CHAPTER 2
THOMAS PRICE I -- PRICE 1.0
Thomas Price was born in Wales (place unknown) 1754, and died in the Welsh Hills, near Newark, Ohio, April 21, 1836 "age 82 years" says his tombstone in Welsh Hills Cemetery. He was married to Sarah Ann …..(date and maiden name unknown) in Wales. They were the parents of six known children who grew to maturity in Wales, whose names, birthday and birth hour, written by Thomas' own hand, we have in tact today, found by the writer in an old family Bible of Hannah Williams Seville (206 S) in Allegheny City, Pa., July 22, 1895.
The earliest reference to him I discovered in an erasable pocket memorandum book, "Thomas Price, His Book 1795." The next citation is found in a church letter given "Thomas Price and his wife, Sara Price," by "The Church of Jesus Christ meeting at Dolau in Radnorshire owning believers Baptism, layi8ng on of hands, the doctrine of personal election and final perseverance, "on "15 Day of May 1796" and signed by twelve names. I visited that little Baptist Church in Dolau, June 5 and 7, 1901; found the church minutes in bad shape, containing recent records only. Called on Richard Price who ancestors had lived there for three centuries, but found no light on our ancestor.
The next document which I found was in the form of a church letter named, "the Church of Jesus Christ Denominated particular Baptist Meeting for Divine worship at Penyrheal Breconshire South Wales, "given to "our Dear Brethren and Sister Thomas Price and Sarah his wife John Price and Edward Price their Sons" on "6 May 1821; "signed by "Edward Davies Minister" and ten brethren, "part for the whole."
I visited this little stone Baptist Chruchhouse Sept. 6, 1907, about five miles northeast of Hay, Breconshire, on the top of a hill, got the key from the clerk, saw the inside of it, and took a snapshot of it. A stone tablet over the entrance reads:
The Memoir of
TWO HUNDRED AND
FORTY POUNDS of the
Pious Donation of
Thomas Williams
of the Island, Gent.
In the Parish of
Llanigon; and County
of Brecon, to and
For the Use and Benefit
of this Pen-yr-heal
Church forever
Ibi. Sept. ye 1st
1788
Apparently Thomas Price had moved from Dolau, Radnorshire, to Hay in 1796, and lived here with his family twenty-five years. He and his sons were weavers and probably worked in the large woolen mill at Hay. I saw, in 1907, the wreckage of an old mill at hay, which old citizens said was that of an ancient woolen mill.
I saw many Prices about Hay, such as Thomas Price, 84 years old, and a deacon of that little church on the hill, on the farm Llwynfilly; the Sheriff of Hay and many others - but no trances of kinship, except possibly the name.
In February, 1900, Father, Thomas D. Price, wrote down some facts about his grandparents; among them he says, "Thomas Price and wife - two sons John and Edward and two daughters Mary and Elizabeth - came over in a sail-ship about two months on voyage, landing at Baltimore, Maryland. Came from there to Steubenville, Ohio. Worked there for two years in woolen factory of Dickinson and Wells-who had a flock of Spanish Merino sheep and manufactured the wool into cloth. Grandmother Price died while there and was buried in the cemetery." I visited Steubenville, April 20, 1928, but found no trances of their stay. Old cemeteries had been removed out of the city to a new cemetery in 1855, and the remains in unmarked graves were interred in a large lot set apart for that purpose. Wells and Dickinson's Woolen Mills were dominant there between 1820 and 1830.
"They removed from there (Steubenville, O.) to the Welsh Hills" in 1823. Bought the Price farm of 87 acres on the Hills from S. Turner; then about four acres were partly cleared. Put up a log house and frame barn - then put a renter with a lease on the farm, and they moved to a woolen factory owned by Page, one mile east of Granville. In the meantime, Edward Price married Mary Pittsford and Elizabeth Price married Edward Glynn; Edward Price living on the Welsh Hills farm for a time, until after Thomas Davis Price, the eldest son, was born, May 19, 1826."
While the family of Thomas Price lived near the Page factory, they attended church services in the Granville Baptist Church, "going across lots by the Granville furnace and over the lot now the Maple Grove Cemetery." In the fall of 1830 the family moved back on the farm.
During their absence many improvements had been made on the Hills. The stone schoolhouse had been put up in 1825 by subscription, for both church and school purposes. Log houses had been used for both school and church at several places, where the church now stands (1936) and at Phillips' graveyard about a half mile west of the Welsh Hill Church. The Ohio canal and the national turnpike were in course of construction, and these improvements brought considerable money into the state and into circulation.
Trade was, however, carried on mainly by the exchanging of commodities. Most things needed n the farm or in the home were bought by rolls of cloth made in the woolen factories where the Prices work. Indeed, their wages were rolls or bolts of cloth of several varieties. When they went to town to purchase lumber, nails, glass, sugar, or shoes, a bolt of cloth paid the bill. Very little money was in circulation.
Father says, "Grandfather Price was active, alert, possessed the use of all his faculties to the last. He fell on sleep April 21, 1836, in the 82nd year of his life." Hi is buried in the Welsh Hills Cemetery, now in the midst of members of his immediate family. He enjoyed the last fifteen years of his life in the new land of opportunity - having left his beloved Wales in his 66th year after men in these days are supposed to retire from the activities of business and professional life. The army of his descendants now helping to make the history of this country, follow in the pages of this humble narrative.
From "The Price Family Genealogy, 1754 Wales--1938 USA--by Dr. Ira Maurice Price--1.6.1.1.
Important note: There are databases indicate Thomas Price's wife's surname was Powell, although Dr. Ira M. Price's research indicates Sarah Ann's surname was unknown. My research of documents present in the Ohio Genealogy Society at Columbus, OH reveals no such surname exists for Sarah Ann. Laurence Ward Price-April 18, 2006