Born in Wetzel County, W. V., January 13, 1850, and is the son of John and Sarah (Minor) Sharpnack, both natives of West Virginia. In the fall of 1850 they moved to Washington County, Iowa, and remained until they came to Harrison County in 1854. He remained at home with his parents until the spring of 1871, at which time he was married, but still worked with his father on the farm. In the spring of 1871 they sold out the mill and came back to Taylor Township, and bought eighty acres of land on section 30, and in the spring of 1874 they moved over near Blair, Neb., where the father had bought a half interest in a sawmill, and where by accident he was killed in the mill the following autumn. The mother sold out over there and came back to the farm which he took charge of, and run until the fall of 1880. He then engaged in the hardware business at Modale, and continued until January, 1883, when he sold out and engaged in the grain business, and in the spring following formed a partnership with F. H. Ludwig in the grain and stock business. Mr. Sharpnack sold his interest to Mr. Ludwig in the fall of 1884, but continued the business for Mr. Ludwig that winter, and in the spring of 1885 moved to the farm and remained one season. In December, 1885, he was appointed Postmaster, and in January, 1886, he formed a partnership with J. G. Gilchrist in the hardware and implement business. The June following he sold out to Gilchrist and a few days later Gilchrist sold to C. S. Brown, and he remained with him as clerk. In the fall of 1886 he and Mr. Brown became partners in the grain business, and continued until the fall of 1888, when he bought Brown out. In January, 1890, he sold his interest in his hardware business to C. Schroder. Mr. Sharpnack was united in marriage in Harrison County, Iowa, February 14, 1871, to Miss Jane Hammer, the daughter of Jacob and Cynthia Hammer. By this union one child was born, born August 23, 1872, and the mother died the same day. For his second wife Mr. Sharpnack, on January 1, 1874, married Miss Susan E. West, the daughter of Edwin and Susan (Rocord) West. Mr. Sharpnack is a member of the Odd Fellows Order, belonging to Mondamin Lodge, No. 392. Politically he is a Democrat and held the office of Township Clerk for ten years. In the fall of 1888 he made the race on the Democratic ticket for the office of County Recorder. He had about two hundred and fifty votes to overcome and was only defeated by about fifty votes. He has voted nineteen times in Taylor Township, always casting a straight Democratic ballot and is known to be a political fighter "from way back," and only held the post office ten days after the change in the administration, and was probably an offensive partisan. At the general election of 1891, he was elected State Representative in the Twenty-fourth General Assembly by a majority of four hundred and seventeen votes.