Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

John Buren Price

Male 1815 - 1893  (77 years)


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  • Name John Buren Price 
    Born 20 Nov 1815  , Lincoln, Tennessee, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 11 Jan 1893  Washington, Washington, Utah, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried Old Washington City Cemetery, Washington, Washington, Utah, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I1410  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Family Eliza Jane Adair,   b. 11 Nov 1811, Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 16 Aug 1892, Washington, Washington, Utah, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 80 years) 
    Married 10 Dec 1842  , Itawambe, Mississippi, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F929  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. Censuses:
      1850 US: Dist. 21, Pottawattamie, Iowa, p. 137b, dwelling and family 1165 [Note: first two children are from Samuel Carson, third is from Moses Pearson, and last two are from John Price]. Neighbor to William Mangum:
      John Price, 34, farmer, TN
      Eliza, 40, TN
      Valentine, 18, AL
      Elizabeth, 16, AL
      Margaret, 11, AL
      Rebecca, 5, MS
      George, 2, MS

      1860 US: Washington, Washington, Utah, enumerated 26 Jul 1860, p. 1037, household 1284, family 1109, July 27, 1860 (Samuel Adair, Thomas Adair, Wesley Adair, James Richey, Geo. W. Adair, James Mangum, John Mangum, Valentine Carson, John Price William Mangum, Cyrus Mangum, Samuel N. Adair are all listed as neighbors):
      Jno. Price, 44, D'Labor, TN.
      Eliza J., 50, TN.
      Rebecca D., 14, MS.
      Thoms, 12, IA.
      Hyrum, 9, MO.
      Joseph, 6, UT.
      Eliza J., 3, UT.
      Wm. Freem [Freeman?], 50, carptr., $300 personal property, MO.

      1880, National Archives film T9-1339, p. 373D for Washington, Washington, Utah:
      John Price, Bee raiser, Self M M W 64 TN Fa:VA Mo: TN
      Eliza Jane Price, Keep house, wife F M W 69 TN Fa:SC Mo:SC

      2. Parents are George Price, b. 30 Dec 1787 at Caswell, NC, d. 23 Feb 1861 at Lincoln, TN and Pheta Ann Hodge, b. 23 Nov 1794 at Lincoln, TN, d. 16 Mar 1857 at Lincoln, TN per website 26 Feb 2002 <http://www.johnpratt.com/gen/6/3.ej_adair.html>.

      BIOGRAPHY:
      1. Note: ten names of the first men to Dixie were among Adairs, Mangums, Richeys, and Prices who were all interrelated by marriage. Excerpt taken from book "Under Dixie Skies," a history of Washington County, Utah [similar accounts are found in the books "I Was Called to Dixie" by Andrew Karl Larson, 1961, p. 67 and "A History of Washington County, From Isolation to Destiny," by Douglas D. Alder and Karl F. Brooks, pp. 28, 29]: "(Samuel Adair) In keeping with Brigham Young's policy of making the Church self-sustaining, a company was called to settle on the Mill Creek (which is now part of Washington Co.) primarily for the purpose of raising cotton. What should be more logical than to send men who had had experience in cotton culture? A number of converts who came from the South were accordingly called to go into what was later known as Utah's Dixie. Two groups went in the spring of 1857. The first group, consisting of ten families under the leadership of Samuel Adair [apparently, Robert D. Covington and Samuel J. Adair were the leaders of two groups, who were called to the 'Cotton Mission'], left Payson, Utah on the 3rd of March and arrived at the site of what was subsequently called Washington on the 15th day of April. They camped near the river on a piece of land later designated as the "Sand Plot," but on the advice of Amasa Lyman, who was passing through on his way from San Bernardino to Salt lake City, they moved up to the place where the town now stands. The second company [under Covington] left Salt lake City early in April and camped on the 5th of May at the Samuel Adair Spring, on the east side of the valley, just a short distance north of the present US highway 91. The following were members of the two original companies and others who settled at Washington in 1857. Robert D. Covington, Harrison Pearce, James B. Regran [or Reagan], Willam B. [or R.] Slade, Joseph Smith, William Hawley, John Couch Sr., John Couch Jr., John Mangum, James [B.] Wilkins, Alfred Johnson, John W. Freeman, James D. McCullough, William H. Crawford, Umpstead Rencher, Balus Spouse [or Sprouse], James Richie [or Richey], Samuel Adair, Oscar Tyler, George Spencer, Jr., J. Holden, Joseph Adair, Joseph Hatfield, William Dameron, Preston Thomas, William Fream, George [W.] Adair, [Samuel?] Newton Adair, John Clark, Thomas W. Smith, Simes [or Sims] B. Matheny, Stephen and William Dugas [or Duggins], William J. Young, Enoch Dodge, John Price, and Robert Lloyd. William Darby Cooper was also an early settler. [Bleak, 'Annals of the Southern Utah Mission,' p. 34, the heads of the families listed by Bleak also include in addition to those above: Upstead Rencher, George Hawley, John Hawley, John Adair, Thomas Adair, J. Holden, William Mangum. Later research by Harold Cahoon of the Washington City Historical Society has added the following names to the original settler list: Newton L.N. Adair [Samuel Newton Adair?], John W. Clark, James Nichols Mathews, Gabriel R. Coley, and John D. Lee.] The trial that the settlers of Washington, in Washington Co., were to endure were probably the most discouraging and severe of any of the early settlers of Utah. When Robert Gardiner passed through the town on his way to settle in St. George in December 1861, he reflected that of all the trials he had to endure, the prospect of his wives and children one day looking like the poor malaria plagued creatures he saw in Washington was what appalled him most of all. He says in his journal: 'Here we found some of our old neighbors who received us very kind but the appearance of these brethren and their wives and children was rather discouraging. Nearly all of them had the fever and ague or chills as they called it in this country. They had worked hard and worn out their clothes and had replaced them from the cotton they had raised on their own farms which their women had carded, spun, and wove by had, colored with weeds. Men's shirts, women's dresses and sunbonetts were all made of the same piece; and their clothes and their faces were of the same color, being a kind of blue, as most everyone had the chills. This tried me more than anything I have had seen in my Mormon experience thinking that my wives and Children, from the nature of the climate, would have to look as sickly as those now around me.' This coupled with the trouble and struggle they had trying to build a dam in the Virgin River for irrigation purposes, which was washed out every spring, made the life of the saints that settled Washington probably the most trying of any early settlers." The book "History of Washington County" adds: "Their new home was to be called Washington, as determined in advance by Brigham Young and his counselors, Its location was also fixed - the benchland overlooking the Washington fields. The town was located near several fine springs which have favored the community above others in Dixie. The fields likewise provided a lush expanse of farmland. Washington appeared to have advantages over other communities, but this did not prove to be so. Those broad fields were formed by ancient floods; and modern floods would haunt Washington - not the town but the irrigation projects. And the springs created marshes. There insects would spread malaria. So the Washington Saints were spared little; their plight, fighting malaria and rebuilding washed-out dams, would equal, if not surpass, the tests their neighbors encountered."

      2. Two monuments erected in Washington, Washington, Utah:
      A. "Adair Spring, The Birthplace of Utah's Dixie, Washington City, Utah - Erected by the citizens of Washington City & The Washington City Historical Society, 1996. In early 1857 Brigham Young called a group of Southerners on a cotton mission to Southern Utah to raise cotton. Samuel Newton Adair [this is a mistake; should be Samuel Jefferson Adair], the leader of ten families, arrived at this spot April 15, 1857, after leaving Payson, Utah on March 3. They camped here a short time and then moved down near the Virgin River on what became known as the Sand Plot. Apostle Amasa M. Lyman who was passing through the area recommended they move back to the spring area which they did. Robert Dockery Covington arrived here May 5 or 6, 1857, with 28 more Southern families. They left the Salt Lake area shortly after the LDS Spring Conference held around April 6. On May 6 or 7 a two day meeting was held at this site under the direction of Isaac C. Haight, President of the Parowan Stake. They sang songs, prayed and selected Robert D. Covington to be the President of the LDS branch, and Harrison Pearce and James B. Reagan as assistants. Wm. R. Slade and James D. McCullough were appointed Justices of the Peace, John Hawley and James Matthews as constables, G.R. Coley as stray pound keeper and Wm. R. Slade, Geo. Hawley and G.W.Spencer as school trustees. They named their city Washington. It was too late to plant wheat, so they prepared the ground for corn and went right to work making dams and ditches to water their crops. Their homes were their wagon boxes, willow and mud huts and dugouts dug in the bank east of this monument. Their new home soon was called 'Dixie'. Those who came in the spring of 1857 were:
      [43 names listed "and others; the following names are those related.] Adair, George W.; Adair, John M.; Adair, Joseph; Adair, Newton (L.N.)[Samuel Newton]; Adair, Samuel [Jefferson]; Adair, Thomas; Mangum, John; Mangum, William; Price, John; Rickey [Richey], James."
      B. "'Utah's Dixie' - Washington City Founded 1857. Erected by the Washington City Historical Society, November 1994. This monument is erected in honor and memory of the founders of Washington City. The settlers who arrived in 1857 were sent here by Brigham Young, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, for the purpose of grwoing cotton to clothe the Mormon pioneers and to colonize the territory. Those early pioneers named their city on May 5 or 6, 1857 in honor of George Washington and also called the area 'Dixie' in remembrance of their former homes in the South. Living in the arid desert proved extremely difficult. Reocurring challenges such as malaria (ague or chills and fever), the lack of food, poor water, and other diseases disabled and decimated the settlers. The Virgin River, providing water to irrigate fields, was crucial to the settlers. However frequent flash floods, washed out the dams built to divert water from the river to the fields. This resulted in starvation and undue hardship. It took the pioneers thirty-four years to conquer the mighty "Rio Virgin" doing so with the completion of the Washington Fields Dam in 1891. [Pioneer names arranged into three groups; 43 'and others' in 1857, 19 in 1860, and 26 'and others' in 1861-62. The names that follow are only those related.]
      i. 1857: Adair, George W.; Adair, John M.; Adair, Joseph; Adair, Newton (L.N.)[Samuel Newton]; Adair, Samuel [Jefferson]; Adair, Thomas; Mangum, John; Mangum, William; Price, John; Richey, James.
      ii. 1860 US: Adair, Wesley; Mangum, Cyrus; Mangum, Joseph M.
      iii. 1861-62: [none]."

      3. The book "Utah's 'Dixie' Birthplace," by Harold P. Cahoon and Priscilla Cahoon, pp. 272-276, has a map and lists landowners as of the resurvey of 1873. Names are spelled as recorded. Relations included are:
      John M. Adair, blk. 15, lot 3. [SE corner of Main and 1st S.]
      John Price, blk. 34, lot 8. [SW corner of 2nd N and 1st E.]
      Wesley Adair, blk. 34, lot 10. [ 4th lot N on W side of 1st E halfway between 1st and 2nd N.]
      Samuel [J.] Adair, blk. 35, lots 1,11,12. [NW corner of 1st N and 2nd E.]
      Samuel N. Adair, blk. 35, lots 3,4. [2nd and 3rd lot N on E side of 1st E between 1st N and 2nd N.]
      Levi W. Hancock, blk. 41, lots 1,2,3,6. [Southern 2/3 of block between 1st and 2nd W and 2nd and 3rd N.]
      James Richey, blk. 34, lot 2. [NE corner of Main and 1st N.]

      4. Reference to John Price in Elizabeth Carson's biography per the book "Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude," Daughters of Utah Pioneers, p. 2060, no photo in article: "Elizabeth Carson Lewis Lewis Mortensen, born 10 Aug 1833 in Carrelltown, Pickens, Alabama; died 23 Jun 1901 at Parowan, Iron, Utah; parents Samuel Carson and Eliza Jane Adair Carson Pearson Price; pioneer of 1851; spouses (1) David Lewis married 4 Aug 1852 at Salt Lake Endowment House (he died 2 Sep 1855 at Parowan, Iron, UT), (2) Tarleton Lewis married 1856 in Parowan (he died 22 Nov 1890 at Teasdale, Wayne, Utah), and (3) Niels Otto Mortensen married 1862 in Parowan (he died 7 Apr 1912); had two children with first husband, none with second husband, and five with last husband [see book for names and birthdates]... Elizabeth was converted to the LDS Church as a young woman in Mississippi. She left Mississipppi in November of 1845 with her mother; step-father, John Price; her brother, Valentine Carson; and two half sisters. They arrived in Nauvoo on March 6, 1846 and moved on to Winter Quarters where they put in crops and worked at various jobs to get some means to travel to the Salt Lake Valley. They were finally able to start for the valley in the spring of 1851 and arrived in late summer of that same year. Elizabeth married David Lewis in the Salt Lake Endowment House on August 4, 1852 and they had two children before she was left a widow at the age of 22 with two small daughters. They had also purchased two Indian boys to save them from slavery. Elizabeth learned to understand and speak the Indian languange and raised these boys to adulthood. She married her brother-in-law with the idea that he would take care of her. He was called to establish and supervise other settlements and left her in Parowan. They had two sons together, but she needed to go to work to support her family which now consisted of six children. One of her employers was Neils O. Mortensen. She was providing care for his invalid wife. After his wife died in early 1862, the church sanctioned her marriage to Neils. They made their home on a farm west of Parowan. She was known as a welcoming hostess to the young people of the area, often having musical evenings and dancing parties in her home. She was an excellent cook."

      2. Biography of a son of John Price and Eliza Jane Adair from Don and Carolyn Smith, 2003:
      "Joseph Smith Price.
      Joseph Smith Price was born on July 2, 1853 in Salt Lake City, Utah, just before the sixth anniversary of the founding of that city on July 24, 1847. He was born to John Price and Eliza Jane Adair who had crossed the plains in covered wagons in 1851 (see Heartthrobs of the West, v. 12, pp. 429-463). Joseph went by "Jode" all his life. He had two older sisters who had been born in 1847 and 1849 en route across the plains, and his oldest sister Rebecca had been born in Alabama. Jode's parents had been sealed together for eternity in the Endowment House in January, 1853, a few months before his birth. In the 1860's the family was called by Brigham Young to move to St. George to help colonize that territory.
      Jode married Ann Alger on 2 Mar 1874 in St. George, Utah. Their first Child, Joseph Hyrum Price was born on 29 Apr 1875, but he did not live long. Their second Child, Sarah Olivia, who went by Eva all of her life, was born on 23 Nov 1876 in St. George.
      The St. George temple, the first L.D.S. temple completed in Utah, was first ready for temple work in January, 1877. Jode and Ann had their marriage sealed for eternity there on their third anniversary on 2 Mar 1877. Their third child Josie Viola was born in Parowan, Utah, in 1879, and then Claude was born in Diamond Valley in 1882. Twins Addie and Ida were born in 1886, but they also did not survive. Then Lucille was born on 7 Mar 1890. Their youngest child John was born in 1895, but he died that year. These last four children were born while they lived in St. George.
      The Price's owned a hotel in St. George. Then they moved to Pioche, Nevada where they also owned a hotel. Ann was a great cook and they also employed an excellent Chinese cook. He made some wonderful pies with a beautiful crimped border. One day when Ann asked him how he made the beautiful edging on the pies, he promptly removed his false teeth and used them to crimp the pie's edge. Needless to say, she was totally shocked at the sight.
      Then they moved back to Salt Lake City, where they owned the Virginia Hotel on Broadway (Third South) on the north side of the street between State and Main Street. They owned it there in 1907 because their granddaughter Kathryn Worsley still remembers the story of when her three-year old brother Bus (born in 1904) dumped the contents of a spitoon over his head when he visited their hotel. They were also there in 1910 when Kathryn remembers watching Halley's comet with them.
      Jode and Ann had a strong pioneer spirit and didn't like to settle anywhere too long. They traded their interest in the hotel and purchased a large tract of land to homestead as one of about two families in Oasis, Utah, near Delta. While they lived there, their grandchildren Katie and Anna came to visit in 1912, when Anna was about 2 and Katie 6 years old. Anna crawled under the fence to go pet a baby pig and the mother sow started to charge her to protect it. Jode turned white as a sheet and jumped the fence and swept her out of the way in time and then barely jumped over the fence to save himself from the sow's fury. Anna was so impressed with her grandparents that she renamed herself JoAnn in their honor, by which name she went during all of her adult life. Oasis was so small that when it came time for Katie and JoAnn to return to Salt Lake, Jode built a fire on the railroad tracks to stop the train to pick them up. Apparently that was the standard procedure.
      After only a few years, they left Oasis, and moved to California where in their later years they lived with their daughter Josie and her husband Claude Snow. Jode Price passed away in Los Angeles on 2 Jun 1932 at age 78."

      3. I visited Washington, Utah and in looking at the old land ownership, I found lots for the following related individuals. The streets are located on a typical Mormon grid with Main St. being the starting street north/south and Telegraph being the same east west:
      -Samuel Adair owned the three adjacent southern lots of the six lots on the west side of 2nd E. from 1st N. to 2nd N. This was directly across the street from the Adair Springs. The blocks here are with 12 lots with the dividing line between the six back to back running north south.
      -Wesley Adair, owned the next lot directly north of Samuel Adair's (leaving 2 from his lot to the corner of 2nd N and 2nd E.
      -Samuel N. Adair owned two lots directly behind Samuel Adair. They were the second and third lots going north from 1st N. and 1st E. on the east side of 1st E.
      -James R. Richey owned the first lot of six going north from Main and 1st N. on the east side of Main.
      -Valentine Carson owned a lot on the same side of the same street as James Richey except it was the sixth or last lot north whereas Richey's was the first.
      -John Price owned the lot directly behind Valentine Carson's on the southwest corner lot of 2nd N. and 1st E.
      -John M. Adair owned the southeast corner of Main and 1st S. That particular block is divided into quarters, so he has one quarter of the block. The other blocks described above for his relations were divided into twelve with six back to back (alley between the six and six runs north/south).

      BIRTH:
      1. Date per website for Utah State Historical Society Cemeteries Database 1 Jan 2002. Name given is John Price.

      2. Date and county and state per website of Paul Price http://www.softcom.net/users/paulandsteph/gtp/ancestors.html 2 Jan 2002. Name given is John Buren Price.

      3. Town of Lynchburg in Lincoln, Tennessee per Ancestral File v4.19.

      DEATH:
      1. Utah State Historical Society Burials Database online: John Price, b. 20 Nov 1815, d. 11 Jan 1893, bur. Washington City Cemetery.

      2. Date and place per website of Paul Price http://www.softcom.net/users/paulandsteph/gtp/ancestors.html 2 Jan 2002.

      3. Per website ; "Cemetery/Death Indexes (1852-1996) in Washington County, Utah," compiled by Wesley W. Craig, Ph.D: "John Price, b. 20 Nov 1815, d. 11 Jan 1893, Old Wash. City."

      BURIAL:
      1. Per website for Utah State Historical Society Cemeteries Database 1 Jan 2002.

      2. Tombstone in the old part of Washington City Cemetery with photos on file: Frontside: "Price: John 20 Nov 1815 - 11 Jan 1893; Eliza Jane Adair 11 Nov 1810 - 16 Aug 1892, sealed for time and all eternity January 14, 1853;" backside: "Children: John, Valentine, Elizabeth, William, Margaret Jane, Rebecca Ann, George Thomas, John Wesley, Hyrum Wiley, Joseph Smith, Eliza Jane." Stone is newer and includes an engraving of the St. George temple.