Farm History
Emma Day was a Howard County native of many generations, when she decided to leave Howard County for the adventure of teaching in the Oklahoma territories. There she met Asa Sharp and homesteaded. In the early 1900s the Sharps returned to Howard County and settled at Knollwood in Howard County, on the present day Sharp Road in Glenelg.
Emma and Asa returned to Howard County. Emma and Asa had 7 children. Their son, Lawton continued the legacy with his wife, Francis. Lawton and Frances had 5 children: Turner, Robert, Charles, Leslie and Nicholas. Four of the children still live and work in Howard County. Turner, the eldest was a forester in West Virginia. Only Charles (Chuck) pursued farming full time. When the children were young, they worked on the family dairy.
Chuck at age 4
Lawton raking
hay at age 80
In 1972, Chuck returned from the Army and took over the family farm. He started raising beef cattle and hay. In the early 1980s, Denise and Chuck married and expanded the operation to include produce, greenhouses, and educational tours. They lived in the family farm house on Sharp Road.
They sold their produce and U-Pick strawberries from the old barn on Sharp Road and grew their tomatoes and melons along Sharp Road.
In the mid-1980s, the Sharps' began to farm at Waterford Farm on Jennings Chapel Road, where they continue to farm today.
The produce
expanded to include hundreds of dozens of sweet corn picked every
morning and graded in the shed.
Plus
Christmas trees, melons and tomatoes.
Tours were conducted with tractor rides among the beef
cattle on the bucolic Waterford Farm.
In 1988, they were blessed with a son, Alan Sharp, who also
enjoyed the old tractors at an early age.
And planting
tomatoes at Waterford Farm
Today, Alan has returned to the farm after college. Denise and Chuck still farm and with tour manager, Cheryl Nodar, continue the tradition of opening the farm to visitors each spring and fall for educational tours. Naturally grown herbs and vegetables still fill the greenhouses and the dinner table. We're blessed to be farming here in Howard County for over 100 years. We are grateful for all the visitors to our farm.