The hotel was a friendly place and there was time to look around since the Cotton Belt didn't arrive until almost noon on Monday. Bogle arose early the next morning, and soon he found himself seated across the desk from Lawyer Strong. Strong was obviously prosperous, and he painted a rosy picture for an ambitious lawyer in eastern Arkansas. Bogle was soon convinced that a fortune could be made in cotton, land and banking. A bargain was struck, and Bogle threw away his train ticket to EI Dorado. Callie arrived a few days later, noting the blooming cotton and wondering where the oil wells were that her husband had talked about so excitedly. Thus was the beginning of a law office that 78 years later remains in the same
building. The bank has moved away, and the law firm is now downstairs.
hen Callie's mother died, her younger brother, William Wilson Sharp, was sent to high school at Castle Heights in Lebanon, Tennessee, but he often had occasion to visit in Brinkley. He came under the influence of his brother-in-law who had developed a lively law practice and was rapidly becoming a leading political figure in the state. After graduating from Dickson College in Tennessee, Wilson Sharp obtained his law degree from Cumberland and promptly became a member of the firm of Manning, Emerson & Sharp in Clarendon. In 1916, however, the levee broke and Clarendon was flooded. Wilson sought refuge with his sister and her husband in Brinkley. The crafty Bogle put his brother-inlaw to work, and soon the firm of Bogle and Sharp was born. For 15 years William Wilson Sharp was Democratic central
W
Editor's Note: Phillip Carroll is a member of the Rose Law firm in Little Rock. He is president of the Commission on Uniform State Laws. a former president and secretary of the Arkansas Bar Association and a former president of the Pulaski County Bar Association. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, American College of Trial Lawyers and American Bar foundation.
148/Arkansas Lawyer/July 1986
Baxter. ennie V. Sharp married john B. Moore, jr. While john Moore was a student at the University of Arkansas and a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, he brought his hunting dogs to school with him, housing them in a doghouse on the Iront lawn of the fraternity. He there acquired the name of "Coon Dog" Moore. He was the inspiration for the campus cheer, "Who Broke the Lock on the jail House Door, 'Coon Dog' Moore, 'Coon Dog' Moore!" Following graduation, 'Coon Dog' Moore served as chair of the Democratic Central Committee of Monroe County for over 20 years, was on the Board of Trustees for AM&N College at Pine Bluff, was elder in the Presbyterian Church at Clarendon, was president of the Clarendon School Board, was chair of the Clarendon Levee District and served on numerous other civic committees. His dogs won national championships in the Fox Hunter Shows at Roanoke, Virginia, in North Carolina and in Kansas City. He has long been an avid hunter and fisherman. His friends have jokingly said that he thought more of his hunting and fishing licenses than he did of his law license. He is now the retired chair of the Board of the Bank of Holly Grove. james Baxter Sharp has followed in his father's footsteps. He served as president of the Arkansas Bar Association in 1974 to 75. He has served as chair of the investment committees for the Arkansas Bar Foundation and the bar association. While enrolled at the University of Arkansas, he was a member of Sigma Chi and Delta Theta Phi Fraternities. During World War II, he served in the Air Corps patrolling the coast of South America in search of German sub-
J
William Wilson Sharp
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committeeman for Brinkley town-
ship. For 25 years, he was city attorney, a founder of the Southern Farm Bureau Insurance Company, first attorney for the Cache River Production Credit Association, president of the Brinkley Rotary Club, director and president of the Brinkley School District. director and founder of the Chamber of Commerce, first chair of the Mercy Hospital Board of Directors, deacon in the Baptist Church, teacher of Men's Bible Class and president of the Brinkley Country Club. Twice he was the keynote speaker of the Arkansas State Democratic Convention, twice a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. For many years, he was chair of the Monroe County Democratic Central Committee. He was a director of the Bank of Brinkley for more than 30 years and was its president. He was a trustee of the University of Arkansas for 11 years and served as its vice chair. As chair of the Athletic Committee, he was instrumental in bringing john Barnhill to Arkansas to lay the foundation for a sports dynasty. The Wilson Sharp House at the University of Arkansas was named in honor of him. He was president of the Arkansas Bar Association in 1947. That year, the association won the American Bar Association award
for the best small bar association in the United States. Wilson married Carrie Louise Rusher in 1916 and they had two children, jennie V. and james
marines. He re-entered the service
during the Korean conflict as an officer in the judge Advocate General's Corps. In 1948, he married Ann McShane Luckinbill of Fort Smith. They have three children, Madolyn Gretchen Sharp Neumeister now of Baltimore, Maryland; William Wilson Sharp, II who presently serves in the U.S. Air Force in Germany, and james Baxter Sharp, III. a student at the law