PRICE, WILLIAM T., whose career is an example of the rewards to be gained by a life of earnest endeavor and steadfast effort, is now living in comfortable retirement at his handsome home in Virginia, Ill., built in 1908. A member of a sturdy pioneer family closely identified with the development of this section since the early thirties, and himself a resident of Cass County for sixty-two years, his contributions to its material welfare have been of a nature entitling him to an honorable place among the real builders of the Prairie State.

William T. Price was born in Morgan County, Ill., November 6, 1840, and is a son of Adam and Susanna (Rosenberger) Price, natives of Rockingham County, Va., who came to Illinois in 1833, where Adam Price entered a tract of land in Morgan County, which he farmed until 1852, when the family removed to Cass County, where Adam Price died in 1875 and his wife in 1880. They were parents of the following children: John W., a resident of Wilson County, Kans.; William T.; Eliza, now Mrs. James Rawlings, of Virginia; Adam C., of Clarke County, Iowa; Amanda, deceased; Mary E., now Mrs. Charles Strickler, of Sibley, Iowa; and Sarah, wife of Alfred Griffin, of Nokomis, Ill., who died in 1885.

William T. Price received his educational training in the district schools of Cass and Morgan counties, and upon attaining his majority began farming the land, near Virginia, which he still owns. His first crop of corn sold for the munificent sum of ten cents per bushel, an amount not yet collected when the Civil war claimed him as a defender of the flag, and he enlisted in August, 1862, in Company D, One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Price was one of the unfortunates taken prisoner at the battle of Guntown, Miss., and for nine months experienced the horrors of confinement at Andersonville, Ga., and Florence, S.C. At the notorious Andersonville prison, he was an eye witness to the sudden gushing up of a spring of clear water inside the prison enclosure and which was named Providence spring, and was among the first to drink of its life giving water. Prior to that seeming miracle, the prisoners had been forced to use the swamp water, made filthy through running first through the enemy's camp. Mr. Price returned home in August, 1865, with a war record of which he may well be proud, for at all times his faithful, brave and cheerful service won his comrades' esteem, and the commendation of his officers. Mr. Price still makes a yearly pilgrimage to Springfield, Ill., to visit his old commander, Col. John F. King, who is his warm, personal friend.

Adjoining the Price farm was that of William Marshall, and the families, united by ties of sincerest friendship, continued undisturbed after the following amusing incident, one of pioneer days. A 40 acre square, joining the Price land, and still the property of the government, appealed to William Marshall as a fine building site, the same idea occurring to Adam Price. There was much friendly discussion, but no hard feeling. Finally, however, William Marshall's brother, John Marshall, acting for him, quietly mounted a horse at midnight and started for Springfield to enter the tract. Adam Price, unaware of Marshall's departure, left similarly equipped, on the same errand three hours later. They met at the door of the Patent Office, John Marshall having in his possession the coveted paper, and fully appreciating the humor of the situation, they journeyed home in friendliness together. William Marshall died in 1846, and his widow removed to Jacksonville, Ill., with her three daughters, Augusta, Jennie and Louisa, now deceased, maintaining a home there until her death, in 1874.

It so happened that fate had in store a closer tie for the two families, for, on December 29, 1870, William Price was married to his former playmate, Miss Augusta Marshall, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Clutch) Marshall, and they occupied the house built by her father on the land granted him by President John Quincy Adams, in 1834, referred to above. Mrs. Price died March 13, 1883. In April, 1895, thirteen years later, Mr. Price married her younger sister, Miss Jennie Marshall, who was born in Cass County in 1843. She was a graduate of the Presbyterian Academy, now Illinois College, at Jacksonville, and was the first young woman to enter the business college founded by Prof. R. C. Crampton, of the Illinois College faculty, who was a scholar of wide renown. This initial movement in 1866 expanded into the chain of schools known as Brown's Business colleges now established in all leading cities of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Price had no children, but reared as their son, Rufus C. Crampton, a grandchild, of the late Prof. R. C. Crampton, born in 1888, who is now holding a responsible position with the Illinois Central Railroad Company at Louisville, Ky.

William T. Price is a man of energy and untiring industry, with progressive ideas and methods which enabled him to encompass material success along his chosen line of farming, his honorable business dealings and genial personality winning the confidence and respect of all classes. He is a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church, and has been an elder for many years. Politically he is a Republican, is well known in Grand Army circles, at one time being commander of Downing Post, G. A. R., with which organization he is still prominently affiliated. Mrs. Price has marked ability, evidenced by her work in the church, in the Woman's Club and various literary societies, also in "looking well to the ways of her household," and the cheerful family home on South Main street is noted for its atmosphere of genuine hospitality.