Stillwater Valley Gazette

December 8, 1870

WILLIAM H. PRICE, ESQ. - We are pained to learn of the decease, at his late residence, near Ottawa, Illinois, on the 19th day November ult., of our friend and connection, William H. Price, Esq. Mr. P. came to Ohio about forty years ago, and engaged in the construction of the Ohio canal. He was the contemporary of Forrer, Williams, Medbrey, all eminent civil engineers, to the best of whom he was the composer. When we commenced the construction of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, Mr. P. was the first engineer of the company, and, assisted by Prof. J. H. Allen, ran the preliminary lines. He resided in Chillicothe well nigh twenty years, and filled the position of merchant and manufacturer. He early married the eldest daughter of the late Dr. A. Delano, (one of Ohio's first pioneers,) and became the father of a large family, of whom the two eldest sons were slain in battle, defending the Union. In 1850, when emigration to Illinois was rife, Mr. P. purchased a large tract of fertile land in La Salle County, and removed to that State, where he continued to devote himself to the enlightened pursuits of agriculture and pastoral economy to the day of his death, in his 73d year. Perhaps the above might all be said of many men; but William H. Price was no ordinary man. Born of religious parents, he was early inbued with the principles of integrity; and although, for much of his life, he was not professedly religious himself, no man than he was more enlightened in moral ethics, or was more scrupulously and traditionally pious. His mind was particularly critical, and yet strong and grasping. His literary taste was eminently acute, and his range of thought dignified and comprehensive. He was rather intolerant of the claims of society, and in this particular showed a peculiarity which kept his own worth from due appreciation. In politics, he was a mild Whig, though more ardent admirer of the Webster than of the Clay school. But as he was always a contemner of the arrogance and pretension bred in white men by the old slave system, Mr. Webster, in the latter part of his life, ceased to command Mr. P.'s admiration. Our friend was fond of sharp discussion, and very tenacious of his opinions. But he had broad views of the hones convictions and rights of others. He was a good specimen of the thorough American citizen of the Puritan stock--an honest, intelligent man, whom his contemporaries fail to appreciate while living, and whose death entails a public loss.

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