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Note: This text is here because rootsweb has a messed up formatting system for GEDcoms.
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I don't think he ever capitalized the W in DeWitt, it was just always Dewitt. ~ HR
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The LaFayette Sun, 12/30/1896:
Kemp's Xroads - Dec. 28 - "Mr. D.C. Sharp has about completed his new residence."
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The LaFayette Sun, Wed. Dec. 30, 1936
D. C. Sharpe, 87, Died Wednesday, Dec. 23d
D. C. Sharpe, 87, passed away at his home Wednesday morning, December 23d, at six o'clock.
Funeral service was held at the Sharpe burial ground, near White Plains at three o'clock Wednesday afternoon, with the Rev. Howard Vines conducting the funeral service at the grave.
Surviving are three children, Mrs. B. E. Earle, Mrs. O. D. Sorell and Herschel Sharpe.
Pallbearers were Bryant and Lem Earle, Harvey and Preston Sharpe and O. D. and Glenn Sorrell. J. E. Cutler, local funeral director, was in charge of arrangements.
Corrections: Herschel should be Hershal and Sharpe should be Sharp.
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From "On the Hills of Home" by Cal Sharpe:
Next was Uncle Dewitt Clinton Sharp, born in 1850, who early in life received the nickname of "Tent," but should have been named a name synonymous with vitality, for without a doubt, he possessed more than any other member of this family. He, too, lived through the Civil War with the fear and anxieties of a young boy not old enough to go, but old enough to know the horrors of it. He was there, expecting the army to take everything, when Sherman's men marched by the home place. He only heard the commanding officer yell, "Halt," as the soldiers started towards the house. The soldiers left without entering the Sharp home, and it was believed that the officer knew that here was the home of one of their own Union soldiers.
Uncle Tent married Mary Jane Tomlinson in 1869, lived one year with her folks, then moved to Wedowee to live a year with his parents. After these two years they returned to Chambers County to farm by themselves. To them were born eight children, and when the wife gave birth to the last one in 1886, she died. Thinking that farming would be better in Texas, and that relatives might help in rearing his family, he sold everything he had and moved to Texas. He worked there with a harvesting crew and attempted to farm one crop, but that was a dry year in Texas, so he came back to Alabama to start anew.
Many have been the times he related his experiences in going to Texas with eight children, and how they reacted to their first trip on a train, and to the unknown foreign land of Texas. Uncle Tent told of his experiences with humorous descriptions, yet these incidents and happenings were anything but funny at the time they occurred. He possessed the ability to mimic others, which he often did in his story-telling, to make the related incident more real to his listeners, and at various intervals he would stop and enjoy a burst of laughter himself.
In 1888 he married Martha Scott, a seamstress and teacher, but this marriage only lasted a few years. In 1890, a tornado passed through this area and blew the house away where his children lived, killing Leila, age 15, and seriously injuring two of the others. Through having marital troubles at this time, Uncle Tent accepted this terrible catastrophe with greater determination to "get going" again, yet not accepting or expecting any financial help from others. This independence of the individual was evident throughout his life, and probably was a characteristic of those times.
His children, Florella, Dece, Bud, Alleen, Charles, Hershal and Irene, were known everywhere in the country for their singing. Still there are some old timers living to tell how Bud, short in stature but deep in voice, Dece with joyous animation, and Alleen with alto that rocked the church doors, would sing and enjoy it as much as those who sat and listened. After all of his children were married, they continued to enjoy singing, and among their descendants today are many who would rather sing and play some musical instrument than eat.
Uncle Tent gave each of his children 20 acres of land, and he went to live with his youngest son, Hershal. It was told by those who knew, that he walked to Wedowee and back home 17 times, a distance of 65 miles each trip, to see his parents and care for them when they were sick. He also rode horseback or went in a wagon many times to help them when they needed someone. He was very generous, and few people ever left his house without his giving them something to carry home. It was the joy of his grandchildren to go there, but he always took them to his favorite spot in the woods where he kept a big swing and a nice den to enjoy the wonders of nature and to meditate. He carried the grandchildren to hunt muscadines, wild persimmons, grapes, hickory nuts and many other fruits in season.
Uncle Tent spent many hours in these quiet spots away from the outside tumult, and at the cemetery where his first wife was buried. This love of nature is characteristic of the Sharps down through the ages, as shown by their love of pioneer life. By keeping close to Mother Nature, he finds his greatest comfort, for it is there God best reveals himself.
In 1934, he survived a second tornado, when his house was partly wrecked while he was in a weather house. When asked if he was scared, he replied, "I don't know, but when I reached to scratch my head, I stuck my fingers in my eyes." One of his most frank admissions was that "I must have pretty good sense, since it's never been used."
---Dewitt was not actually Cal Sharpe's uncle he was Cal's great-uncle.---
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Also, Daniel and Charlotte hadn't moved from their home place in Chambers County at the time Dewitt and Mary Jane married. They didn't sell it and move to Texas until the 1870's. They returned to Alabama after a few years and bought the farm in Randolph County.
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Name: D. C. Sharpe
Death date: 23 Dec 1936
Death place: Buffalo, Chambers, Alabama
Gender: Male
Age at death: 87y
Estimated birth date: 1849
Father's name: Daniel Sharpe
Mother's name: Charlotte Sharpe
Collection: Alabama Deaths 1908-1974
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1880 Chapel Hill, Chambers County, AL (White Plains)
D. C. Sharp - 1850 - AL - Farmer
Mary J. - 1852 - AL
A. Decia - 1878 - AL
Charles Lee - 1871 - AL
Daniel B. - 1874 - AL
Florella - 1873 - AL
Ula L. - 1875 - AL
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1900 Hamburg & Five Points, Chambers Co., AL (White Plains)
Dewitt C. Sharp - 50 - AL MD TN
Hershell - 18 - AL AL AL
Irene - 17 - AL AL AL
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The land where Dewitt's home was located was cleared of timber in 2018 or 2019, leaving a beautiful landscape like it was when Dewitt owned the land.
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