William Cecil Price (1816 - 1907)

Born 1 Apr 1816 in Russell, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Died 6 Aug 1907 at age 91 in Springfield, Greene, Missouri, United States

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William Price is Notable.

Biography

William Price served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: 1861
Mustered out: 1864
Side: CSA
Regiment(s): Missouri State Guard

William Cecil Price (1816–1901) was a United States lawyer and judge who was active in the proslavery faction of the Missouri Democratic Party from the 1840s on, and who served as Treasurer of the United States from 1860 to 1861.

A farmer, William Price moved to Greene County, Missouri in 1836, when he was about 20. He then attended Knoxville College before returning to Missouri to work as a teacher and store clerk and to read law. He was admitted to the bar in 1844.

Price was active in the proslavery wing of the Missouri Democratic Party. He held various public positions of increasing prominence:

• Deputy Sheriff of Greene County in 1840
• an administrative position with the Greene County court in 1841
• elected as a probate judge with the Greene County court in 1847
• elected to the Missouri Senate in 1854
• appointed as a judge of the circuit court in 1857
• appointed by President of the United States James Buchanan as Treasurer of the United States, an office Price held from February 28, 1860 to March 21, 1861.

Price claimed that he had originated the idea that the Missouri Compromise must be repealed. In 1844, he traveled through Missouri, warning slaveholders of the dangers to their situation if the Missouri Compromise were not repealed. During the period when the Compromise of 1850 was being discussed, Price met in New Orleans with Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, and Robert Toombs. At this meeting, these pro-slavery Democrats concluded that if slavery were not expanded westward, conflict with the North and the secession of the South was inevitable.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Price joined Missouri's Confederate brigade, under the command of his cousin, Sterling Price. He was taken prisoner by Union forces at the Battle of Pea Ridge (March 6–8, 1862) and was imprisoned at Alton, Illinois for eight months. He was then exchanged for a Union prisoner held by the Confederacy at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Confederate President Jefferson Davis then assigned him as a recruiting officer in Missouri with the rank of Major.

Price resigned in 1864 and moved to Arkansas in an attempt to rebuild his finances as a farmer. After the war, he returned to Missouri, practicing law first at St. Louis, Missouri, later at Springfield, Missouri.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Price
• http://kansasboguslegislature.org/mo/price_william_c.html
• WikiTree profile Price-1787 created through the import of Donnell_FosterTREE gedFILE.ged on Oct 2, 2011 by Ann Fuller. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Ann and others.