Taken from "History of Pocahontas County, West Virginig 1981"
Copyright 1981: Pocahontas Historical Society, Inc.

Calvin W. Price

Calvin Wells Price, youngest son of Rev. William Thomas and Anna Louise Randolph Price, was born November 22, 1980, in Mount Clinton, Virginia, and came to Pocahontas County, West Virginia,  when he was five.  His middle name came from the pastor of his mother’s church in Brooklyn.  He was taught by his parents, went to local schools and a private military school located on Main Street in Marlinton.  At sixteen he went to work with his brothers on the Pocahontas Times to wait his turn to go to college;  when that time came he was established as editor and ready to get married.

 On May 22, 1906, he married Mabel Elizabeth Milligan, born in Staunton, Virginia, March 23, 1886, the daughter of John Whitfield and Florence Lockridge Milligan.  She was educated at Female Seminary in Buena Vista, Virginia, and taught a short time before her marriage.  She had a trained voice and directed the choir at the Marlinton Presbyterian Church for many years, sang at many funerals.  A charter member of the Marlinton Woman’s Club, she was active in their community work and plays.  She was an excellent cook and her husband enjoyed eating.  They always raised gardens with a wide variety of vegetables and had many different kinds of fruit.

 The prices had five children:  Calvin Thomas, the third child, died December 18, 1919, at the age of 8; his was the first grave in the Price lot at the then new Mountain View Cemetery; he had congenital heart disease but was a wellgrown boy; his father carried him on his shoulders;  Elizabeth (Betsy) married John Branch Green;  Florence Randolph married Isaac McNeel;  Ann Lockridge married James Douglas Hubard;  Jane Stobo married Basil C. Sharp.  They built their home 1118 Second Avenue in 1906 on the site of a Poage home.

 Calvin Price became sole owner of the Pocahontas Times in 1905 and was editor until his death from a heart attack on June 14, 1957.  He served many years as a Deacon and Elder and Sunday School teacher in the Marlinton Presbyterian Church and “held up the hands of the ministers;”  was first Scout Master in Marlinton;  member of the Volunteer Fire Department for many years, second fire chief;  member Board of Education;  member Kiwanis Club in 20’s and later charter member of Marlinton Lions Club;  Farm Bureau and Farming for Better Living;  president of West Virginia Editorial Association;  was elected to West Virginia Journalism Hall of Fame.  He was widely known as a conservationist, was an early officer of the National Wildlife Federation, had hunted and fished since early boyhood, walking to Tea Creek on fishing trips;  was a naturalist of the first order and famous for his “Field Notes,” and panther and bear tales.  He was an active Democrat.

 He was honored in 1954 by the naming of the Calvin W. Price State Forest, as he said “receiving his tombstone before he died.”  This 9482 acre forest lies in southeast Pocahontas and northern Greenbrier.  Also a Civilian Conservation Camp, Camp Price, on Droop, was named for him in the 30’s.

 An open lodge building at Buckskin Scout Reservation at Dilley’s Mill bears his name, with a bronze tablet set in native marble nearby.

 In 1939 he was selected by the president of the National Editorial Association as the typical country editor to appear on “We the People” radio show in New York, with a typical city editor of New York.

 Although he hadn’t had a formal college education, he was highly intelligent, had an exceptionally keen memory, and was widely read.  In 1942, he was awarded the honorary Doctor of Laws degree by West Virginia University.

 He knew much history of the County and its people and spoke often on family history for family reunions.  He traveled widely as an after dinner speaker.

 His extensive Indian artifact collection was the result of a sharp eye for arrowheads in plowed fields, plus neighborhood boys earned spending money with arrowheads.

 He never learned to drive a car - said he could look around while driving a buggy but not a car.  He walked much - to Buckeye to hold Sunday School on Sunday afternoons, regularly to his beloved Jericho farmland;  when he had a log cottage at Minnehaha Springs, built in connection with the development at Allegheny Clubhouse, he would walk the ten miles to town to work while the family stayed there.

 Mrs. Price died February 27, 1967, in Staunton, and is buried beside her husband and son in Mountain View Cemetery.