My Genealogy Hound

T. J. Sharum, general merchant of Walnut Ridge, was born in Daviess County, Ind., February 4, 1840. His father, H. V. Sharum, is a native of Kentucky, and an early settler of Daviess County, Ind., where he still resides on a farm, at the age of eighty years. The elder Sharum was married to Miss Rosa Ann Cisell, of Kentucky, and eight children were the result of this union. One of the sons, James A., was a member of Company I, Twenty-fourth Infantry, Indiana Volunteers, and was killed in the battle of Shiloh. Two of the sons reside in Arkansas — T. J. Sharum and J. C. Sharum, the latter a resident of Portia. Mr. T. J. Sharum was reared on a farm in Indiana, and received a fair education in his youth. He learned the carpenter’s trade early in life, and worked at it in the town of Manitowoc, Wis., until the fall of 1860. In 1861 (July 3) he enlisted in Company I, Twenty-fourth Infantry, Indiana Volunteers, which was organized at Camp Knox, and in the latter part of that summer went to Missouri, under Gen. Fremont. He took part in the battle of Shiloh, where he was wounded in the left shoulder by a rifle ball. He was granted a furlough of several months after this occurrence, and later on rejoined his regiment at Helena, Ark., and with the exception of skirmishing, was not engaged in actual battle until the siege of Vicksburg. On June 23, he was taken prisoner, and finally landed in the famous Libby Prison. Later on he was exchanged, and rejoined his regiment at New Iberia, La. At Clinton, La., he did some skirmish duty, and in the year of 1864, he was mustered out at Baton Rouge. Mr. Sharum’s next occupation was that of traveling salesman for a jewelry house, and then a stock trader. He journeyed through the Choctaw Nation and the State of Arkansas for two years, trading in stock and hides. He then established himself in business in Indiana for seven years, and afterward was a wholesale manufacturer of boots and shoes in St. Louis, Mo., for eight years, in connection with a brother. In November, 1883, he came to Walnut Ridge, his present home, and purchased the business of J. M. Phelps & Sons. His undertakings have all been successful, and he is now the owner of some 3,000 acres of land, besides that part of Walnut Ridge where the court-house and Methodist Episcopal Church stand. He is commander of Lawrence Post No. 72, G. A. R., and is a member of the I. O. O. F., Good Templars and Knights and Ladies of Honor. He was married April 24, 1866, to Miss Lydia A. Loutz, of Indiana, and has had three children, one of them dying since (Edward). The two still living are Monte and Myrtle.