Sharp, Graves and Gibbs Genealogy

The ship Queen Elizabeth came to port at Philadelphia on September 16, 1738, with 300 immigrants from the Palatinates, named Ernst Scharp, Issac Scharp, a Georg Scharp, age 36, and another Georg Scharp, aged 16. Thomas and others believed it was "the elder George Scharp who was the father of Henry Scharp and his brother, John Joseph Scharp, who were anong the founders of Sharp's Fort on the Clinch River."

Just before the Civil War other German folk came down out of Wythe County, Virginia to blend into the community named Henegar, Spangler, Tarter, and Lindamood. Other German descendants to migrate still later were the Wolfenbargers, Inklebargers, Beelers, Petrees, and perhaps Butchers. The Loys were French Hugnuots and came into the area in 1808 and established Loy's Crossroads a few miles south of Sharp's Station. The Warwicks, Tutors, Canutes, and Langleys were of English descent.

Henry Sharp married Barbara, daughter of John Graves, the German immigrant, who lived to be 102 years old. Their children have been compiled from Thomas' recollections, records kept by J. Crit Sharp, and confirmed by research done by Genevieve Peters of Arlington, Virginia.

1. Catherine Sharp, wife of Tobias Tiliman, migrated to Preable County, Ohio, in 1803 where she died.

2. Elizabeth Sharp, wife of Fredrick Miller, also died in Preable County, Ohio.

3. Mary Sharp, wife of James McNutt, of whom we have no data.

4. Sarah Sharp, married her first cousin, John Graves Jr., son of Jacob and Turley Coble Graves. They built the brick house once owned by Patrick Graves and last owned by John Baker.

5. Henry Sharp (1765-1848) married Elizabeth Mosier, opened the farm and built the brick house where Osber Graves now lives.

6. Conrad Sharp (1767-1826) married Sarah Gibbs. They opened the farm now owned by B. C. Ousley. Conrad and Sarah Sharp are buried in Lost Creek Cemetery.

7. Jacob Sharp married Philopena Stoner (Stiner) and moved to present McMinn County, Tennessee, settled six miles down the Hiwassee River from Calhoun, served as one of the first magistrates of McMinn County in 1819, and is buried near Devil's Buff on Hiwasse River.

8. Daniel Sharp married Jean Howard and died at Sharp's Station in 1809. Perhaps buried in an unmarked grave near the old fort and also near where Peter Graves, victim of the Indians in 1794, is buried.

9. William Sharp, known as "Station Bill (1780-1862), married Rachel Stoner (Stiner) and lived and died at the old station and his son McHenry Sharp, lived and died there; MaHenry's son, Lon Sharp, lived until the exodus of 1935 caused by the creation of Norris Lake. After Rachel Stoner died, Station Bill married Jane Irwin, daughter of Francis Irwin of Forkvale. Jane Irwin was the mother of McHenry Sharp. Jane Irwin's brother, John Irwin, had married Jane Sharp, a daughter of Station Bill and his first wife, Rachel Stoner.

A list of immigrants edited by both authors, Isaac D. Rupp and R. B. Strassburger, list forty-five Palatinates and their families arrived on the ship Alexander and Anne on September 5, 1730. Among those German passengers was Johan Sebastian Graff (or Graef). Born in Germany in 1704, the Anglicized John Graves resided for a time in Berks County, Pennsylvania, before migrating to Stinking Quarter Creek in Orange County, North Carolina, and later to Sharp's Fort on the Clinch River. John Graves was a member of the Regulators and served in the Battle of Alamance during the Revolutionary War.

John Graves had three sons, John Jacob Graves born on March 8, 1746, and Sebastian (Boston) Graves born on October 1, 1747, were recorded in records of the Dunken Church in Burks County, Pennsylvania. John Jacob Graves broke with the family tradition and served as a Tory during the Revolutionary War. He died near the forks of the Alamance and Stinking Quarter Creek and he and his wife, Turley Coble, are buried in Stoner's Churchyard.

Sebastion (Boston) Graves (1747-1840), second son of the immigrant, served with the Continental Army during the Revolution and was captured by the British and held for eleven months and later exchanged. He migrated with his father and kin to Sharp's Station on the Clinch River. He married Sarah Efland. Another son, Peter Graves, was killed by Indians near Sharp's Fort on November 13, 1794.

Following the Indian hostilities in East Tennessee John Graves and his son Sebastian (Boston), purchased large tracts of land near Harbison's Cross Roads. The settlement known as Gravestown gets its name from this early American family. Boston Graves and his wife are buried in a private cemetery near Harbison's.

John Graves Jr., son of John Jacob Graves Sr., the Tory, married his first cousin and sister to Conrod Sharp and others. It was at his home in Lost Creek that John Sebastian Graves died in 1804.

Dr. A. H. Longmire pointed out to Will Thomas, John Sebastian Graves' grave in 1904. There had been a Presbyterian Church on the Longmire farm but it became defunct about the time John Graves died. "A manuscript a century ago by Rev. William Carroll Graves, a scholarly Methodist minister, was the source of this material about the church and about old John's grave," wrote Will Thomas. He went on to say, "Communicants of that early church were the families named Rice, Smith, Wilson, Tillman, and Black. Other settlers were, for the most part, adherante to the German Reform faith. Calvinestic Baptist finally took over the community and built Lost Creek Baptist Church of Christ about 1818. Up until 1835, Lost Creek was an arm of Big Barren Church of Christ."

Thomas' notes reflect that "after the Presbyterians abandoned the Big Valley area, an 'arm' of Barren Creek Baptist Church built a log meeting-house in what is now the lower part of Lost Creek Cemetery. It stood beside the marker at the grave of Conard and Sarah Gibbs Sharp. Later, a large log building was erected some rods up toward White Hollow Road, and still later, the frame church was built in the opposite corner of the burial ground. Lost Creek Church became an independent congregation in 1835 and served the community for exactly a hundred years until the exodus created by the formation of Norris Lake."

We are told that the first grave opened in Lost Creek was that of an old veteran, a compatriot of Henry Rice, who died while visiting in the Rice home and was buried on the Rice farm. Will Thomas wrote that Henry Rice was born in Virginia in 1717, and died at Lost Creek in 1818, age 101. His wife was Margaret. He migrated to pendleton District, South Carolina to the Watauga Settlement in 1775, and lived two miles west of present (1960's) Church Hill, Hawkins County, where he built and fortified a mill which still stands (1960's). Here Capt. James Robertson billited his militia in the mill and fought Indians there in 1777.

Henry, his sons, John, William, Daniel, and other Rices were in Col. William Christian's Cherokee Campaign in 1776. Among the defenders was a Charles, Benjamin, and another William Rice, and Henry's son-in-law, David Smith. While living in Hawkins County, Henry Rice obtained several land grants on the Holston River and one containing 640 acres "Lying and being in Bald valley on both sides of Lost Creek." James Rice, son of Henry, arid his wife, Rebecca Miller, lived in Pendlinton District, South Carolina before moving to Lost Creek to develop this square mile of wilderness in 1795. James Rice built a log home and later established a grist mill in 1798. Henry Rice died at the home of his daughter, Elizabeth Rice Smith, in a cabin called the "loom house" located behind the Lost Creek post office in 1818. Henry Rice was buried with his soldier friend on the homeplace, the second to be buried there. James Rice, son of Henry, then set aside four acres to be used in perpetuity as a burial ground and for religious and educational purposes. Today the Lost Creek Cemetery Association organized in the 1960's by William H. Thomas, Obie Longmire, and others, maintain the cemetery under the leadership of Leonard Wolfenbarger and Harvey Bridges. The Rice children were:

1. William Rice born 1743 in Virginia.

2. Charles Rice born 1755-1774 probably in Virginia.

3. James Rice born 1763 in South Carolina m Rebecca Miller in 1787, died in 1829. Built a grist mill on Lost Creek, moved by TVA to Norris, Tennessee in 1935.

4. David Rice probably born in South Carolina 1765-1770, married Anna Ray before 1775.

5. John Rice, minister, born probably in South Carolina before 1775.

6. Levi Rice, minister, born probably in South Carolina 1770, married mary Catherine Mitchell before 1789, married (2) Jane Simmons in 1801.

7. Martha (Patsy) Rice born 1745-1755 probably in Virginia, married David Bailey in 1770's in South Carolina.

8. Molly Rice byorn 1755-1757 in Virginia or South Carolina, married Nathan Watson between 1780-1790.

WGT NOTE: This writer believes that the Presbyterian Church that was established on Longmire property near Lost Creek was called Sharp's Chapel Presbyterian Church and was established around 1800. By having the community church the settlement may also have taken the name Sharp's Chapel. John Graves was buried in the churchyard in 1804. Thomas claims "the church became defunct about that time."

Another distinguised settler at Sharp's Station was Nicholas Gibbs. Gibbs was born in the Duchy of Baden, German, on September 29, 1733. It is claimed that he saw service in the French and Indian War and during the American Revolution as an official of Orange County, North Carolina, under the Continental Government. The Gibbs family had once been courtiers at the royal court when the Stuart dynasty held power in England and held great estates there. Gen. G. W. Gibbs, a son of Nicholas, in a letter to the first William Gibbs McAdoo, in 1846, stated that his family left England to save their heads at the time their king lost his, and from this bit of information, we believe that the Gibbs family migratd to German when Cromwell came to power and caused King Charles I to be executed.

Before migrating to Tennessee Nicholas Gibbs lived some four miles from present Burlington, North Carolina on Liberty Road. Stoner's Church at the confluence of the creeks that united to form Great Alamance, housed both the German Reform and the Lutheran congregations.

Hundreds of people throughout East Tennessee proudly claim descent from Nicholas Gibbs and his wife, Mary Efland. Gibbs and his family moved to upper Knox County, Tennessee, after Indian hostilities ceased where he purchased many acres and raised a large family. The Gibbs community and Gibbs High School bear his name. Gibbs died in 1817 and was buried on the homeplace at near Harbison's Cross Roads. His log home, built in 1792, still stands.

His children were:

1. Elizabeth Gibbs, born 1765, married John Snodderly, buried at Lost Creek Cemetery.

2. Mary Gibbs, born 1766, married Henry Albright, buried at Stoner's churchyard, Orange (now Alamance) County, North Carolina.

3. Sarah Gibbs, married Conrad Sharp, buried Lost Creek Cemetery.

4. John Gibbs, married Ann Howard and was buried near the mouth of Hinds' Creek in Anderson County, Tennessee.

5. Catherine Gibbs, married John Holmes and is buried in Stoner's churchyard, Alamance County, North Carolina.

6. Nicholas Gibbs Jr., married Rachel Doyle. He was a captain and fell in the Battle at Horseshoe Bend, supposedly buried there.

7. David Gibbs, born in 1774, married Sarah Tulman, daughter of Tobias and Catherine Sharp Tillman. Catherine was a daughter of Henry and Barbara Graves Sharp. Tobias settled where the late Harvey Stooksbury lived near Loyston, but migrated to Preable County, Ohio, in 1803.

8. Jacob Gibbs, born 1777, married Hulda Reed and is buried in Gibbs family graveyard near Harbinson's Cross Roads, Knox County, Tennessee.

9. Barbara Gibbs, married Dr. Beriah Frazier and is buried in Rhea County, Tennessee.

10. Sylphenia Gibbs, married Jesse Martin and migrated to Missouri.

11. George W. Gibbs, married Leanna Dibrell of White County, Tennessee. He was a lawyer and banker in Nashville, founded Union City, Tennessee, and buried there. He was Adjutant General of Tennessee under Gov. William Carroll.

12. Daniel Gibbs, born 1786, married Sarah Sharp.

For more information on this article or any article or publication of the Union County Historical Society please write them at:

Union County Historical Society
P.O. Box 95
Maynardville, TN 37807

Or
E-mail the Union County Historical Society.

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