Abbie Gardner-Sharp (1843 – January 17, 1921) was born in 1843 to Rowland Gardner and Frances M. Smith. She was the third of four children, Mary M., Eliza M., and Rowland, youngest child and only son. On March 8, 1857, Abbie was abducted during the

Spirit Lake Massacre The Spirit Lake Massacre (March 8–12, 1857) was an attack by a ''Wahpekute'' band of Santee Sioux on scattered Iowa frontier settlements during a severe winter. Suffering a shortage of food, the renegade chief Inkpaduta (Scarlet Point) led 14 S ...

. By May, the young teen was ransomed and returned to white society. Gardner had a long history of illness after the event, likely due to what we today call post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Very soon after returning home, Abbie married at the tender age of 14 to Casville Sharp (then 18 years old), with whom she had three children. Her memoir of the abduction and captivity provided income for Abbie and her family, and it went into seven editions during her lifetime. In 1891, she purchased the property and cabin from which she was abducted and near where her parents and siblings were buried. The site became a popular tourist attraction and she operated it as a small museum and gift shop. Abbie died on January 17, 1921, and was buried with her birth family near the Abbie Gardner Sharp cabin, which still stands near Arnold's Park in Spirit Lake, Iowa.

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pertaining to the death of Abbie Gardner-Sharp {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner-Sharp, Abbie 1843 births 1850s missing person cases 1921 deaths 19th-century American memoirists 19th-century American women American people taken hostage American women memoirists Formerly missing people Kidnapped American people Missing person cases in Iowa

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