Studio portrait of the Sharpe Family. Pictured in the centre are Mr. John and Mrs. Nellie (née Gray) Sharpe with their children Kate (front left) who married W.D. Henry (first marriage), and Lizzie (front right) who married W.D. Henry (second marriage). In the back row from left to right are William Sharpe, who was married to Florence Ingham and the father of Zeta, Muriel, and Kaye; Ann who married Thomas Lucas, George (father of Scott); Mary (married Doc Patterson, the Allandale druggist); Matt (father of Telford and Winnifred); and Margaret (married Jack Gordon). The women in the photo are all wearing long sleeved dark coloured dresses and the men are wearing dark wool suits. The Sharpe family came from Sligo, Ireland and were some of Innisfil's earliest pioneers. John and Nellie met in Rawdon, Quebec after both moving to Canada with their parents and together they moved to Innisfil in about 1843. They had twelve children and celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. The original spelling of Sharp when the family came to Canada was without an E, but the E was added because it was considered fancier by William Sharpe's wife, Florence Ingham, and occurred long after the move to Innisfil. William Sharpe was an accomplished fiddler with no formal training. He performed in his 90s at the Canadian National Exhibition and at his Shibberee when he and his wife left the farm to retire to a home in Stroud. Additional and clarifying information provided by Alan Heisey, great grandson of William Sharpe, in June 2026.
