My Descending from Gov. - D. A. Sharpe

Register Report for William Bradford
Generation 8
Martha had to make temporary digs do till they could get over this frustration.
This was a their last home and a lovely home it was in a lovely neighborhood of San
Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. Actually it was in a suburb named Alamo Heights, a city
surrounded by San Antonio. They were just two blocks from the Alamo Heights
Presbyterian Church, which they made as their church home. He was used to teach an
Adult Sunday School Class up until about six months prior to his death at age 80, which
gave him good outlets to use his pastoral gifts. The pastoral staff also used him for
visitation and other duties useful for the ministry of the church. This was volunteer work, to
my knowledge, and a labor of love for him.
His primary hobby through many of the years of his life was photography. It manifested
itself to most people through the hundreds of unique Christmas cards with family members
that he created for over 30 years. He used the typewriter for much for his correspondence,
Bible study and sermon preparation. It was an ancient Underwood manual typewriter, on
which he typed using what we laughingly called the Bible Method .... he would seek and
find! He may have been one of the fastest typists using only the index fingers of his two
hands that I have ever witnessed. Finally, around the mid 1970's, he acquired a portable
electric typewriter from Sears!
He was a prolific reader, both of periodicals and of books. He held his children to high
standards for academic achievement, and that was successful for his daughters. My
academic records were far over shadowed by those of my two sisters.
Dwight involved himself in the communities where the family lived. He would join civic
organizations and do joint ministries with other churches. He often became known in the
public media, as evidenced by this delightful column by Renwicke Cary in the "San Antonio
Light" newspaper issue of August 4, 1963:
"Back to the word 'breeches' (pounced britches by many Texans) and its use in several
places in different versions of the Bible. Rev. Dwight A. Sharpe, pastor of the Highland
Park Presbyterian Church, notes there was one edition of the Geneva Bible (1560) that
became popularly known as the 'breeches Bible." This because 'breeches' appeared in
Genesis 3:7. The verse concluded: 'And they (Adam and Eve) sewed fig tree leaves
together and made them breeches As a matter of fact, however, Sharpe says, the same
rendering of the verse was found in the Wycliffe Bible (1380).
"Still on the subject of Bibles of the centuries past, we are reminded that the first printed
copy of the whole Bible was the Coverdale Bible of 1535. Sharpe says: 'It's a credit to the
printers that there were few typographical errors in the early Bibles.' Even so, he reports, in
the second edition of the Geneva Bible (1562), Matthew 5:9 was made to read: 'Blessed
are the placemakers, instead of peacemakers.' As a consequence, collectors designated
this as the 'Placemaker Bible.' Sharpe also tells of a 'Printer's Bible,' explaining: 'This was
the name applied to the King James edition of 1653, because in Psalms119:161, King
David was made to say: 'Printers have persecuted me without cause.' It should have read,
'princes,' of course."
Both Dwight and Martha were very quiet regarding the subject of politics. They felt that
whatever political views they held should not become known to the public of their
congregation, since ministry was still to be given to people of all political persuasions. They
did not even allow me to know how they voted or what political party they supported until
well into my adult life, after I became an active Republican and Dad had retired from the
ministry. Dad told me that they had always voted Republican, and living in what was
virtually an all Democratic Party state in Texas most of their lives, it was best for his ministry
to keep that to themselves. I recall that many of our close family friends were active
Democrats and Labor Union members (particularly in the Houston years of the 1940's) and
that did not affect our opportunity to have close Christian relationships with them.
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