Q. What is the common name for Rt. 150?
A. Scenic Highway
Q. When was the courthouse in Marlinton built?
A. 1894
Historical Sketches of
Pocahontas County – 1901
By William T. Price
Natural Features and Social Customs
Persons knowing but little of those gone before are very likely to care but little of those coming after them. To such, who are careless about historical research, life seems a mere chain of sand, while life ought to be a kind of electric chain, making our hearts throb and vibrate with the most ancient thoughts of the past, as well as the most distant hopes of the future. The continuity of history is something marvelous indeed. In virtue of this continuity it may be shown that there are many things that we owe to Babylon, Ninevah, Persia, Egypt and Phoenicia.
Those who carry watches derive from the Babylonians the division of the hour into sixty minutes. This arrangement may have its faults yet, such as it may be, it comes down to modern citizens from the Greeks and the Romans, and they derived it from Babylon…
Every person who has ever written a letter is indebted to the Romans and Greeks for the alphabet. The Greeks received their alphabet from the Phoenicians, and the Phoenicians learned theirs in Egypt. Students in Phonetics all assert that ours is a very imperfect alphabet, yet, such as it has been and may be now, we owe it to the old Phoenicians and Egyptians. In every letter we trace with pen, pencil or typewriter, there lies imbedded an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic. The letter A has the face of the sacred ox, which the Egyptians were ready to venerate with honors almost divine.
BIOGRAPHIC
JOHN SHARP
Among the persons settling in what is now Pocahontas County early in the century, John Sharp, Senior, a native of Ireland, is richly deserving of more than passing notice. He is the ancestor of the families of that name that constitutes such a marked proportion of the Frost community, and have been identified with that vicinity for the past 91 years. Previous to the Revolution he came in with the tide of Scotch-Irish immigration that spread over Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and thence moved south, and finally located in Rockingham County, Virginia.
His wife was Margaret Blaine, whose parents resided in the vicinity of Rawley Springs. She was a relative of Rev. John S. Blaine, one of the pioneer Presbyterian Pastors in our county.
John Sharp reached Frost in 1802, and settled on the place now occupied by Abram Sharp. There were six sons and as many daughters. The daughters were Margaret, Anna, Isabella, Elizabeth, Rosa and Polly. Margaret became Mrs. Henry Dilley and lived on Thorny Creek. Anna was married to Daniel McCollam, who finally moved to Ohio, Isabella became Mrs. Alexander Rider, who lived so long on the top of the Alleghany, seven miles east of Huntersville. Elizabeth was the wife of Rev. James Wanless, a widely known minister, and lived on upper Thorny Creek, where John F. Wanless now resides. Rosa was married to the Rev. William J. Ryder, on Back Creek…
The pioneer’s sons were John, Robert, Daniel, William, James and Joseph.
Mrs. Elizabeth Sharp, the aged relict of the late John Sharp, a grandson of the pioneer John Sharp, has a remarkable history. Left alone during the war, she supported her young and numerous family, paid off mortgages on the land, and came through the great trouble out of debt…
John Sharp was small in person, blue eyes, light hair, and of florid complexion. He was constantly employed. Mrs. Sharp was quiet in all her ways, very diligent in her duties, and patiently met and endured the toils and inconveniences of living in the woods. These persons were pious and some of the first religious meeting held in the vicinity of Frost were at their house.