Sharkey, William Lewis, 1798-1873

Born to Patrick Sharkey in Tennessee, William Lewis Sharkey (1797-1873) moved with his family to Mississippi in 1803 and fought at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. After practicing law in Warrenton and Vicksburg, he served in the Mississippi Legislature (1828-1829) and as chief justice of the Mississippi High Court of Errors and Appeals (1832-1851). He then established a law practice in Jackson and served as a U. S. Consul to Cuba. A strong Unionist, Sharkey was appointed provisional governor of Mississippi by President Andrew Johnson following the Civil War, serving from June through December 1865. Although he was appointed to the United States Senate that same year, Congress refused to recognize Mississippi’s delegation, and Sharkey returned to his law practice in Jackson.

Sharkey married Minerva Hyland (1808-1884) and the couple adopted a daughter, Fannie, who later married Col. Charles E. Hooker. Minerva’s brother, William S. Hyland (d. 1868), married Ellen Marie Wheaton Chamberlain (1823-1863), the daughter of Dr. Jeremiah Chamberlain who was murdered by George Briscoe in 1851. The Hylands had six children, including Clara Hyland Sleeper, Jerry S. Hyland, and Pattie Hyland Gould Hankinson, widow of John A. Gould (d. 1878).

Sources:

Sansing, David G. William Lewis Sharkey: Twenty-fifth Governor of Mississippi, June to December 1865. Mississippi History Now: An Online Publication of the Mississippi Historical Society . Accessed March 31, 2011. http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/index.php?s=extra&id=128 .

Sharkey, William Lewis. Encyclopedia of Mississippi History: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, edited by Dunbar Rowland, pp. 648-653. Madison, Wisc.: Selwyn A. Brant, 1907.

From the guide to the Hyland-Gould-Sharkey papers 98-272., 1828-1914, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)