MOGMBSharp
BENJAMIN SHARP 1820-1861
Grand Master, 1856-1857
BIOGRAPHY
From Biographies of Past Grand Masters, 1821-1901, by the Grand Lodge of Missouri:
Most Worshipful Brother Benjamin Sharp is first mentioned in the annals of the Grand Lodge as a representative from Danville Lodge No. 72 in the Grand Lodge session of 1853. At the Annual Communication in May, 1856, he was elected M. W. Grand Master, serving one year, and was succeeded by Brother Samuel H. Saunders.
Brother Sharp was born in Jonesville, Lee County, Virginia, April 12, 1820, and received his schooling in, and graduated from, the Virginia Military Institute. He took up the profession of law and in 1843 removed to Missouri, settling in Danville, where he soon took high rank as an attorney, and socially as well.
His Masonic history cannot be obtained in consequence of its destruction during the war. Danville Lodge No. 72 was burned October 14, 1864; and all the records lost. The Lodge having been originally chartered in 1842, it is safe to believe Brother Sharp became a Mason therein. Inasmuch as he represented Danville Lodge in the Grand Lodge of 1853, as the Master, his membership remained there during his life.
His tragic death occurred July 18, 1861, he being shot while seated in his buggy going to Martinsburg, Missouri. At that date a terrible condition of affairs existed in Missouri, and his death was undoubtedly by "bushwhackers."
His remains were interred in the Gregory Cemetery, one mile west of Danville, Missouri. The Masons of Montgomery County united and erected a monument, suitably inscribed, to his memory.
From the history of Montgomery County we excerpt the following, touching his death: "Benjamin Sharp kneeled down and prayed God to bless and protect his wife and children, to forgive his sins, and to grant that the armies of the Union might be successful and the Union itself preserved to his posterity forever. He died as he had lived, brave as a lion, devoted to the Union cause, kneeling and praying to God alone."
