Mesa County CO Archives Biographies.....Price, Edwin October 27, 1857 - ? ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 18, 2006, 2:43 am Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Editor, politician, postmaster and public-spirited citizen, Edwin Price, of Grand Junction, is one of the most useful as well as one of the best known and most highly esteemed men in western Colorado. He was born at Carlyle, Illinois, on October 27, 1857, and comes of distinguished lineage. His parents, Edwin and Matilda J. (Walker) Price, were natives, respectively, of North Carolina and Louisiana. The mother came to Illinois an infant in the arms of her mother on horseback all the way from her native state, and thus became a veritable pioneer in the great Prairie state, her parents being among its earliest settlers. The paternal grandmother of the subject was a daughter of a Scottish nobleman named Nairon, belonging to one of the old families which are renowned in Scotch history. An uncle of the subject’s mother, Simeon Walker, was one of the pioneer Methodist preachers of Illinois and had five sons who were ministers. Mr. Price’s father was a merchant, and in the early days of St. Louis was the assistant postmaster of that city. From there he moved to Carlyle, Illinois, and engaged in merchandising at that town until his death in 1865. His widow is still living, at the age of seventy-six, making her home with her daughter, Mrs. H.R. Bull, of Grand Junction. The family consisted of three sons and five daughters, only three of whom are living, and of these Mr. Price is the oldest. He grew to manhood and received his education in his native town. When he reached the age of fourteen he became an apprentice in the office of the Carrollton, Illinois, Gazette, and there learned his trade as a practical printer. Later he worked for a time on the Union Banner, of Carlyle, and in the fall of 1876 came to Colorado, locating at Denver, where he was employed a while on the old Denver Democrat. He then established what is now known as the Merchants’ Publishing Company, one of the largest establishments of its kind in the city. In the fall of 1882 he sold his interests in this company and moved to Grand Junction, bringing overland from Delta the plant and appurtenances with which he started the News of that city, the first issue coming out on October 27, 1882, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his birth. It was a six-column four-page paper, and the first one published at the Junction. He has been the publisher and editor of the paper ever since, and was in active charge of it until he became postmaster of the city in 1897. The News is not only the oldest paper at Grand Junction, but one of the most influential and prominent in the western part of the state. It has had much to do with shaping and directing the course of public affairs in this section, and its voice has always been potential for the good of the territory in which it circulates. In April, 1883, Darwin P. Kingsley became associated with Mr. Price in conducting the paper. In 1886 he was elected state auditor, and at the end of his term of two years he went to Boston as manager of agencies in the New England states for the New York Life Insurance Company. He has since been elected third vice-president of the company. In the fall of 1883 Mr. Price was appointed postmaster of Grand Junction by President Arthur, and after serving fourteen months resigned following the election of Cleveland. In 1897 he was again appointed to this office, receiving his commission from President McKinley, and on January 10, 1902, was re-appointed by President Roosevelt. Always a stanch Republican, Mr. Price has been active and zealous in the service of his party on all occasions. His paper was the only one in his portion of the state that stood by the Republican platform in the campaign of 1896, when the silver issue swept so many from their moorings. He has served the city as alderman and in other capacities for the good of the community, and has attended every state convention of his party for twenty years except that of 1903, and been of great service in the deliberations of the bodies. On October 13, 1881, he was married to Miss Lola F. Kennard, born in Maryland but a direct descendant of the John Alden and Priscilla of Plymouth, Massachusetts, who figure so prominently in Longfellow’s poem of “The Courtship of Miles Standish.” Mr. and Mrs. Price have five children: Lola Eudora, the first white child born at Grand Junction, and now the wife of Richard Meserve, of that city; and Edwin K., Kingsley A., Priscilla A. and Philip N. It should be mentioned that in 1896 Mr. Price was the Republican candidate for secretary of state, but the conditions of the campaign, owing to the silver issue, precluded the possibility of his election. Two years previous he made a single-handed fight against the party managers and their slate to be nominated as state auditor, and only lacked ten votes of securing the nomination. Additional Comments: From Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/mesa/bios/price307gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 5.5 Kb