Finding Aid to the Price Family Research Collection
Text
JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA 24501
(434) 846-0501
PRICE FAMILY RESEARCH COLLECTION
The collection includes family genealogical charts, correspondence and notes on the Price and
allied families from the genealogical research of Wilfred Ashby Price. The majority of the
correspondence is with Vina C. Price, CG, compiler of Ancestors and Descendants of John
Price, Immigrant to Virginia 1610-1611, 1988. Also included in the collection are several
miscellaneous publications by Price family members.
BOX 1
1–1
1–2
1–3
1–4
1–5
1–6
1-7
1-8
1-9
1-10
1-11
1-12
1-13
1-14
1-15
1-16
1-17
1-18
1-19
1-20
1-21
1-22
1-23
BOX 2
2–1
2–2
2–3
2–4
2–5
2–6
W.A. Price Family History
John Price/Ann Dejarnette – Essex County (Cumberland Prices)
Thomas Price/Dolly Vick line
James M. Price – Gordon Price line
William Price/Susannah Burton (Deeds and will)
Charles Price II line
William Price/Mary Morton (M.C. Senyard information)
William Henry Price/Betty Orange (Milton Price)
Richard W. Price, “Woodlawn,” Prospect, Va.
James W. Price family (Buckingham, Va.)
Price information (Miss Elizabeth Page)
John Price/Nancy-- “Fort Hill”
Hardin Perkins/Sarah Price
Pugh Price deeds to Pugh Price, Jr. (Prince Edward Co.)
Alex P. Price family – Miscellaneous documents
Jerusha Penick Price family (Prince Edward Co.)
Charles Price/Ann Haskins/Betsy Fowlkes Van Amburg – Marriage bonds,
Court orders
William Baldwin
John Fowlkes will (1794) (Nottoway Co.)
William Carwile/Martha Hubbard (W.A. Price line)
Vaughan/Mottley information
Williamson
Draft of Chapter one (incomplete) – A John Price Dynasty in America
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – ancestor charts
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Price book
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Daniel Price line
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Daniel Price (Henrico, Lunenburg, SC)
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Charlotte Co. Prices
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Cumberland Co. Prices
(Continued)
MS1375
PRICE FAMILY RESEARCH COLLECTION, Cont’d.
BOX 2
BOX 3
2–7
2-8
2-9
2-10
2-11
2-12
2-13
2-14
2-15
2-16
2-17
2-18
2-19
2-20
2-21
2-22
2-23
2-24
2-25
2-26
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Essex Co. Prices
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Goochland Co. Prices
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Middlesex Co. Prices
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Prince Edward Co. deeds, Edmond Price
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Westmoreland Co. Prices
Joseph Dupuy Eggleston (1867-1953)
Eggleston Papers – DAR & Colonial Dames verified – John Price I,II,III
Eggleston Papers – John Price line
Eggleston Papers – John Price I, II, III, Daniel Price
Eggleston Papers – Joseph Price (Cumberland Co., Va.)
Eggleston Papers – William Price line
Eggleston Papers – Fowlkes family (Nottoway & Prince Edward counties)
Eggleston Papers – Pugh family line
Charts 1-10
Charts 11-15
Charts 16-20
Charts 21-26
Charts (copies and master)
Charts 11-15 (copies and master)
Charts 16-25 (copies and master)
3-1
3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
3-7
3-8
3-9
3-10
3-11
3-12
DAR application – Martha Cantley Hoffman (Judith Price, Jerusha Price)
DAR application – Garlin Hill Kellison (Charles Price line)
DAR application – Frances Harrison Price Miller (Charles Price line)
DAR application – Bennye Ingram Underwood (Charles Price line)
Miscellaneous correspondence
Correspondence – Liz Gordon (Kansas City)
Correspondence – Janie Price (Daniel Price, Lunenburg Co.)
Correspondence – Richard W. Price (W.A. Price line)
Correspondence – Dr. Robert R. Price (Stillwater, OK) (Pugh Price, Jr.)
Correspondence – Kyle Price (J.N., Josiah, James T. Price line)
Correspondence – Dorothy Rhumann (Price line)
Correspondence – Mildred Royal (DAR, Jeanette Hampton, Richard
Fulcher, T.J. Fulcher
Correspondence – Rice Price, Thomas Price (Lunenburg, Charlotte,
Pittsylvania counties) (Dolly Vick line)
Correspondence – Mrs. Robert Scruggs Carruth (Pugh Price line)
Correspondence – Mrs. Glenn Heinlen (Price corrections)
Correspondence – Charles Gilliam (Gilliam line and Woodson)
Correspondence – Larry Price
Correspondence – Alice DeRossitt (Prices of America)
3-13
3-14
3-15
3-16
3-17
3-18
(Continued)
MS1375
PRICE FAMILY RESEARCH COLLECTION, Cont’d.
BOX 3
3-19 Correspondence – Mary Frances Price Senyard (Our Prices: from Wales
to Arkansas) 1982
3-20 Correspondence – Jane Mallen (Pugh Price, Jr.)
BOX 4
4-1
4-2
4-3
4-4
4-5
4-6
4-7
Price notebook No. 1
Price notebook No. 2
Price notebook No. 3
Map (Prince Edward County) (1820)
Robert R. Price, Vistas, Vicissitudes and Vignettes: 375 years of a
John Price lineage in America: Interval four on the banks of the Buffalo
1690-1820, 1987
Julian and Edwina Covington, Tobacco Rows in Prince Edward County,
2006
Herbert Clarence Bradshaw, History of Prince Edward County, Virginia:
From its earliest settlements through its establishment in 1754 to its
bicentennial year, 1955 (1 volume in two parts)
MS1375
JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA 24501
(434) 846-0501
WILFRED ASHBY PRICE, 1925Wilfred Ashby Price, son of Bascom Lee Price and Rosa B. Cawthorn, was born 23
August 1925 in Prince Edward County, Virginia. He graduated from Farmville High School and
attended the College of William and Mary. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a
radio operator in B-24 bombers. After being discharged, he worked for the Farmville
Manufacturing Company. He opened an appliance dealership in Pamplin, Va. In 1954, he
moved the business to Farmville where he operated W.A. Price Company and Price Supply
Company until retirement. After retirement, he spent a number of years researching the Price
family and contributed to the book, Ancestors and Descendants of John Price, Immigrant to
Virginia 1610-11, by Vina Chandler Price, published in 1988. He moved to Boca Raton, Florida
in 1991 where he still resides.
[Price, Wilfred Ashby Price, Price Family Research Collection, MS1375, Jones Memorial Library,
Lynchburg, Va.; Prince Edward County Heritage Book Committee, Prince Edward County Virginia
Heritage 1754-2008, p. 231.]
MS1375
JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA 24501
(434) 846-0501
PRICE FAMILY RESEARCH COLLECTION
The collection includes family genealogical charts, correspondence and notes on the Price and
allied families from the genealogical research of Wilfred Ashby Price. The majority of the
correspondence is with Vina C. Price, CG, compiler of Ancestors and Descendants of John
Price, Immigrant to Virginia 1610-1611, 1988. Also included in the collection are several
miscellaneous publications by Price family members.
[Detailed finding guide available with collection.]
MS1375
Wilfred Ashby Price
“W.A.”
The Career and the Man
First let me say that this is the story of a man and his career in the business world but it is also the
remembrances from his sister and admirer. Thus you must take into allowance that though factual the
story make be a somewhat biased. With that said I will try to give you a picture of W. A. Price the
businessman and mentor.
W.A. was born on August 23, 1925 to Bascom Lee and Rosa Cawthorn Price. He was their first child and
very much loved by his paternal grandfather, Robert Lee Price with whom the family made their home.
W.A. moved, with his parents, from the Price family farm to Farmville, Virginia where his father started a
business with a friend. W.A. was not happy being away from the farm but made friends and attended
school until graduation from Farmville High School. He knew that being a painter was not for him and he
decided to become educated in Mechanical Engineering. The plan was to attend The College of William
& Mary for two years and then transfer to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his
engineering. This educational process was interrupted by World War II. After a year and a half of a work
study program at William & Mary, where he went to school and also worked at the Naval Weapons
Station at Yorktown, Virginia, he volunteered in the Army Air Corps. He felt sure that he would be drafted
and did not want to be in the infantry. His hope was to become a pilot but it was not to be so he decided
to try to be a radio man. This turned out to be a good fit. He had to attend electronics school and learn
Moss code, but has never forgotten the experiences.
When discharged from the Army W.A. came home to Farmville, Virginia, the heart of the Dark fired
tobacco belt and a very rural part of Virginia. His parents thought he would go back to school on a GI Bill
and finish the ME degree that he had begun before the war. That was not his decision. He went to work
for Farmville Manufacturing Co. as their appliance service man. While in this job a representative of
General Electric came to see him and made an offer which he took. They gave him a GE franchise if he
would move out of Farmville to another location and stat a business. He went 20 miles west to Pamplin,
Virginia and started his business. He opened his business in 1951. The business and showroom was
only one room in the end of Tolley”s Store and service station. W. A. sold and serviced GE appliances
but he did much more. He gave people a way to update their homes and get the things they wanted after
the long Depression and WW II.
W.A. made sure that people in the area, who had come through a very hard time without electricity or
water in their homes, could have those things. He set out to make it possible. He wired houses and put
in pumps and water systems so that people could have washing machines, refrigerators and other things.
He also made sure that brooder houses had electricity to keep chickens warm when the temperatures
were below freezing. He knew only too well how hard it was to not have these helpful conveniences that
are considered necessities today.
Some of the things that made his business work were that he knew what the people needed and wanted.
He was not only there to sell but also to service what he sold. This was very important to the people he
was serving. He knew “his” people and what they wanted and needed. He also knew they were very
honest hard working people who were self-sufficient yet did not have much extra money for things that
were not necessities for their homes and farms. He helped them get these things by treating them as he
would like to be treated and helping them work out a way to pay for their needed items. Since my
retirement I have been back in the Farmville area for 12 years. I cannot count the number of people who
have told me that W.A. made it possible for them to get the appliances that they needed when no one
else would have done it for them. They continued by saying that they would not buy from anyone else.
They also talk about the fact that he gave such good service to “his customers”, and gave sound advice
toward making good choices when making a purchase. They simply liked and trusted him.
MS1375
W. A. Price Co. moved to Farmville in September, 1954 and opened in a building across the street from
Taylor Manufacturing Co. He also opened a radio and TV department as part of the business and his
radio and TV person was Forest Mason a longtime friend. This new place had a show room that was
much larger that before and was near town so now a person was needed to cover things while W.A. was
out doing service. His wife became bookkeeper and sales person. W.A. Price Co. also expanded its
business in 1957 by advertising something that was called carload sales. This became a very popular
advertising slogan for the business and was very profitable also. He also bought the Kilcare Laundry
building across the street and turned into Price Supply which supplemented the appliance and TV
business with other equipment for water systems and heating and air conditioning systems. Another part
of the business was the property development. This included apartment houses and a complex, building
of houses, and property development. It took manpower to do these things so he used his knowledge of
people to enlarge the workforce. His philosophy was “if a business does not continue to grow it will not
last.”
With growth of a company comes the need for a reliable workforce. W. A. took on young men who
needed jobs and taught them the service business. He encouraged them to get an education. Several tell
the story of his buying new but damaged appliances and having the guys tear them apart to learn the
equipment and how it worked. They saved all the parts as spare parts for future use. He also used the
older experienced men he knew to help the young men do the things that his own experience lacked in
strength. There are many such stories of very useful techniques that went into making W.A. Price
Company a thriving growing business for over 25 years.
In 1978 W.A. decided to begin the process of getting out of his business. He wanted to have time to
enjoy the rewards of what had been a labor of love but a very demanding one. He did not want to do
what so many men he had known had done. He did not want to work until he was too tired and too old to
enjoy the rewards of his hard work. He seen it happen to his father and many other men he had known.
So he sold the appliance and television business to Bill Poulston and later Price Supply to Charles
Wilkerson both of whom had worked for him in the business. He stayed on as consultant for a number of
years to help them get their feet on the ground. These two businesses are still operating in Farmville
some 30 years later. There have been major changes in the world of business and in the electronics
business. The owners have had to change with the times. All in all W. A. Price started a business that
has continued to operate for 60 plus years. I think he would say that it has been a success.
W.A. moved to Florida in 1990 where he now lives with his second wife Peggy. He says “she is smart
and beautiful and she makes me happy”. He has not stopped being a business man. He still gets up
every day and reviews the stock market. He researches and learns about businesses in which he
invests. He has never stopped learning about business. He also talks to anyone who is interested in how
to invest to make their money grow. He even teaches some classes to friends and acquaintances about
investing. He says that he would not have had to work so hard if he had known how to invest earlier in his
life. He may not go to and office but he and his wife work every day to keep their assets liquid and
growing. I can honestly say that he is a brother for whom I am very grateful and from whom I have
learned all my life. He has been my friend, my protector of sorts, and my mentor. How can one ask for
more…?
MS1375
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA 24501
(434) 846-0501
PRICE FAMILY RESEARCH COLLECTION
The collection includes family genealogical charts, correspondence and notes on the Price and
allied families from the genealogical research of Wilfred Ashby Price. The majority of the
correspondence is with Vina C. Price, CG, compiler of Ancestors and Descendants of John
Price, Immigrant to Virginia 1610-1611, 1988. Also included in the collection are several
miscellaneous publications by Price family members.
BOX 1
1–1
1–2
1–3
1–4
1–5
1–6
1-7
1-8
1-9
1-10
1-11
1-12
1-13
1-14
1-15
1-16
1-17
1-18
1-19
1-20
1-21
1-22
1-23
BOX 2
2–1
2–2
2–3
2–4
2–5
2–6
W.A. Price Family History
John Price/Ann Dejarnette – Essex County (Cumberland Prices)
Thomas Price/Dolly Vick line
James M. Price – Gordon Price line
William Price/Susannah Burton (Deeds and will)
Charles Price II line
William Price/Mary Morton (M.C. Senyard information)
William Henry Price/Betty Orange (Milton Price)
Richard W. Price, “Woodlawn,” Prospect, Va.
James W. Price family (Buckingham, Va.)
Price information (Miss Elizabeth Page)
John Price/Nancy-- “Fort Hill”
Hardin Perkins/Sarah Price
Pugh Price deeds to Pugh Price, Jr. (Prince Edward Co.)
Alex P. Price family – Miscellaneous documents
Jerusha Penick Price family (Prince Edward Co.)
Charles Price/Ann Haskins/Betsy Fowlkes Van Amburg – Marriage bonds,
Court orders
William Baldwin
John Fowlkes will (1794) (Nottoway Co.)
William Carwile/Martha Hubbard (W.A. Price line)
Vaughan/Mottley information
Williamson
Draft of Chapter one (incomplete) – A John Price Dynasty in America
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – ancestor charts
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Price book
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Daniel Price line
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Daniel Price (Henrico, Lunenburg, SC)
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Charlotte Co. Prices
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Cumberland Co. Prices
(Continued)
MS1375
PRICE FAMILY RESEARCH COLLECTION, Cont’d.
BOX 2
BOX 3
2–7
2-8
2-9
2-10
2-11
2-12
2-13
2-14
2-15
2-16
2-17
2-18
2-19
2-20
2-21
2-22
2-23
2-24
2-25
2-26
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Essex Co. Prices
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Goochland Co. Prices
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Middlesex Co. Prices
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Prince Edward Co. deeds, Edmond Price
Correspondence – Vina C. Price – Westmoreland Co. Prices
Joseph Dupuy Eggleston (1867-1953)
Eggleston Papers – DAR & Colonial Dames verified – John Price I,II,III
Eggleston Papers – John Price line
Eggleston Papers – John Price I, II, III, Daniel Price
Eggleston Papers – Joseph Price (Cumberland Co., Va.)
Eggleston Papers – William Price line
Eggleston Papers – Fowlkes family (Nottoway & Prince Edward counties)
Eggleston Papers – Pugh family line
Charts 1-10
Charts 11-15
Charts 16-20
Charts 21-26
Charts (copies and master)
Charts 11-15 (copies and master)
Charts 16-25 (copies and master)
3-1
3-2
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
3-7
3-8
3-9
3-10
3-11
3-12
DAR application – Martha Cantley Hoffman (Judith Price, Jerusha Price)
DAR application – Garlin Hill Kellison (Charles Price line)
DAR application – Frances Harrison Price Miller (Charles Price line)
DAR application – Bennye Ingram Underwood (Charles Price line)
Miscellaneous correspondence
Correspondence – Liz Gordon (Kansas City)
Correspondence – Janie Price (Daniel Price, Lunenburg Co.)
Correspondence – Richard W. Price (W.A. Price line)
Correspondence – Dr. Robert R. Price (Stillwater, OK) (Pugh Price, Jr.)
Correspondence – Kyle Price (J.N., Josiah, James T. Price line)
Correspondence – Dorothy Rhumann (Price line)
Correspondence – Mildred Royal (DAR, Jeanette Hampton, Richard
Fulcher, T.J. Fulcher
Correspondence – Rice Price, Thomas Price (Lunenburg, Charlotte,
Pittsylvania counties) (Dolly Vick line)
Correspondence – Mrs. Robert Scruggs Carruth (Pugh Price line)
Correspondence – Mrs. Glenn Heinlen (Price corrections)
Correspondence – Charles Gilliam (Gilliam line and Woodson)
Correspondence – Larry Price
Correspondence – Alice DeRossitt (Prices of America)
3-13
3-14
3-15
3-16
3-17
3-18
(Continued)
MS1375
PRICE FAMILY RESEARCH COLLECTION, Cont’d.
BOX 3
3-19 Correspondence – Mary Frances Price Senyard (Our Prices: from Wales
to Arkansas) 1982
3-20 Correspondence – Jane Mallen (Pugh Price, Jr.)
BOX 4
4-1
4-2
4-3
4-4
4-5
4-6
4-7
Price notebook No. 1
Price notebook No. 2
Price notebook No. 3
Map (Prince Edward County) (1820)
Robert R. Price, Vistas, Vicissitudes and Vignettes: 375 years of a
John Price lineage in America: Interval four on the banks of the Buffalo
1690-1820, 1987
Julian and Edwina Covington, Tobacco Rows in Prince Edward County,
2006
Herbert Clarence Bradshaw, History of Prince Edward County, Virginia:
From its earliest settlements through its establishment in 1754 to its
bicentennial year, 1955 (1 volume in two parts)
MS1375
JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA 24501
(434) 846-0501
WILFRED ASHBY PRICE, 1925Wilfred Ashby Price, son of Bascom Lee Price and Rosa B. Cawthorn, was born 23
August 1925 in Prince Edward County, Virginia. He graduated from Farmville High School and
attended the College of William and Mary. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a
radio operator in B-24 bombers. After being discharged, he worked for the Farmville
Manufacturing Company. He opened an appliance dealership in Pamplin, Va. In 1954, he
moved the business to Farmville where he operated W.A. Price Company and Price Supply
Company until retirement. After retirement, he spent a number of years researching the Price
family and contributed to the book, Ancestors and Descendants of John Price, Immigrant to
Virginia 1610-11, by Vina Chandler Price, published in 1988. He moved to Boca Raton, Florida
in 1991 where he still resides.
[Price, Wilfred Ashby Price, Price Family Research Collection, MS1375, Jones Memorial Library,
Lynchburg, Va.; Prince Edward County Heritage Book Committee, Prince Edward County Virginia
Heritage 1754-2008, p. 231.]
MS1375
JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA 24501
(434) 846-0501
PRICE FAMILY RESEARCH COLLECTION
The collection includes family genealogical charts, correspondence and notes on the Price and
allied families from the genealogical research of Wilfred Ashby Price. The majority of the
correspondence is with Vina C. Price, CG, compiler of Ancestors and Descendants of John
Price, Immigrant to Virginia 1610-1611, 1988. Also included in the collection are several
miscellaneous publications by Price family members.
[Detailed finding guide available with collection.]
MS1375
Wilfred Ashby Price
“W.A.”
The Career and the Man
First let me say that this is the story of a man and his career in the business world but it is also the
remembrances from his sister and admirer. Thus you must take into allowance that though factual the
story make be a somewhat biased. With that said I will try to give you a picture of W. A. Price the
businessman and mentor.
W.A. was born on August 23, 1925 to Bascom Lee and Rosa Cawthorn Price. He was their first child and
very much loved by his paternal grandfather, Robert Lee Price with whom the family made their home.
W.A. moved, with his parents, from the Price family farm to Farmville, Virginia where his father started a
business with a friend. W.A. was not happy being away from the farm but made friends and attended
school until graduation from Farmville High School. He knew that being a painter was not for him and he
decided to become educated in Mechanical Engineering. The plan was to attend The College of William
& Mary for two years and then transfer to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his
engineering. This educational process was interrupted by World War II. After a year and a half of a work
study program at William & Mary, where he went to school and also worked at the Naval Weapons
Station at Yorktown, Virginia, he volunteered in the Army Air Corps. He felt sure that he would be drafted
and did not want to be in the infantry. His hope was to become a pilot but it was not to be so he decided
to try to be a radio man. This turned out to be a good fit. He had to attend electronics school and learn
Moss code, but has never forgotten the experiences.
When discharged from the Army W.A. came home to Farmville, Virginia, the heart of the Dark fired
tobacco belt and a very rural part of Virginia. His parents thought he would go back to school on a GI Bill
and finish the ME degree that he had begun before the war. That was not his decision. He went to work
for Farmville Manufacturing Co. as their appliance service man. While in this job a representative of
General Electric came to see him and made an offer which he took. They gave him a GE franchise if he
would move out of Farmville to another location and stat a business. He went 20 miles west to Pamplin,
Virginia and started his business. He opened his business in 1951. The business and showroom was
only one room in the end of Tolley”s Store and service station. W. A. sold and serviced GE appliances
but he did much more. He gave people a way to update their homes and get the things they wanted after
the long Depression and WW II.
W.A. made sure that people in the area, who had come through a very hard time without electricity or
water in their homes, could have those things. He set out to make it possible. He wired houses and put
in pumps and water systems so that people could have washing machines, refrigerators and other things.
He also made sure that brooder houses had electricity to keep chickens warm when the temperatures
were below freezing. He knew only too well how hard it was to not have these helpful conveniences that
are considered necessities today.
Some of the things that made his business work were that he knew what the people needed and wanted.
He was not only there to sell but also to service what he sold. This was very important to the people he
was serving. He knew “his” people and what they wanted and needed. He also knew they were very
honest hard working people who were self-sufficient yet did not have much extra money for things that
were not necessities for their homes and farms. He helped them get these things by treating them as he
would like to be treated and helping them work out a way to pay for their needed items. Since my
retirement I have been back in the Farmville area for 12 years. I cannot count the number of people who
have told me that W.A. made it possible for them to get the appliances that they needed when no one
else would have done it for them. They continued by saying that they would not buy from anyone else.
They also talk about the fact that he gave such good service to “his customers”, and gave sound advice
toward making good choices when making a purchase. They simply liked and trusted him.
MS1375
W. A. Price Co. moved to Farmville in September, 1954 and opened in a building across the street from
Taylor Manufacturing Co. He also opened a radio and TV department as part of the business and his
radio and TV person was Forest Mason a longtime friend. This new place had a show room that was
much larger that before and was near town so now a person was needed to cover things while W.A. was
out doing service. His wife became bookkeeper and sales person. W.A. Price Co. also expanded its
business in 1957 by advertising something that was called carload sales. This became a very popular
advertising slogan for the business and was very profitable also. He also bought the Kilcare Laundry
building across the street and turned into Price Supply which supplemented the appliance and TV
business with other equipment for water systems and heating and air conditioning systems. Another part
of the business was the property development. This included apartment houses and a complex, building
of houses, and property development. It took manpower to do these things so he used his knowledge of
people to enlarge the workforce. His philosophy was “if a business does not continue to grow it will not
last.”
With growth of a company comes the need for a reliable workforce. W. A. took on young men who
needed jobs and taught them the service business. He encouraged them to get an education. Several tell
the story of his buying new but damaged appliances and having the guys tear them apart to learn the
equipment and how it worked. They saved all the parts as spare parts for future use. He also used the
older experienced men he knew to help the young men do the things that his own experience lacked in
strength. There are many such stories of very useful techniques that went into making W.A. Price
Company a thriving growing business for over 25 years.
In 1978 W.A. decided to begin the process of getting out of his business. He wanted to have time to
enjoy the rewards of what had been a labor of love but a very demanding one. He did not want to do
what so many men he had known had done. He did not want to work until he was too tired and too old to
enjoy the rewards of his hard work. He seen it happen to his father and many other men he had known.
So he sold the appliance and television business to Bill Poulston and later Price Supply to Charles
Wilkerson both of whom had worked for him in the business. He stayed on as consultant for a number of
years to help them get their feet on the ground. These two businesses are still operating in Farmville
some 30 years later. There have been major changes in the world of business and in the electronics
business. The owners have had to change with the times. All in all W. A. Price started a business that
has continued to operate for 60 plus years. I think he would say that it has been a success.
W.A. moved to Florida in 1990 where he now lives with his second wife Peggy. He says “she is smart
and beautiful and she makes me happy”. He has not stopped being a business man. He still gets up
every day and reviews the stock market. He researches and learns about businesses in which he
invests. He has never stopped learning about business. He also talks to anyone who is interested in how
to invest to make their money grow. He even teaches some classes to friends and acquaintances about
investing. He says that he would not have had to work so hard if he had known how to invest earlier in his
life. He may not go to and office but he and his wife work every day to keep their assets liquid and
growing. I can honestly say that he is a brother for whom I am very grateful and from whom I have
learned all my life. He has been my friend, my protector of sorts, and my mentor. How can one ask for
more…?
MS1375
Dublin Core
Title
Finding Aid to the Price Family Research Collection
Subject
Finding aids
Price, Wilfred Ashby
Description
Finding aid to the Price Family Research Collection held at Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia. The collection includes charts, correspondence, notes, and research on the Price and allied families.
Creator
George M. Jones Memorial Library (Lynchburg, Va.)
Publisher
George M. Jones Memorial Library (Lynchburg, Va.)
Date
2023
Rights
George M. Jones Memorial Library (Lynchburg, Va.)
Format
pdf
Language
English
Identifier
MS1375FA
Collection
Citation
George M. Jones Memorial Library (Lynchburg, Va.), “Finding Aid to the Price Family Research Collection,” Digital Collections, accessed April 27, 2024, https://digitaljones.omeka.net/items/show/436.