Pennock Edwards Sharpless in 1927; photo courtesy of Ancestry.com
EARLY LIFE
Pennock Edwards Sharpless was born on May 15, 1852, in Middletown, Delaware County, to William Sharpless and Sarah Ann Yarnall Sharpless. Pennock was the 7th generation descendant of John Sharples of Chester, England, who sailed to Pennsylvania with William Penn. He was born into a Quaker family and regularly attended Quaker meetings.
Pennock's father, William Sharpless, was an established dairy farmer and merchant who manufactured small quantities of famous butter for sale (60 lbs. per week) after the American Civil War. Sarah Ann Yarnall Sharpless was primarily responsible for manufacturing the butter on their homestead. After Sarah Ann broke her arm in a farm accident, Pennock learned the process of manufacturing butter to help his mother with her work.
Pennock received his education at the Maplewood Institute in Concordville and the State Normal School in West Chester, PA. Pennock initially began work as a school teacher but found the work insufficient to pay off his parent's homestead and ultimately went into business with his father.
Maplewood Institute in Concord Township in 1920s; photograph courtesy of Concord Township Historical Society archives
West Chester State Normal School; Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Yarnell & Cooper, and Addison Hutton, photographer by Goode, Ned. West Chester State Normal School, South High Street, West Chester, Chester County, PA. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/pa0337/>.
Pennock married Ann Phebe Bishop on Christmas Eve 1874, and they had five sons: Percival Yarnall (1875-1897), Albert Wayne (1877-1932)., Caspar Pennock (1878-1959), Edgar D. (1881-1882), and Austin Edwards. Sharpless (1884-1948).
Ann Phebe Bishop Sharpless; photo courtesy of Ancestry.com / Pennock Sharpless, Ann Bishop Sharpless, and grandson in 1906; photo courtesy of Ancestry.com / Sharpless Family picture including Anne Bishop Sharpless (2nd from left on back row) and sons Casper and Albert in the front row in 1925; photo courtesy of Ancestry.com
DAIRY CAREER OVERVIEW
Pennock began dairying in 1873, manufacturing a high-grade butter known as "gilt-edge butter" and selling 50 lbs. weekly to private customers in Philadelphia. In 1876, Pennock established the first commercial creamery known in the state of Pennsylvania in the town of Toughkenamon and imported a cream separator machine known as the "Danish Western," which was reportedly the first imported separator used in the United States.
Newport Daily News advertisement, 11 June 1890 / RPPC 1912 postcard showing a P.E. Sharpless butter truck
The establishment and boom of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Concord Township during the 1870s prompted Pennock to move his plant from Toughkenamon to Concordville, PA, in the early 1880s to ship his products faster and farther in distance. By 1882, Pennock purchased the Concordville plant in Ward Village from the Farmers' Association and began butter and cottage cheese production at this plant.
Concordville Station railroad stop; photo courtesy of Concord Township Historical Society archives / P.E. Sharpless Co. creamery in Concordville; photo courtesy of Concord Township Historical Society archives
Pennock moved his family to a new home across the street from the Concordville Creamery in Ward Village in 1892. The home is a large Victorian Queen Anne situated along Concord Road, known as the P.E. Sharpless House.
Pennock Sharpless House, built c. 1890; photo courtesy of Ancestry.com
Pennock organized the P.E. Sharpless Company into a corporation in 1902. He rapidly expanded his reach, opening offices in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Philadelphia and operating seven branch creameries in Delaware and Chester Counties.
By 1912, Pennock Sharpless was referred to in newspapers across Pennsylvania as the "dean of butter-makers" and noted for his keen, active, and wiry disposition.
1914 was a turning point for the P.E. Sharpless Company, as they now operated five plants: Rising Sun, MD; Concordville, Toughkenamon, Bradford, and Troy, PA. The P.E. Sharpless Company also won a government contract from the Navy Bureau of Supplies and Accounts to produce 390,000 lbs. of evaporated milk for Navy soldiers serving in France during World War 1. This contract was valued at $23,972 ($730,000 in 2023). This contract continued through 1917.
P.E. Sharpless Co. Rising Sun, MD milk condensary ; photo courtesy of Cecil County History Facebook page
The Breyer-Sharpless Milk Association was formed in Philadelphia in 1921 between the P.E. Sharpless Company and the Breyer Ice Cream Company for fluid milk sales. The value of the association was $500,000 ($8.4 million in 2023). However, dairymen across the region accused the Breyer-Sharpless Milk Association of undercutting the milk prices and refused to provide milk to the association. Because of this "milk war," the Breyer-Sharpless Milk Association filed for dissolution in December 1923.
Breyer-Sharpless Milk advertisement printed in The Philadelphia Inquirer on 2 September 1923
The Sharpless-Hendler Ice Cream Company began in 1919 in Wilmington, Delaware, and grew to include a manufacturing plant in Baltimore, Maryland. Pennock served as a company director, but his son Caspar Sharpless was the long-standing president. Borden's Dairy purchased the company in the early 1940s.
Sharpless Ice Cream plant in Wilmington, DE in 1919; Pennock Sharpless is located on the far left of the group; photo from private collection
The P.E. Sharpless Company sold its entire stock to Kraft Cheese Company of Chicago, Illinois, in 1924. Pennock's son, Caspar Sharpless, remained general manager of the P.E. Sharpless Company after the sale. At this time, cream cheese was only made commercially by five companies in the United States: Phenix, Kraft, F.X. Baumert, Blue Label Cream Cheese Company, and the P.E. Sharpless Company. Kraft then obtained the three patents issued to the P.E. Sharpless Company concerning their cream cheese manufacturing process.
On November 3, 1928, the June Dairy Products Company Inc. of New York purchased the P.E. Sharpless Company but continued to operate under the Sharpless name. After this sale, the Sharpless family ultimately left all offices relating to the P.E. Sharpless Company.
POLITICAL AND OTHER BUSINESS VENTURES
Pennock Sharpless received the Prohibition Party nomination for Congress in May 1898 at the Pennsylvania State Convention in Harrisburg. On the Prohibition ticket, he went on to run for Congressman-at-large in the November 1898 election. Pennock lost to the Republican candidate, Galusha Aaron Grow, who won 532,989 votes compared to Pennock's 47,543. Pennock continued his involvement in American politics in the 1912 Presidential Election when he served as a presidential elector for the Bull Moose/Progressive Party ticket.
Article published in The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA) on 1 November 1898
By 1898, Pennock Sharpless became the president of the Quaker City Chemical Company in Philadelphia (1898-1900) and vice-president of the newly formed Pennsylvania State Dairyman's Association. The State Dairyman's Association was a union formed to protect Pennsylvania's dairy interests through state legislation.
Article originally published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on 1 April 1898
In 1899, a collective of dairy representatives formed the Pure Butter Protective Association to protect the butter trade from "oleomargarine," a much cheaper butter alternative that threatened the established dairy industry in Pennsylvania. Pennock served on the executive committee.
Pennock Sharpless became the president of the Clover Dairy Company in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1920, when former president C.M Bates sold his holdings and the majority shares of Clover Dairy to the PE Sharpless Company. The Clover Dairy monthly earnings were reported at $60,000 ($910,000 in 2023) and dealt primarily with fluid milk. He remained president of the Clover Dairy Company until 1929.
DEATH OF PENNOCK E SHARPLESS
Pennock Edwards Sharpless died on July 22, 1935, in his Ward Village home from dementia complications at 84 years old. His estate left $47,000 ($1 million). Pennock and his wife are buried at Cumberland Cemetery in Middletown Township, PA. In his obituary, Pennock is noted for his multiple business ventures (president of the P.E. Sharpless Company, president of the Quaker City Chemical Company, president of the Clover Dairy Company, director of the Sharpless-Hendler Ice Cream Company, board member of the Charter National Bank of Media) as well as his various social memberships (Pennsylvania State Grange, Concord Lodge No. 625, Union League of Philadelphia, Rose Tree Hunt of Media, and Concord Friends Meeting).
Pennock Edwards Sharpless in the 1930s; photo courtesy of Ancestry.com
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