My Genealogy Hound

Gen. Thomas Lawson Price, of Jefferson City, was one of the most distinguished of Missouri’s citizens. He was born near Danville, Va., January 19, 1809. His ancestors were English, and settled in Virginia in the sixteenth century, and being possessed of means, engaged in tobacco culture and general traffic, and were esteemed among the most influential families of the Colonial epoch. His grandfather, William Price, was born in Henrico County, Va., in 1730, and served with distinction during the Revolutionary War. His father, Major Price, was a tobacco planter, and not foreseeing the eminence of his son and his adaptation to public life, as well as his early developed qualifications for ordinary business, did not see the importance of giving him educational advantages other than such as were furnished in the old field schools of that day. Like many of the sons of neighboring planters, his minority was consequently passed in pursuits which neither cultivated a taste nor afforded leisure for books. When he was about twenty years of age his father died, leaving him and a sister considerable property, consisting chiefly of land and negroes. At the early age of twenty-one he was united in marriage to Miss Lydia Botton, of Caswell County, N. C. A short period thereafter he was seized with a desire to seek a location in the West. In 1831 he visited Missouri, and at once determined to make it his future home. Upon returning to Virginia he disposed of his land, and in 1832, in company with his wife, sister and several of his wife’s relatives, he set out upon the long, tedious and fatiguing journey to the land of his choice. When he arrived at St. Louis he concluded to make that city his permanent abiding place, but the Asiatic cholera soon after appearing there induced him to change his purpose and remove to Jefferson City, in the vicinity of which several of his Virginia friends and relatives of his wife had already settled. He here embarked in mercantile pursuits, in which, by his untiring energy and close attention to business, his accumulations were so rapid as to enable him to make extensive and profitable investments in real estate in St. Louis and Jefferson City, and in farm lands in the vicinity of the latter place. In 1838 he obtained the contract for carrying the mail between St. Louis and Jefferson City, and started the first stage line between those points, at a subsequent period becoming the operator of all the important stage routes in the State, and also one of the lessees of the State Penitentiary, and so continued for nine or ten years. The qualities which characterized Gen. Price fitted him, in a pre-eminent degree, for work thus varied, and made him one of the first and most prosperous business men of the State. He enjoyed an unlimited credit, which, being utilized to the fullest extent, greatly aided him in securing an ample fortune, accompanied with the satisfactory reflection that it was honorably earned and well merited. He invariably took an active part in the elections of his State and county, either as a candidate himself or as the earnest supporter of other parties. As in such contests merit, however superior, cannot be always successful, his aspirations were subjected, as usual, to occasional defeats. In the canvass for State treasurer in 1838-39 he was defeated by Judge McClelland, on whose side were enlisted the patronage and influence of his brother-in-law, L. W. Boggs, then governor of the State. In 1839 Jefferson City was incorporated, and he was elected its first mayor, and re-elected the succeeding year. In 1845 he was defeated for the State Senate. In 1847 he was appointed brevet major-general of the Sixth Division Missouri Militia, from which time he bore the title of General. In 1849 he was elected lieutenant-governor, having been nominated for that office on the Democratic ticket, which was elected by a largely increased majority. It was during this canvass that he became widely known as a public speaker and able political debater, subsequently proving himself a clear, forcible and logical speaker; ready at repartee, abounding in useful information, and fully imbued with the spirit and principles of the great party which he represented. In his installation address as president of the Senate, he urged upon that body the importance of such legislation as would be calculated to develop the latent and hitherto neglected resources of the State, and was directly instrumental in causing the Legislature to lend the aid of the State to the construction of the Iron Mountain and Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroads.

During the exciting contest of the election of a United States Senator in 1850, when Col. Benton was again a candidate for re-election, it was with great difficulty that order was preserved in the Legislature; yet Gen. Price, as presiding officer of the joint convention of the two houses, managed, by his firmness and never-failing presence of mind, to remain complete master of the situation. Particularly did he deserve credit for the impartiality of his rulings, in view of his impulsive disposition and his warm personal and political attachment to Col. Benton. When, however, it became his duty to announce the final result of the ballot in the election of Mr. Geyer, it could not be otherwise than with a faltering voice. Having been for years alike the political and personal friend of Col. Benton, and one of his most zealous supporters and confidential advisers, it was but natural that the defeat of the justly renowned statesman should fall heavily upon him. When Col. Benton subsequently became a candidate for governor, in 1856, Gen. Price advocated his views, and supported him with undiminished zeal. In 1860 he was elected to represent Cole County in the State Legislature, notwithstanding the county had been represented in three successive sessions by adherents of the anti-Benton party. When, at length, in 1861 the long continued dissensions between the North and South, growing out of the slavery question, culminated in civil war, Gen. Price, ever true to the Federal Union as existing under the Constitution, was appointed by Gen. Fremont brigadier-general of militia, then organizing in the State. After the retirement of Gen. Fremont, he was again commissioned brigadier-general by President Lincoln. Early in 1862 he resigned his military commission, having been elected to fill a vacancy in Congress. In the November election of that year, he was defeated by McClurg (afterward governor of the State). Although a Union man in the true sense of the term, he could not recognize the right of the Federal authorities to interfere with the legal institutions of the States; deeming such interference not only a palpable violation of the Federal Constitution, but an equally palpable violation of the plighted faith of the nation. To the policy announced in that pledge, Gen. Price remained faithful during the war, and while he gave a cordial support to all measures of the Federal administration looking to the suppression of the Rebellion, he boldly denounced those which were directed against institutions legally existing under State authority and guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. Though often surrounded with the bayonets of a reckless and demoralized soldiery, and threatened with personal violence, he was ever foremost among the few able men of the state who possessed the courage to denounce those policies, the disastrous results of which have blurred our national history. Near the close of the war, in 1864, the Democratic party in Missouri was virtually dead, in consequence of the enforcement of an unjust and tyrannical registry law, which deprived a large portion of the most worthy and intelligent citizens of the State of the elective franchise. Notwithstanding this paralyzed condition of the party, the Union men of the State who were opposed to such proscriptive Radical domination placed a ticket in the field, headed by Gen. Price for Governor, although at such a time and under such circumstances no hope could be entertained of its success, the purpose being mainly to keep alive an organization for future service under more favorable auspices. About this period his health began to fail, and he subsequently participated but little, except as a voter, in political affairs. He was, however, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention which nominated Gov. Seymour, of New York, for the presidency in 1868; and, as one of the vice-presidents of the convention, was presiding when Gov. Seymour was nominated. Notwithstanding Gen. Price was one of the firmest and most consistent Union men during the war, his kindness of heart and sense of justice was exhibited, on various occasions, by using his influence with the Federal officers in behalf of non-belligerent friends who were in sympathy with the Confederate cause, and also in behalf of many who had been his political and personal enemies. As relates to the material advancement of the State, his active and enterprising spirit made him more largely identified with the railroad interests of Missouri than any other citizen. He participated in the construction, both of the Missouri Pacific and Kansas Pacific roads; and in the construction of the former, particularly, he was one of the first and largest contractors. In addition to his being one of the largest contractors on the Kansas Pacific, he was also one of the fund commissioners and directors of the road; and, as a private enterprise, united with other capitalists in continuing the road from Denver to Cheyenne. As a contractor he was also interested in several other roads, the last of which was the road extending from Cedar City, opposite Jefferson City, to Mexico, in Audrain County. Notwithstanding his great wealth and close attention to the business by which it was accumulated, he was just, generous and kind-hearted, and made these qualities doubly attractive by an extremely social disposition.

Though often impelled, under political excitement, to denounce in language of the most caustic bitterness those who opposed him, yet, the excitement being over, he was as tender in his feelings as a child, and never permitted political differences between himself and fellow citizens to degenerate into personal animosity. It is true that his forcible and earnest manner as a debater was sometimes subjected to criticism as exhibiting arrogance and a want of due respect for the opinions of his opponents, yet it was but the result of his own positive convictions of the soundness of the cause which he advocated, and his enthusiastic devotion thereto. He was a man of magnificent personal appearance, being six feet two or three inches in height, and faultlessly proportioned. His life was one of untiring industry and activity; and, although endowed by nature with extraordinary strength and an iron constitution, his health at length gave way under the severe tax of mind and body exacted by his varied interests, and at his residence in Jefferson City, on the 16th day of July, 1870, his active and useful life, after a long and gradual decline, was brought to a close.

Gen. Price was twice married. His first wife died in Jefferson City in 1849, leaving two children, a son and a daughter. His daughter, Celeste B. Price, unfolded into a woman of extraordinary attractions and superior intellectual culture, and was married to Capt. Celsus Price, son of Gen. Sterling Price, in January, 1867. She died in less than a year after her marriage, leaving no issue. Thomas Benton Price, his son, resides on his splendid estate in Pettis County, devoting his energies to stock breeding and the management of his extensive patrimony.

Gen. Price, after the death of his first wife, remained a widower until April 20, 1854, when he was married to Miss Caroline V. Long, daughter of Mr. Isaac Long, of Page County, Va. Miss Long, in addition to her many womanly virtues, sound judgment and unusual business capacity, brought into the union a fortune equal to that of her husband, which contributed greatly to his financial success in after life. In November, 1873, she was married to Col. J. B. Price, cousin of her former husband.

Gen. Price, though not a member of any church, was a firm believer in the great truths of the Bible, and a frequent attendant upon divine worship. He was a strong Protestant of the anti-ritualist school, and his family and family connections were nearly all communicants of the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches. He left the bulk of his large estate to his wife and son, his only surviving child; remembering, however, in his last will many who had no claims upon him beyond personal attachment. During his life he contributed liberally to schools, churches and charities of every kind. As a public benefactor, consistent politician, faithful friend and most enterprising citizen, few equal in his State, and no superiors survive him.