William H. Price, merchant and planter, was born near Lynchburg, Va., March 10, 1825, the son of Joseph H. and Lucy (Stone) Price, the former born in England in 1795, and died at Kingsport Tenn., about 1857. And the latter, of about the same age, born in Virginia, and died about 1868. The parents lived about sixteen years in Virginia after their marriage, and then settled in Kingsport, Tenn. He was a painter, who had learned his trade in London. Our subject, the eldest of four children, was educated in Kingsport, and began as a farmer, but afterward traveled for the cotton factory of Wall & Simpson, Kingsport. He was a salesman there and at New Canton also, and in 1865 he and Daniel Rogan established a general store, continuing for eighteen months, when the firm became W. P. Price & Co. instead of D. Rogan & Co. Mr. Price conducted it alone for about thirteen years. in December, 1881, he moved his store to Church Hill, his present location, where he has also been engaged in farming. He has acquired now over 600 acres of land, and controls a trade of from $12,000 to $15,000 annually. In 1862 he married Lou Smith, who died in 1866, and in 1867 Mary Shaver, of Sullivan County, became his wife. They have one son, John W., born in 1868. Our subject is a Democrat, and in religion a Methodist, while his wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Transcribed by Betty Mize from Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, 1886.