About 2 years ago I purchased a large billhead ledger in Eau Claire Wisconsin. I soaked out the billheads and sold many of them. To my surprise the first 20 pages had three layers of billheads. One of these buried billheads was for Wm T. Price lumberman and farmer and proprietor Hixton Mills. As you can see, the little billhead is in poor shape, but the history behind Price makes it a historical gem.
William Thompson Price was born at Barre Township, Pennsylvania in 1824.
His father was a farmer and at one time Sheriff of Huntingdon County PA. William worked on the farm and also as a clerk in a store at Hollidaysburg PA and studied law. In 1845 he immigrated West, first to Mount Pleasant Iowa where he intended to work in the law business. He soon moved to Black River Falls Wisconsin and went into the pine woods six miles north of Neillsville with two other men and got out 700,000 feet of logs during the winter. In the summer of 1846 he accepted a position as book keeper and general manager of the business of Jacob Spaulding. In the winter of 1848-1849 he was logging again with Amos Elliott in Clark County and continued logging with some success until 1853 when he formed a partnership with FM Rublee of La Crosse. His firm existed for about two years and in 1852 purchased and platted northwestern Black River Falls.
In 1854 he moved his family to La Crosse and opened a livery stable and established a stage line between La Crosse and Black River Falls. In 1854 he returned to the Falls and established a law partnership with CR Johnson. The firm existed until 1859. Price also kept the La Crosse stage line in operation for a number of years. He also embarked in the mercantile business on a large scale with CS Crossett as a partner. The panic 1857 caught the two in unsettled business and their firm failed. After disposing of all the assets the pair were still $25,000 in debt. Price then returned to the logging business and within seven years had every dollar of his debt repaid with interest.
In 1860, in partnership with DJ Spaulding he operated the Albion flour and lumber mills. In 1864 he purchased the stage line between St. Paul and Sparta but soon disposed of a portion of it. In 1871 he purchased a farm in Hixton which eventually amounted to 3,000 acres. His logging business also grew to where he was producing 60,000,000 feet of logs annually. He was said to have been one of the most extensive single operators in the United States.
Price got involved in politics in 1850. As a Democrat, he was state assemblyman (1851), later joined the Republican party, and was state senator (1857, 1870-1871, 1878-1881). He was again state assemblyman in 1882. In 1882 he was elected to Congress, was re-elected in 1884, and served from Mar., 1883, until his death.
On my most recent trip up to Eau Claire I purchased a letterhead for William T. Price.
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