Collection is open for research.
Permission to publish material from Price Family Collection must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Price Family Collection, MS.2012.047, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
Materials in the Price Family Collection were purchased by Special Collections in August 2012.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Price Family Collection was completed in September 2012.
The Price family arrived in Southwest Virginia from Germany in the 1740s. Samuel Winston Price was born September 14, 1871 to James Bane Price and Sarah Winston Price. Samuel married Della Hickman of Hickman, Virginia, in 1897. The couple had five children: Ferdinand, Theodore Roosevelt, Julia Winston, Florence Alma, and Helen Elizabeth. Samuel inherited Price's General Store after his father's death and leased it to others. According to the letters he received, he was a practicing attorney in Price's Fork Virginia. Samuel had health problems that lead him to be hospitalized at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for a time in 1899. These health problems continued to plague him until his death in 1911. Sources:
Price, H. L.,
The Price Family Collection includes letters, photograph albums, receipts, and other ephemera. The collection is divided into three series. Series I: Correspondence, includes letters to Samuel Winston Price primarily from his wife Della Hickman-Price, a few from his mother and business colleagues. The letters from Della begin in 1894 and serve as a record of her flirtations and courtship with Mr. Price until they were married in 1897. Letters after 1897 are from Della to Sam during their marriage. She discusses their children in some, but mostly they chronicle her everyday life while she is out of town away from her husband. In 1899, Samuel Price stayed in Johns Hopkins Hospital for some time. Though it is unclear why he was in the hospital, letters from Della and his Mother express love and concern for Sam.
Series II: Photographs and Artifacts, contains two photograph albums. The large, blue album contains pictures of members of the Price and Hickman families and appear to be from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The second album is a smaller, brown volume that appears to be from the same time period but with vague persons pictured. Included is also a small tobacco pouch from the 19th century.
Series III: Ephemera, contains receipts, ticket stubs, and medical bills of various members from the Price family from 1840-1903.
The collection is arranged in three series. Series I: Correspondence is arranged in chronological order. Series II: Photographs is in its original order in two albums. Series III: Ephemera is arranged by material type.
The correspondence is primarily from Della Hickman-Price to Samuel Winston Price during their courtship and after their marriage. There are also some letters to Samuel W. Price from his mother, and one in particular that he wrote to Della.
Folder contains reciepts, tax records, medical bills, and letters stating transactions for Price Family Members.