Multnomah-Yamhill-Union County OR Archives Biographies.....Price, O. L April 25, 1877 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 18, 2008, 2:41 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     O. L. PRICE.  In the following article, written by Fred Lockley for the 
Oregon Daily Journal of January 6, 1928, an interesting account is given of 
the career of one of Portland’s foremost business men and influential 
citizens: “When I interviewed O. L. Price, manager of the Oregonian, recently 
he said: ‘I was horn in Douglas county, Illinois, close to the line of 
Champaign county, April 25, 1877. My father, James Parker Price, was born in 
Ohio. He was of Welsh descent. My mother’s maiden name was Mary Long.  She was 
a native of Pennsylvania. My parents had five children, of whom I was the 
fourth.  Father and mother were Quakers. I myself am a “birthright Quaker.”  
Father was a preacher in the Friends church. I can remember, as a boy, 
attending services in the Friends church, and frequently the audience would 
sit quietly, waiting for the spirit to move some one to speak, and possibly 
the entire meeting would go by without audible worship.
	“‘My brother and I ran the farm while father would be traveling about 
the country when he felt a concern to go and preach. He received, of course, 
no salary for the Quakers at that time did not believe in a hireling ministry. 
My sister married F. A. Elliott, state forester of Oregon. She is a member of 
the Quaker church in Salem.  My brother, D. P. Price, is an attorney, with 
offices in the Northwestern Bank building of Portland. Until I was fifteen I 
attended the district schools of Illinois.  In 1892 we came to Newberg, 
Oregon, where I entered the academy. The next year I became a student at 
Pacific College, where I put in four years. Thomas Newlin was president at 
that time. May Hoover was one of my schoolmates. Her brothers, Tad and Bert, 
also attended Pacific College, which they left before I enrolled as a student. 
My father ran the Newberg Hotel.
	‘“In 1895 my mother died and father went east as pastor of a Quaker 
church in New York state. We children made our home with our oldest sister, 
Mrs. Elliott.  Later father returned to the west and became pastor of the 
Sunnyside Quaker church here in Portland. Subsequently he was in charge of the 
church in the Highland addition at Salem. From Salem he returned to Newberg, 
where he died in 1912 at the age of sixty-eight years.
	“‘I worked my way through Pacific College at Newberg. I was employed 
in a drug store. I went down each morning, swept out and had the store ready 
for business by seven A. M. I clerked at noon while the druggist went home to 
his lunch, and after school I worked from four o’clock until the streets were 
empty. We had no regular hours for closing and kept open as long as anyone was 
on the streets, which were usually deserted somewhere between eight and nine 
o’clock in the evening.
	“‘I graduated in 1897 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. I landed 
a job as purser on the steamer Grey Eagle, owned by the Spaulding Logging 
Company.  The steamer operated between Portland and Dayton. Once a week we ran 
up as far as McMinnville. After putting in a year as purser on this boat I 
entered the University of Oregon law school here in Portland. I served as an 
extra clerk, working in various drug stores on Saturdays and in my spare time. 
I put in my summer vacations working in drug stores. One summer I put in three 
months at Weiser, Idaho.  Another summer I worked for my brother-in-law, A. T. 
Hill, in his drug store at La Grande, Oregon. Still later I served as law 
clerk in the office of Cake & Cake while attending law school at night. I 
graduated in 1900, was admitted to the bar and went at once to Newberg, where 
I opened a law office.
	“‘A young attorney’s first year is a rather trying one. There is more 
outgo than income. After a year in Newberg I came back to Portland and entered 
the law firm of Cake & Cake. I was with them for five and a half years, at the 
end of which time H. L. Pittock asked me to serve as his confidential 
secretary and attorney.
	“‘On June 17, 1903, I married Miss Margaret Beharrell. We have two 
children. Hazelmary graduated from the University of Oregon in June, 1927. Our 
other daughter, Barbara Lee, or Betty, as we call her, is eleven and attends 
the Alameda school. My wife and I belong to the Westminster Presbyterian 
church and are both active in its work. This is really a community church and 
among its members are Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists and members of other 
denominations. The day will come when the old-time jealousies will be wiped 
out and denominational and sectarian lines will not be drawn sharply as they 
have in the past. I am a Mason and also belong to the Knights of Pythias. The 
Oregonian is the oldest paper under continuous ownership west of the Rocky 
mountains. Just as the churches are becoming more tolerant with each other, so 
the old-time bitterness and animosity between newspapers is becoming a thing 
of the past. Healthy rivalry is a good thing, but it does not involve a 
dislike for one’s fellow workers in the same profession.’”
	Mr. Price was made the sole executor of the Pittock estate and one of 
its trustees.   He was elected president and a director of the Oregonian 
Publishing Company. His legal knowledge has been of much benefit to the 
corporation and also his business and financial acumen and executive capacity. 
Important trusts have been reposed in Mr. Price, who has faithfully and 
efficiently discharged life’s duties and obligations, and his honesty, 
sincerity and strength of character have won for him the high and enduring 
regard of his fellowmen.


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 449-450

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