User:McBrayn/History of NGCSU

William Pierce Price (January 29, 1835 - November 4, 1908) was a politician that served in the U.S. Representative. Price was born in Dahlonega, Georgia just 2 years after the town's founding.

Early life and education
Price's father, William Pierce Price Sr., was a solider who came to the area to aid with the Cherokee removal. Price senior also served as Dahlonega's first marshall. Although his father died when he was 3 years old Price Jr. was able to attend the common schools and when he reached the age of 10 was apprenticed to learn the printer's trade at The Dahlonega Times for a period of 5 yeras. In 1851, around the age of 16 he moved with his younger brother James to Greenville, South Carolina. By 19 he and his brother were joined by their elder brother Thomas. The trio bought a printing press and began publishing the Southern Enterprise. Eventually Price was able to attended Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, but left before graduating. While in school and also through private instruction Price studied law. He was admitted to the bar on January 29th 1856 and commenced practice in Greenville, South Carolina.

Political career
During the Civil War Price served in the Confederate States Army as orderly sergeant in Kershaw's Second South Carolina Regiment. He was elected and served as member of the South Carolina House of Representatives 1864-1866. In 1866 he moved back to his birthplace of Dahlonega, Georgia. Two years later in 1868 he served as member of the Georgia House of Representatives until 1870.

His next appointment as a Democrat to the Forty-first Congress to fill the vacancy caused by failure to elect. He was reelected to the Forty-second Congress and served from December 22, 1870, to March 3, 1873. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1872. He was again a member of the State house of representatives 1877-1879, of the State senate in 1880 and 1881, and of the State house of representatives in 1894 and 1895. He served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880.

Other work
Price was instrumental in the establishment of what was then North Georgia Agricultural College, now called North Georgia College and State University, of which he served as president of the board of trustees from 1870 until his death in 1908. He sponsored a bill to donate the former Dahlonega Mint for use of the college. Price also donated vasts amount of time and money to start the school and to rebuild the mint building after it burned in 1878. Later in life he also served as chairman of the Board of Education for Lumpkin County where he oversaw the building of over 30 one-room school houses to serve the community.

He died on November 4, 1908 in Dahlonega and is interred in Mt. Hope Cemetery. The iconic Price Memorial Hall with its gold tipped spear is named in his honor. Charter Member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Georgia Delta Chapter, North Georgia Agricultural College, Dahlonega, GA Sept. 29th 1879.