Mathias Sharp House - Rockport, IN
N 37° 52.801 W 087° 02.717
16S E 496017 N 4192503
History sign describing a house on the National Register of Historic Places
Waymark Code: WMJ2D4
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 09/11/2013
Views: 4
This sign of history is for the Mathias Sharp House in Rockport, IN. It is near the bluffs at 319 S 2nd St.
The house has a few things that make it stand out as historic. First of all, the house was built on land once owned by a close friend to Abraham Lincoln. It was at the bottom of the bluffs below where this house is that Lincoln set sail on his flatboat to New Orleans that changed his life when seeing the evils of slavery. Second of all, it was the first house in Rockport on the bluffs that was built with the front facing the Ohio River. A third reason for history at this home is that the wife of Mathias Sharp was charged with not 1, but 2 murders by poisoning. The house is said to be haunted by the two deceased.
The text on the sign reads:
"MATHIAS SHARP HOUSE
CIRCA 1867
This house was built by Mathias and Katherine Sharp
on property once owned by Judge John Pitcher, Spencer
County's first lawyer and Abraham Lincoln's close
friend. It was the first home in Rockport to be designed
by an architect and the first bluff house to be built
with the front facing the river. Mathias died here
from poisoning as did Katherine's second husband.
Katherine was later prosecuted for the poisonings.
Some believe the ghost of the two men still inhabit
the house.
In 1877, the noted ichtyologist Dr. Carl Eigenman
came here to reside with his uncle, the prominent
Rockport businessman, Capt. John Eigenman.
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES, 1983"
Group that erected the marker: none stated
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
319 S 2nd St
Rockport, IN USA
47635
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