THOMAS SHARPLES

Passing of Scotland Pioneer. SCOTLAND, FORGOTTEN TOWN
NOTE: was a Photo of Downtown Scotland; and Thomas Sharples - Courtesy of the Indianapolis Star

Last Sunday the Indianapolis Star contained the following, written by John Ben STOTTS, of Odon, upon the death of Thomas SHARPLES, aged ninety-seven years, who passed away at his home in Scotland, Wednesday of last week.

The truly great are those who give without thought of recompense. And only those who knew the man, Thomas SHARPLES, best could appreciate to the utmost, his greatness.

Those things he gave he gave quietly and while a state might mourn his loss and well do honor to his clay, a little sleepy village far back, away from any railroad, nestling in the bluegrass hills of Greene County, felt the hurt most deeply when the oldest man in the county died last Wednesday morning, in the little cottage at the end of the principal street in Scotland, as quietly, as unostentatiously as he had lived.

Thomas SHARPLES, the farmer, philosopher, philanthropist, was a self made man. He first saw the light of day in the little town of Lancashire, England, in the year of 1820. He went to school but one month, but was rather well educated, applying himself assiduously to the task of educating himself in the spare moments of his life, and studying a great deal after he had reached an old age.

When he was ten years old, his father, David SHARPLES, becoming dissatisfied with the opportunities offered in England, came to America to try his fortunes in the newer country and was so well pleased that he sent for his family the following year.

He had made his way to Wellsburg, W. Va, where he had obtained employment in a glass factory at that place and at which he worked for three years before the lure of the land drew him to the farm which with aid of his family, he worked for ten years. He moved to Greene county, Indiana, but always seeking to better himself he later moved to Monroe County, where he died.

Of his children, Thomas applied himself most carefully to the farm work and the raising of stock and developed rare ability in trading, accumulating money rapidly even when a boy. In 1843 he married Catherine NICHOLS, of Lawrence county, and one year later entered eighty acres of land in Martin county, which was the nucleus of the broad acres he amassed during his lifetime.

A great-hearted, genial, far sighted man and a careful manager, fortune smiled upon him and he traded for, bought and entered more land, mostly the rich bottomland in Greene county, the value of which was rising rapidly and through whose productive soil the money came easily. Always near to nature, he understood her various moods probably better than most are permitted to do, and the easy philosophy of his teachings helped a legion around him who could not always understand.

Plain spoken and thoroughly democratic, he obtained the utmost confidence of his people, which was never abused. When he reached three score years he owned hundreds of acres of land, and his herds and flocks dotted the bluegrass hills about this little village of Scotland, near which he lived.

And Scotland then was a thriving trading center. Wealthy landowners and prosperous stockowners made up its population and the shops and stores were lavishly equipped and filled for than day. Its worth was counted in the hundreds of thousands and beautiful residences rarely seen in country towns so far from important trading centers were erected along its streets (or street).

But progress built other towns also, and railroads came to these other towns, but none to Scotland. And then the tide of prosperity wavered and swept away, past the shipping points, and places more easily accessible, and Scotland settled down into respectable solitude and the big busy world forgot about it and it was left alone to rest.

Its wealthy residents died, moved away, or retired. Its younger ones went to find new fields and other opportunities. But the man who was most interested in the welfare of the little village stayed on in the community and looked about him for new methods of helping those who needed it most.

A member of the Baptist church from boyhood, he naturally took that avenue to give aid. His benevolence in that time have been in the thousands of dollars he gave to almost every charity that asked and many that did not. He gave Franklin College $1,000. He gave $6,000 to the Bedford Association of Missionary Baptists to be used in evangelistic work. And when the Crawford Industrial needed money to get on its feet his check for $1,000 was among the first.

The American Baptist Publication Society received $500 and in his home town, when the money seemed hard to get to keep the work of his church going, he rebuilt the church and hired a minister for a year, bearing every expense. His little charities were several thousand more.

When he was 72 years old his wife died and although he married again neither bore him any children. But the entire population of the little city the world forgot were his children and as they followed his body out to its last resting place in the little cemetery on the hill where the stately pines stand guard over his ashes the grave marked by a simple shaft that gives no hint of his greatness we stood with uncovered heads and said with them: “What a man.”

THE BLOOMFIELD NEWS, Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana, Thursday, December 11, 1913, Volume XXXVII, Number 4, Page 1, Columns 3 & 4

Last updated 5.12.2009