Editing Minnie Bell Sharp (section)

==Family, early life and education==
She was born in Upper Woodstock, [[New Brunswick]], one of eight children of [[Francis Peabody Sharp]] and his wife Maria Shaw. Their first three children had all died of [[diphtheria]] within one week in 1861. Minnie Bell was the eldest of three sisters. She had one older brother and one younger.<ref name = Adney>{{Cite journal| last = Adney| first = Edwin Tappan| title = The Sharp family, descendants of Alexander Sharp of Edinburgh, Scotland and the Province of New Brunswick| journal = Acadiensis| date = 1908| url = https://archives.gnb.ca/exhibits/forthavoc/html/Adney.aspx?culture=en-CA}}</ref> 

Her father, a noted experimental [[ pomology | pomologist]], owned orchards and fruit nurseries which grew to be the largest in Canada by 1890.<ref name = hunter>{{Cite web| last = Hunter| first = Daryl| title = Francis Peabody Sharp: Canada's first apple breeder| work = Carleton County Historical Society, Inc.| accessdate = 28 February 2023| url = http://www.cchs-nb.ca/html/Sharp-F_P.html#link1 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 3 March 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170303211504/http://www.cchs-nb.ca/html/Sharp-F_P.html#link1}}
</ref> Minnie Bell Sharp later described her childhood and youth as "a glorious life" and her family's home as "a veritable fairyland". She recalled having "an unlimited capacity for hard work" and being "up at daylight packing and shipping apples and plums" during the harvest season.<ref name = demerchant>{{Cite book| publisher = Dept. of Agriculture and Rural Development : New Brunswick Federation of Agriculture| last = DeMerchant| first = E. B.| title = From humble beginnings: the story of agriculture in New Brunswick| location = Fredericton, N.B., Canada| date = 1983 |url = https://www.potatoesnb.com/wp-content/uploads/From-Humble-Beginnings.pdf#page=45}}</ref> 

She was educated mainly by her mother, with one year spent at Compton Ladies' College, an [[Anglicanism | Anglican]] boarding school in the [[Eastern Townships]] of [[Quebec]], when she was 14.<ref name = ladymusic>{{Cite journal| url = https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/187280| issue = 191| pages = 85–110| last = Bell| first = David| title = The Lady Music Teacher as Entrepreneur: Minnie Sharp and the Victoria Conservatory of Music in the 1890s| journal = BC Studies| date = 2016}}</ref><ref name = dictcanbio>{{Cite DCB |volume=16 |last=Bell |first=D.G. |title=Sharp, Minnie Bell (Adney) |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/sharp_minnie_bell_16E.html}}</ref> Later she attended St. Margaret's Hall school in [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]], where she excelled in music.<ref name = Risk>{{Cite book| publisher = Acadiensis Press| isbn = 978-0-919107-21-2| pages = 35–43| last = Risk| first = Shannon M.| title = Making up the State: Women in 20th-century Atlantic Canada| chapter = 'The magnitude of my services': Minnie Bell Adney and the women of Woodstock| location = Fredericton, N.B.| date = 2010}}</ref> Encouraging her musical development, her father purchased the first [[Steinway & Sons | Steinway]] piano in New Brunswick<ref name="ladymusic" />

During most winters between 1883 or 1884 and 1890 she studied voice and piano in [[New York City]]. The composer and pianist [[William Mason (composer)|William Mason]] was one of her teachers.<ref name="ladymusic" />