BIOGRAPHY: William PRICE, Mifflin County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by P. S. Barr Copyright. All rights reserved. http://files.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/mifflin/ _______________________________________________ The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania. Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 601-602. WILLIAM PRICE, Strodes Mills, Mifflin county, Pa., was born July 14, 1821, in Centre county, Pa., near Potters Mills, son of Jacob and Susanna (Smith) Price. Jacob Price was a native and a citizen of Centre county, was educated there in the common schools, and there learned the trade of millwright, which he carried on in central Pennsylvania, principally in Centre, Mifflin and Juniata counties. He had much energy and perseverance, and was respected as a reliable business man. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Price are: three who died young, Jacob, Joshua and Benjamin; Joseph, married Sarah Cochran, has two children; William; John, married Isabelle Tippery, has three children; Mary Ann (Mrs. John Spiece), of Lewistown, Pa.; Charles, married Louisa Printz, of Lewistown; Samuel, went to California, and has never been heard from; James, married in Illinois, resides in Georgia, has two children, Paul and McClellan; and Sarah Jane, residing at Lewistown. Joseph, John and James all served in the United States army during the war of the Rebellion; James was in the Logan Guards, the other two brothers both served three years or more. Jacob Price and his wife both passed their latter years in Granville township, Mifflin county, on the old Blymer farm. Both were valued members of the Lutheran church. Mrs. Price was of a kindly nature, and frequent in her deeds of charity towards the needy. Mr. Price died August 20, 1847, aged about fifty-six years; his wife survived him until April, 1884, dying at the age of eighty-three. The removal of the family to Mifflin county took place in 1830, when William Price was a boy of nine. He became and continued to be for some years a pupil in the Mifflin county common schools. At the age of twenty he began an apprenticeship of three years with Martin Landis, a plasterer of Lewistown; that term over, he worked at the trade for one year as a journeyman. He was then for two years employed at farm labor in Granville township. In 1847 he began farming on his own account, having rented the Joseph Milliken farm, near Lewistown. Five years later, he removed to Gen. James Burns' farm, which he cultivated for twenty-seven years. His agricultural work was very successful and profitable, and in 1879, he bought the homestead in Oliver township, which comprises 160 acres. Here Mr. Price has made extensive and judicious improvements. He has very much enlarged the barn, erected a modern and convenient house, renewed the fences, and made other additions to the productiveness and fine appearance of the place. His own diligence, good judgment and perseverance have been the factors of his financial success. He is always interested in the advancement of the township and community, willingly contributing towards improvements. His politics are those of the Republican party; he has served in various township offices. William Price was married November 5, 1846, to Barbara Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan and Catherine (Yeigh) Riddle, of Juniata county. The children of this marriage are: Susanna Martha (Mrs. Frank Ammon), of Oliver township, has children, William, Frank, Morris and Mary Elizabeth; and Oriana (Mrs. Samuel Harvey Sweigart). Mrs. Price is a faithful member of the Episcopalian church of Lewistown. Her father, Jonathan Riddle, was of English lineage; her mother belonged to a German family. She died when Mrs. Price was very young, and the father died in Ohio, aged about fifty years. Their children are: William, married Mary Roland, has one child living; Samuel, married Elizabeth Wilson, had two children, served in the army during the whole Civil war, was wounded, and died after returning to his home; and John, killed in his childhood by an accident on the railroad.