John Price
John Price, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre
John Price
1815-1893
Biographical Sketch
John Price was a native of Tennessee with other American forbears from backcountry Virginia. He moved from Tennessee to Mississippi, then to frontier Utah where he was a pioneer in southern Utah.
Early Years: From Tennessee to the Deep South
Price was born in Tennessee. His mother had been born in Tennessee; his father in Virginia. His earliest known American forebears were in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and were from Scots-Irish descent.
Price married Eliza Ann Adair (1811-1892), a native of Tennessee whose parents were from South Carolina. Evidently, in the mid-1840s they were in Pickens County, Mississippi. Price’s wife was part of the large Adair clan that joined the Mormons.
Migration to Utah
During the late 1840s to early 1850s, the Adair clan and the Prices immigrated to Utah Territory. Price and his wife and family settled first in Salt Lake City.
Joining the Southerners in Washington County and the Cotton Mission
By early 1857, the Prices had joined the Adairs and other kin in the Southern colony in southwestern Utah. Price was among the original settlers in Washington, Washington County. The Adairs, Mangums and Prices were all interrelated by marriage. The mission of these Southerners was to establish cotton culture in Utah's "Dixie."
Although it eventually proved commercially unsuccessful, it did succeed in producing cotton goods for local use and export at an important stage in Utah Territory's economic development.
In the Iron Military District: Private John Price, Company I, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion, Washington
In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions. The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) Major Isaac Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion whose personnel in its many platoons and two companies came from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the north such as Fort Johnson. Major John Higbee headed the 3rd Battalion whose many platoons and two companies were drawn from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the southwest such as Fort Hamilton. Major John D. Lee of Fort Harmony headed the 4th Battalion whose platoons and companies drew on its militia personnel from Fort Harmony, the Southerners at the newly-founded settlement in Washington, the Indian interpreters at Fort Clara, and the new settlers at Pinto.
In summer 1857, Price, 42, was a private in the third Washington platoon in Captain Harrison Pearce’s Company I in Major John D. Lee’s 4th Battalion. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.
In September 1857, after the Fancher-Baker company was attacked at Mountain Meadows, John D. Lee left the Meadows to find the militiamen he was expecting to join him. He met those from Washington and Fort Clara, including John Price, some miles to the south on Monday evening, September 7. They arrived at the Meadows around mid-day on Tuesday, the 8th. During the week while the wagon train was beseiged, Price's role and actions are unknown. Similarly, on the day of the final massacre, September 11, Price's exact role is no known with certainty.
The 1859 arrest warrant lists "James Price" and he was listed in T.B.H. Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, which followed the 1859 arrest warrant. But he is not mentioned in other lists of participants.
Later Years
Price remained in Washington County. Among other things, he worked as a stone mason, cutting tombstones. According to the 1880 census, he also worked as a "bee raiser." He remained there until his death in 1893. He was survived by three children.
References
Bradshaw, ed., Under Dixie Sun, 235; Larson, The Red Hills of November, 14, 170; Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 251; Lee Trial transcripts; New.FamilySearch.org; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.
For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.
External Links
For further information on John Price, see:
- http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
- http://www.visitourfamilytree.net/showmedia.php?mediaID=74&medialinkID=211
Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment or contact 1857_militia@roadrunner.com.
