Joseph Price

JOSEPH PRICE. Among the best known and most highly respected farmers of Mound Valley township, Labette county, Kansas, is the gentleman whose name begins this sketch. He lives in Section 20, township 33, range 18, where he carries on diversified farming. Mr. Price was born in Wales, in 1832, and when he was but three weeks old his parents died of cholera.

Mr. Price has no kin-folk in America as far as he knows. When his parents died, he was claimed by an uncle, whose name was John Pierce. Later, this uncle was accidentally burned to death. Mr. Price followed coal mining in Wales, and in 1861 came to America, where he settled in Pennsylvania. There he also mined, and afterward followed the same occupation in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri. In 1872, he removed to Labette county, Kansas, having visited in the Sunflower State during the previous year. He took up in Mound Valley township the southwest quarter 40 of section 20, township 33, range 18, and subsequently bought a half section in Canada township. This claim in Mound Valley, - his present home, - was the only one not claimed by the railroad company. He bought the farm from John Williams, and paid $750 for it. Later, he acquired title to the place. Mr. Williams had built a log house on the farm, and had broken about twenty-five acres of the land. Mr. Price has made many improvements and it is a very valuable piece of land. Pumpkin Creek enters near the center, on the north edge, and runs out near the southwest corner, thus affording a good supply of water. Mr. Price raises wheat, corn and oats, and cattle and hogs, having earned enough to buy other farms. He now owns 415 acres of land, and is a very prosperous man. He is a good manager, and much of his success has been due to that fact. He has been a diligent and conscientious worker, and has just cause to be proud of his home, which is one of the best in the county. He set out a goodly amount of hedge and a large number of trees, which bear fruit each year.

Mr. Price was married, in Wales, to Charlotte Andrews, who was born in 1825. They have been bIessed with one daughter: Elizabeth Polly (Summers). She lives in the southwest part of Mound Valley township, and has five children, namely: William, aged twenty-one years; Olive, aged nineteen years, - Eugene, aged sixteen years; Ray, aged twelve years; and Lorene, aged eight years.

Politically Mr. Price was formerly a Republican, and voted that ticket until Grant's second term. Since that time, he has been a follower of the Greenback party and the Union Labor party; and at present he is a Populist. Although he does not aspire to office, he takes an active interest in local politics. He was a member of the I. 0. 0. F. fraternity, in Wales. He is liberal in religious views. There is no farmer in Mound Valley township and throughout Labette county, who is held in higher esteem than Mr. Price. He is a man who keeps posted on all topics of the day, and and[sic] is very fond of spending his leisure hours in reading standard literature. He is a good neighbor, and his friends are many. The following poem is appropriate in that it voices Mr. Price's sentiments in regard to the beloved Sunflower State:

Old Empire is our father land,
     The home of long ago,
Where in happy days of childhood
     We wandered to and fro,
To pluck the meadow lily
     And the buttercup of gold,
And thought the beauty of our home
     Could never half be told.

Long since we left that fairy spot
     To seek another clime,
We found other lands more lovely
     With scenery more sublime.
But the land that we have chosen
     And the one that we love best
Is the sunny land of Kansas,
     The glory of the West.

We have heard of 'bleeding Kansas,'
     Of pestilence and dearth,
And had learned to look upon her
     As the Sodom of the earth,
Where the red man and the buffalo
     At liberty did roam,
And poverty and want
     invaded every home.

But the red man and his war trail
     Have both passed away,
And the ashes from their camp-fires
     Have smouldered to decay.
Whilst the poor affrighted buffalo
     Finds not a place to rest
In all the land of Kansas,
     The glory of the West.

Ambition is the keystone
     To influence and fame;
It has raised up struggling Kansas
     And won for her a name.
Her broad extensive prairies
     Are beautiful to view
When clothed in Nature's verdure
     And flowers of every hue.
While endless fields of cereals,
     The largest and the best,
Grow from the soil of Kansas,
     The glory of the West."

Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Price accompany the foregoing sketch, being shown on a page in proximity to this.