hamilton's early commercial importance but do not establish one uncontested “first store” narrative.[20]

The best geographic conclusion is neighborhood-level. Sion Hall and Mount Zion were associated with Land Lot 271 in the Twelfth District, and the 1908 Brooks County map locates the Mount Zion/Camp Ground cluster there.[2][24] No located deed, plat, or map proves Hamilton owned Lot 271 or fixes his store on a particular parcel. Later derivative deed indexing points instead to Hamilton's acquisition of land in Lots 186 and 229 in the 1860s, but the underlying deed images were not available for direct inspection. Those entries remain archival leads rather than final proof.[2]

Postal service

Huxford's compilation of Post Office Department records gives this sequence:[2]

  • Lowndes Court-house opened March 31, 1827.
  • Sharpe's Store opened April 2, 1828, with Hamilton W. Sharpe as postmaster.
  • The office became Magnum on April 1, 1836 under John Hall.
  • It returned to Sharpe's Store on January 28, 1837 under Hamilton.
  • James Perry became postmaster December 14, 1848; Hamilton returned August 16, 1849.
  • The office became Morven on July 21, 1853.

Federal official registers name Hamilton W. Sharp or Sharpe as postmaster at Sharpe's Store in 1829 and 1833.[28] Those entries independently establish the office and locality by 1829. The original appointment register also confirms the January 28, 1837 Hamilton entry.[8] Neither source proves Huxford's exact April 2, 1828 opening date. Sharpe's own 1884 account apparently dated the first office to fall 1827. The differing dates should remain visible rather than being silently harmonized.[2][18][28]

Sharpe's signed December 28, 1846 letter is direct evidence of his work as postmaster. Answering a complaint from the Okapilco office, he discussed postage, routes, and his handling of mail at Sharpe's Store.[16] Newspaper notices in 1848 and 1850 use “Sharp's Store” or “Sharpe's Store” as a recognized postal locality, while an 1868 notice shows the old place-name still in local use after the office had become Morven.[17]

Public office and politics

Huxford's compiled office tables identify Sharpe as a justice of the peace in the 660th militia district beginning in 1827; a Lowndes Inferior Court justice beginning in 1829, again in 1838, and again in 1841; and Lowndes County's state senator in 1833. They also place him at Georgia's 1865 constitutional convention as a Brooks County delegate and list him as Brooks County treasurer for the 1883–1887 term.[2] These are specific and internally coherent, but the underlying commission books and legislative journals were not directly reopened in this project. “Judge Sharpe,” used by later writers, is consistent with his Inferior Court service.[19][20]

Sharpe's July 26, 1884 article says that during the Civil War he served as commissary for Lowndes and Echols counties and as assessor of tax in kind. This is first-person testimony, not a located appointment record.[18] An Ancestry index labeled “Civil War correspondence” links him to a Milledgeville item dated December 4, 1848—thirteen years before the war. With no image or text, that entry proves neither Civil War service nor the content of the document.[25]

Militia and the “Captain” question

The Georgia Archives preserves eleven images of three original Sharpe letter groups:[9]

  • On August 3, 1836, writing from Sharpes Store, he asked Governor William Schley about compensation for horses wounded or lost at Brushy Creek.
  • On September 18, 1837, he reported what he considered false claims connected with a militia muster. The surviving cover is postmarked or addressed from “SHARPES STORE GEO.”
  • On August 9, 1838, he opposed speculative rotations of Georgia troops toward the Florida frontier.

These letters establish that Sharpe acted as a local militia organizer or liaison and had direct access to the governor. They do not state his rank. Huxford wrote that survivors later referred to captains H. W. Sharpe, C. S. Gaulden, and Michael Young, while also acknowledging that the roster was lost.[2] The 1885 Folsom sketch called him an “Indian fighter,” and a twentieth-century veterans' grave index labels him “Capt Us Army Indian Wars.”[19][21] Without a commission, pay roll, or original roster, the careful conclusion is that captain was a longstanding local and commemorative title, not a rank proved by the records inspected here.

Mount Zion and Methodism

Sharpe's 1884 recollection says he served with William Blair and William Hendry—or “Hardy” in preserved OCR—on the committee that selected the Mount Zion camp-meeting site. It names him among the seven first tenters.[18] Huxford dated the first meeting to fall 1828 and quoted an 1884 Wesleyan Christian Advocate recollection that Sharpe and Rev. Howren were licensed to preach together in fall 1837.[2] That supports the later “Rev. Sharpe” usage, although no ordination record or original Advocate page was located.

The November 8, 1831 Mount Zion deed, copied by Huxford from the original before the courthouse record was lost, conveyed about six acres in Lot 271 from Sion and Enoch Hall to Methodist trustees William Blair, William Hendry, Lawrence Folsom, James J. Joyce, and William G. Hall.[2] Hamilton was not a trustee. His documented role was site committee member, first tenter, and later lay preacher or exhorter. A modern historical marker summarizes the tradition but does not supersede the deed or Sharpe's own article.[26]

The exact first-meeting wording remains unsettled. Preserved OCR of the April 12, 1884 newspaper page reads 1829 and William Hardy; Huxford's transcription reads 1828 and William Hendry. Until the original page is visually reinspected, both the year and name variation should remain disclosed.[18]

Household, property, and slavery

The economic record changes substantially over Sharpe's lifetime:

  • 1830, Lowndes County: five free household members and three enslaved people.[4]
  • 1832: “Hamilton Sharp” of Blair's district drew Lot 284, Seventeenth District, First Section, in the Cherokee land lottery. A draw does not prove that he retained, occupied, or profited from the lot.[5]
  • 1835 Lowndes tax digest: three enslaved people in Captain Godwin's district.[6]
  • 1840, Lowndes County: six free people and sixteen enslaved people; seven household members were recorded in agriculture.[10]
  • 1850: the free household was enumerated in Thomas County, while a Lowndes County slave schedule assigned sixteen enslaved people to Hamilton. The separation may reflect residence or business in Thomas County alongside Lowndes property, but it does not locate a specific plantation.[11][13]
  • 1860, Thomas County: Hamilton was a farmer with $5,000 in real estate and $7,000 in personal property.[14]
  • 1870, Lowndes County: Hamilton and Jane were back in Lowndes; the schedule reports $6,000 in real estate and $5,726 in personal property. An agricultural schedule also survives, though its line was not fully transcribed in this project.[7][12]
  • 1880, Quitman: Hamilton and Jane lived on Screen Street, both reporting Georgia birthplaces for themselves and their parents.[15]

The slave schedules record age, sex, and color classifications but not names. The dossier does not convert those nameless entries into identities. The increase from three enslaved people in 1830/1835 to sixteen in 1840/1850 is direct evidence that Sharpe's commercial, farming, civic, and religious prominence rested in part on enslaved labor.[4][6][10][11]

Later life, death, and burial

By 1880 Hamilton and Jane were living in Quitman.[15] In an 1886 letter, Hamilton said he was eighty and recalled shaking Lafayette's hand in Savannah in 1825; he invited the editor to the Sharpe House or “Tranquil Hall,” which he described as being kept by two old people. The letter is valuable testimony about his self-presentation and Savannah connections, but the Lafayette encounter remains an elderly man's recollection rather than an independently verified event.[27]

Compiled cemetery and veterans' records give Hamilton's death as November 4, 1890 and burial at West End Cemetery in Quitman.[21] No original death certificate existed for this period, and no probate file or contemporary obituary definitively belonging to Hamilton was located online. His exact birth date, parentage, grave military rank, and estate disposition therefore remain less secure than the census, marriage, postal, and militia evidence.

Identity controls and rejected merges

  • William H. Sharpe was Hamilton and Jane's son and a later Morven postmaster and merchant. The 1899 merchant succession names Hamilton and William separately.[2][20]
  • The 1866 road described from “W. H. Sharpe's” most naturally refers to William, not Hamilton. It should not be used to locate Hamilton's residence.[2]
  • The Florida probate record for William H. Sharpe and wife Frances A. is a son's record, not Hamilton's probate.[23]
  • The census spellings Hamilton Sharp and Hamelton Sharp belong to the same record chain when compared across locality, age, occupation, and Jane's presence in the later households. The 1830 aggregate does not name Jane or other household members.[4][12][15]
  • A collection title or unsourced public tree is not enough to establish military service, parentage, land ownership, or family relationships.[21][25]

What is proved, probable, and unresolved

Proved or strongly supported

  • Hamilton married Jane Perry in Tattnall County in 1827 and was in Lowndes County by 1830.[1][4]
  • He was directly connected to Sharpe's Store and served as its postmaster by 1829, again in 1833 and 1837, and during the 1840s.[8][16][28]
  • He held several local and state offices reported in specific compiled office tables.[2]
  • He communicated directly with Governor Schley about militia matters in 1836–1838.[9]
  • He helped shape the Mount Zion camp-meeting tradition and later functioned as a Methodist lay preacher.[2][18]
  • He enslaved people and accumulated substantial farm and property wealth.[4][6][10][11][14]
  • He and Jane moved among Lowndes, Thomas, and Quitman during a record chain extending to 1880.[13][14][15]

Probable but not proved by a contemporary original

  • He arrived in the Hall settlement in 1826–1827 and opened a small log store near the Coffee Road.[2][18][20]
  • Sharpe's Store post office opened April 2, 1828 with Hamilton as first postmaster; this is Huxford's explicit summary of department records, not a register page directly inspected here.[2]
  • He was born April 10, 1807 to John Sharpe and Elizabeth Wynn.[21]
  • His local “Captain” title arose from actual command in the Indian conflicts.[2][19][21]

Unresolved or unproved

  • The exact location of the log store and whether Hamilton owned any part of Land Lot 271.
  • Whether the first Mount Zion meeting was in 1828 or 1829 and whether Sharpe wrote Hendry or Hardy.
  • A surviving military commission or original company roster.
  • An original birth record, a documented parent-child link to John Sharpe and Elizabeth Wynn, Hamilton's own probate file, or a contemporary obituary.
  • The names of the people he enslaved.

Online research coverage and limitations

This project searched stored Barney/Lowndes research before external work, then used authenticated Ancestry collections, the Georgia Archives File II name files and county map collection, Georgia Historic Newspapers, Newspapers.com image IDs, Internet Archive, HathiTrust, the Georgia Historical Society marker database, public cemetery indexes, and image-backed local-history transcriptions. Searches covered all listed name variants combined with Lowndes, Brooks, Irwin, Tattnall, Thomas, Morven, Sharpes Store, postmaster, justice, senator, militia, Indian War, Mount Zion, Methodist, land, deed, tax, census, probate, obituary, and cemetery. Harden's 1913 South Georgia history was searched in full OCR without finding an independent Hamilton Sharpe account; that negative result prevents it from being treated as biographical support.[3]

“Fully researched online” means the accessible online record groups and identified leads were searched and reconciled; it does not mean every courthouse or manuscript record is digitized. FamilySearch was not authenticated during the final pass. The authenticated Newspapers.com session was available for much of the main research, but one independent lane had to rely on preserved result sets and exact image IDs. Some Ancestry images require a subscription. The original Mount Zion article needs a fresh high-resolution reading, and several deed, commission, tax, probate, and church records are offline or not image-accessible.

Best next archival work

  1. Order or inspect the original federal Post Office Department appointment pages covering April 1828 and the 1848–1850 changes.
  2. Reopen the April 12, 1884 Valdosta Times image at full resolution to settle 1828/1829 and Hendry/Hardy.
  3. Search Georgia militia commission books, pay rolls, and gubernatorial letter registers for a rank or company tied to Sharpe.
  4. Inspect Brooks County deed and tax originals for Lots 186 and 229 and search surviving land records for any Hamilton interest in Lot 271.
  5. Search Brooks County probate minutes, loose estates, and Quitman newspapers around November 4, 1890.
  6. Search Methodist conference minutes and the 1884 Wesleyan Christian Advocate for Sharpe's preaching license and reminiscence.
  7. Use estate, deed, church, and Freedmen's Bureau records to look for the names of people formerly enslaved by the Sharpe household.

Numbered sources

  1. Georgia marriage record, Hamilton W. Sharpe–Jane Perry, Tattnall County, March 5, 1827, Ancestry collection 4766, record 564900, image 40660_308962-00058: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/4766/images/40660_308962-00058?pid=564900
  2. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858–1948 (1948), especially printed pages 21–23, 252–254, 276–278, 283–284, and 387: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x000002988
  3. William Harden, A History of Savannah and South Georgia, vol. 2 (1913), searched as a negative/comparison source: https://archive.org/details/histsavanna02hard
  4. 1830 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Hamilton W. Sharp household, NARA M19 roll 19, p. 81, Ancestry collection 8058, record 1850853: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8058/images/4409522_00160?pid=1850853
  5. 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery, Hamilton Sharp, Blair's district, Lowndes County, lot 284, district 17, section 1, Ancestry collection 4242, record 2161: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/4242/records/2161
  6. 1835 Georgia tax digest, Hamilton W. Sharpe, Captain Godwin's district, Lowndes County, Ancestry collection 1729, record 3526472: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1729/images/40141_1020705384_0043-00031?pid=3526472
  7. 1870 U.S. agricultural schedule, Lowndes County, Hamilton Sharpe, Ancestry collection 1276, record 5341865: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1276/images/32668_236687-00146?pid=5341865
  8. U.S. postmaster appointment register, Hamilton W. Sharpe, Sharpes Store, January 28, 1837, NARA M841 roll 24, Ancestry collection 1932, record 1730996: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1932/images/30439_065409-00217?pid=1730996
  9. Georgia Archives, File II Names, Hamilton W. Sharpe correspondence, 1836–1838, compound item 60996 and component images 60985–60995: https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/FileIINames/id/60996
  10. 1840 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Hamilton W. Sharpe household, Ancestry collection 8057, record 1792819: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8057/images/4411334_00511?pid=1792819
  11. 1850 U.S. slave schedule, Lowndes County, Hamilton W. Sharpe, Ancestry collection 8055, record 92529645: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8055/images/GAM432_92-0371?pid=92529645
  12. 1870 U.S. census, Lowndes County, “Hamelton Sharp” and Jane, Ancestry collection 7163, record 12762: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4263492_00203?pid=12762
  13. 1850 U.S. census, Thomas County, H. W. Sharpe and Jane, Ancestry collection 8054, record 18965806: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4191564_00476?pid=18965806
  14. 1860 U.S. census, Thomas County, Hamilton W. Sharpe, Ancestry collection 7667, record 11696321: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4212797_00003?pid=11696321
  15. 1880 U.S. census, Quitman, Brooks County, H. W. and Jane Sharpe, Ancestry collection 6742, record 7463073: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6742/images/4240127-00216?pid=7463073
  16. Hamilton W. Sharpe's December 28, 1846 postmaster letter, published in the Savannah Daily Republican, January 6, 1847; image-backed transcription: https://raycityhistory.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/postmaster-hamilton-w-sharpe-takes-offense/
  17. Contemporary place-name evidence: Daily Constitutionalist, April 13, 1848, image 604752859, https://www.newspapers.com/image/604752859/ ; Georgia Journal and Messenger, December 11, 1850, image 851672042, https://www.newspapers.com/image/851672042/ ; Quitman Banner, February 14, 1868, https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn85034094/1868-02-14/ed-1/seq-2/
  18. Hamilton W. Sharpe, 1884 “History of Lowndes County” installments, Valdosta Times: April 5, image 889710685, https://www.newspapers.com/image/889710685/ ; April 12, image 889710719, https://www.newspapers.com/image/889710719/ ; July 26, image 889711162, https://www.newspapers.com/image/889711162/
  19. Montgomery M. Folsom, character sketch of Hamilton W. Sharpe, Valdosta Times, February 21, 1885, image 889715214, https://www.newspapers.com/image/889715214/ ; reprinted Atlanta Constitution, February 24, image 26819507, https://www.newspapers.com/image/26819507/
  20. Morven merchant succession, Valdosta Times, October 14, 1899, p. 21, Newspapers.com image 889671340: https://www.newspapers.com/image/889671340/
  21. U.S. Veterans' Gravesites index, Hamilton W. Sharpe, Ancestry collection 8750, record 5890613, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8750/records/5890613 ; Find a Grave memorial 100345173, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/100345173/hamilton-wynn-sharpe
  22. Robert A. Alexander–Betsey Thomas Sharpe marriage announcement, citing the Southern Christian Advocate, February 20, 1867, Georgia Genealogy Trails: http://genealogytrails.com/geo/state/marriages-1.html
  23. Florida probate record for William H. Sharpe, used to exclude the son's estate from Hamilton, Ancestry collection 8993, record 709057: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8993/records/709057
  24. Georgia Archives, 1908 Brooks County map, item 285: https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/cmf/id/285
  25. Ancestry “Georgia, Civil War Correspondence, 1847–1865” index, Hamilton Sharpe, record 51188, dated December 4, 1848; used only as an access-limited negative/caution: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1730/records/51188
  26. Georgia Historical Society, “Mount Zion Camp Ground” marker record: https://www.georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/mount-zion-camp-ground/
  27. Hamilton W. Sharpe's 1886 Lafayette recollection, image and transcription: https://raycityhistory.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/hamilton-sharpe-and-lafayette/
  28. Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, September 30, 1829 and September 30, 1833, post-office entries for Hamilton W. Sharp/Sharpe at Sharpe's Store.

Citation audit

All 28 numbered sources are cited in the body. Original records control where accessible. Retrospective accounts are labeled as such, source dependence is disclosed, namesakes are separated, and unresolved conflicts remain unresolved rather than being converted into fact.