He was born on a farm on March 2, 1865, in Adams County, Illinois to James and Permelia Jane (née Bates) Sharp.
[1] A week after graduation, Sharp traveled to Indian Territory, where he attended the first session of the newly created United States court at Muskogee.
His first major public act on behalf of the town was to deliver the welcoming address at the joint meeting to organize the Indian Territory and Oklahoma Press Association on April 30, 1899.
He also joined an association of men from 1895 to 1898 that were engaged in promoting and building the Oklahoma Central Railroad from Lehigh to Chickasha.
[d] Thoburn was evidently quite impressed with her, for he wrote that she was, "... a woman of broad culture and should be credited with an important share in her husband's advancement to eminence in Oklahoma's affairs."