History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon. Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon

MR. AND MRS. STEPHAN PRICE                  D.M.C.                      1878

     Stephan Price was born in Blooming Grove, Indiana, November 5, 1823. He came to the Pacific Coast in 1853 by way of the Isthmus, bringing with him a large chest of tools. He was a carpenter and millwright and erected a gristmill in Silverton for Smith & Barger in 1854. The town of Silverton was built on the donation land claim of Thomas L. Coon, a pioneer of 1851, who died in January 1854.
     On September 27, 1855 Mr. Price was married to Mrs. Polly L. Coon, widow of Thomas L. Coon. She was a native of Alfred Center, N.Y., her maiden name being Polly Lavinia Crandall. She was a descendent of John Crandall who was closely associated with Roger Williams in the settlement and development and struggle for more religious freedom in Rhode Island. The Crandall family moved to Wisconsin about the year 1842. Paul Crandall, the father, was educated in Boston, Mass. He possessed natural ability and became a man of prominence in Wis. He was a member of the second Constitutional Convention of that state which met in 1847 and a sketch of his life appears in the book called "Fathers of Wisconsin". He served in the state assembly which met in 1849. In 1852 he crossed the plains to Oregon settling near Silverton.
     Polly, his eldest child, was married in Wisconsin Jan. 1, 1845 to Thomas Lewis Coon. A daughter, Cornelia Evalyn, was born in March 1846. Mrs. Coon and daughter Cornelia, accompanied her father's family across the plains in 1852 and joined her husband on their homestead where she lived until his death. (1-10-1854) She then went to her father's home where her son Thomas R. was born March 4, 1854.
     Thomas L. Coon had been the teacher in Silverton before his sickness and the following year his widow, leaving her infant son with her mother, took up the duties of teacher, but returned to her homestead at the close of school.
     After their marriage Mr. Price erected a handsome frame building on their homestead which they occupied for several years.
     Eugene Crandall Price was born at Silverton Aug. 10, 1856. In January 1863, the family moved to Salem for the purpose of giving Cornelia better school opportunities. Here Mr. Price found work at his trade. He was working on Robert Kinney's big mill when Mr. Stover, one of the workmen, fell from the roof to the rocks in Mill Creek a distance of eighty four feet. Soon after their arrival in Salem Mrs. Price was offered a position in the Salem Public Schools which she accepted, teaching at the "Old Central" for many years then later in the East Salem Primary. In 1871 they traded their home in Salem for a farm on the Duwamish river six miles south of Seattle.
     Their nearest school was at Seattle and they did not like the farm so soon sold it and came back to Oregon in search of a location in the early spring of 1872. Mr. Price traveled all through the Willamette Valley trying to find the right place, then he went to Hood River and was pleased with what he saw but did not think it was a farming country, as it was too dry. He finally bought ten acres on the base line road two and one half miles east of the Stark Street Ferry. He bought it of Mr. Sheffield and paid $3,200,00 for it.
     It was planted to strawberries and other small fruits and there were a great many other people in the same business; the population of Portland at that time did not exceed fifteen thousand, and the returns were too low to pay expenses; as a result Mr. Price worked in Portland at his trade and Mrs. Price soon entered the Portland Schools as a teacher. The farm was for sale, the panic of 1873 caused a fall in the price of real estate and it brought only $1,800.
     In 1878 Mr. Price bought one hundred and sixty acres from the state, paying for it at the rate of $1.25. This land was located on the West bank of Hood River and South of Indian Creek. Mr. Price built a small three room house, put a hydraulic ram in the spring below and pumped water to the house. He cleared land and set out an orchard but the climate was too dry to make farming profitable. He sold the farm in the summer of 1883, to a minister by the name of Robertson who never moved to the place. After keeping the place several years Mr. Robertson sold it to Dr. T.L. Eliot who has kept it in a "state of nature" thus preserving a little corner of Hood River in all its primitive wildness.
     Mr. and Mrs. Price moved to Portland from Hood River, where they bought a lot on Williams Avenue and built a neat little home.
     During the first winter he was taken with pneumonia, this was followed by complications which left him a chronic invalid, and finally, in April 1889, on the advice of his physician, he returned to Hood River hoping the change might prove beneficial. To the surprise of everyone he improved rapidly and enjoyed comparatively good health for several years. He died on September 25, 1896 and was buried in the Idlewilde Cemetery, the I.O.O.F. conducting the exercises at the grave. Mr. Price was a charter member of the Salem lodge of that organization.
     On October 22, 1898, Mrs. Price passed away and was laid to rest by his side. An obituary notice from one of the state papers says: "In the death of Mrs. Polly Price one of the brightest and most intelligent of Oregon's pioneer women passes away. She was a most lovable woman and well known throughout the state. Many of those who knew her in her younger days will drop a tear to her memory when they read of her death." Another notice read: "As a pioneer woman of Oregon, Mrs. Price was ever active in all good works. Hundreds of grown up children will remember her earnest work as teacher in Salem, Portland and The Dalles. Hers was a life well spent, given for the good of others."

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