DAVENPORT PAST AND PRESENT

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CHAPTER XXII.

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HIRAM PRICE, ESQ.

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A picture of Mr. Price is location from the Scott County, Iowa main page - click on Pictures/Documents.

Mr. Price was born January, 1814, in Washington county, Pennsylavania.  He removed, in 1819, to Mifflin county, Pennsylavania, in 1822 to Huntingdon county, in the same State, and in the fall of 1844 he came to Davenport, which place has since been his residence.

His capital in business was one hundred dollars, and with this he started as a Merchant.  His small pecuniary effects, however, were made up in other of his possessions-he had determined perseverance, inviolate integrity, good business tact, was temperate to a the fall, and keenly conscientious.  With this capital he started into the work, and in a few years had erected upon it a fine fortune.

He continued in the Mercantile business until 1848.  In 1847 he was elected the first School Fund Commissioner of Scott county, which office he held nine years.  In 1848 he was elected Recorder and Treasurer of Scott county, which positions he filled for eight years, after which he declined being a candidate for re-relection.  The length of time which he was continued in these offices is a high compliment to the manner in which he filled them.

Mr. Price has always taken a decided and consistent position in favor of the cause of Temperance.  He was one of those who, in February, 1848, organized the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance for the State of Iowa, and was elected first Grand Worthy A.; and after, Grand Worthy Patriarch for the State.  He has been elected every year, since the organization of the Grand Division of Iowa, as representative to the National Division of North America.  In 1847 he was instrumental in organizing the present Division of Sons of Temperance in this city, and was elected the first W. P.  In 1854, he was elected President of the "Maine Law Alliance" of the State; and he filled this position in a manner which, while effectual toward the end in view, invariably held the respect of its most inveterate opponents.

He was Treasurer for the Scott County Bible Society for the years 1851, '2, '6 and '7, and President for years 1854 and '5.

Mr. Price is entitled to an infinite deal of honor for the part he has taken in this section towards the construction of our Railroads.  He was one of the first, West of the Mississippi, who agitated a railroad connection with the Atlantic, and it is owing as much or more to his efforts than to those of any other one, that our city and county were induced to subscribe to the project.

He also lent his exertions to the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad-which, when completed, will unite us with the Missouri River, and eventually with the Pacific.  He was one of its corporators, and traveled the entire length of the line to the Missouri, pucuring right of way for the road-holding meetings in the counties through which the line runs, for the purpose of securing the interests of and making friends for the M. & M. R. R., and eventually succeeded in driving off a project for a rival road.

His present business connections are a partnership in the Publishing House of Luse, Lane & Co.; another in the Henry County Coal Company, and he is also secretary, Cashier, and one of the Directors, of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad.

Mr. Price is one of the few living, but much quoted, examples of what perseverance, untiring industry, and, above all, integrity, will accomplish.  In fourteen years each dollar of his original hundred has been reproduced in a thousand; and with them all is the conviction that they are the fruit of honest industry.

His views and position upon Temperance have given him a prominence possessed by no other private citizen in the State, and yet, with his prominence, and his strong blows in warring against the serried hosts of antagonistic men and principles, there is not, we venture to say, a man of his opponents who does not respect the singular honesty of his endeavors, and his entire freedom from all effort to gain either personal or political popularity.  It need not be added that he is liberal-the character we have thus far given him, fully indicates it.  Added to this trait, he possesses the utmost regularity of habits-rising invariably at six o'clock, well-knowing that life is short, and its hours precious.

With an expression of regret that his fervent, philanthropic exertions upon the Temperance question have not met with the full success which their character and end deserve, and of satisfaction that his life has practically demonstrated the success of CORRECT PRINCIPLES, we leave to the consideration of our readers.