Anchorage 1910 - 1940 Legends & Legacies

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Price, Thomas C. "Tom"

1874-1944 | Plumber and Attorney, and U.S. Commissioner from Anchorage

Thomas "Tom" Price was one of Anchorage’s most influential pioneers. A plumber by trade and, later, an attorney, he had come to Alaska in 1894 in search of gold. He was among the “courageous and adventurous men and women” who called Anchorage home and envisioned a bright, new future for the town after its founding in 1915.1 He represented the Third Division at Anchorage in both houses of the territorial legislature from 1917 to 1925. He organized Anchorage’s first fire fighting force before the town was incorporated in 1920, and was probably the first fire chief. He was one of the individuals who kept Anchorage going when construction on the Alaska Railroad was finished in 1923. But he is especially remembered for his energy in keeping the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce alive in its earliest years.

Montana to Alaska

Thomas Cyrus Price was born on April 14, 1874, to John W. Price and Orline Evans Price in Grizzly Gulch, near Helena, Montana.2 His father was a miner. Tom’s early education was in Butte, Montana. 

In 1887, the Price family moved from Montana to the Pacific coast, settling in Portland, Oregon.  There, Thomas "Tom" Price learned the plumbers’ and sheet metal trade.  He then worked as a plumber or tinner in Portland and in towns in Washington State.3

In 1893, Thomas "Tom" Price first came to Alaska, locating at Loring. He joined with his brothers to prospect for gold in the Portland Canal Country, at Unick River, in southeastern Alaska. During the fall of 1894, he left to join his parents in Juneau where they had moved that same year.

In 1894, Thomas "Tom" Price opened a tin shop, under the firm name, T.C. Price, Tinner and Sheet Iron Worker.4 According to advertisements that appeared in the Alaska Searchlight (Juneau) in January 1895, he did jobbing and repairing in sheet metal and iron at his shop on the water front.5 Thomas "Tom" Price was in the plumbing business in Juneau from 1895 until 1904 under the firm name, Price Bros.6 Their shop was located on the present Baranof Hotel site.7 According to Alaska Magazine, he made one trip to Dawson, Yukon Territory, during the Klondike gold rush.8

Price had four brothers and one sister, who settled in the Price Homestead, near Juneau. He and his brothers for years owned the Salmon Creek power rights until they lapsed and were bought by the Alaska-Gastineau Mining Company.9 He served as a Juneau city council member10 and was chief of the Juneau Fire Department.11

In Juneau, Thomas "Tom" Price met Lois Isabelle Evans, a young college student who was visiting Alaska on a vacation from her school in Washington State. On June 21, 1894, they were married in Juneau. The couple had one daughter, Lois Ethel Price, who was born in Arlington, Washington in May 1900. 12

While working during the day in the plumbing business supporting his father’s family of seven as well as his wife, Tom studied law through correspondence courses. He continued his law studies under several prominent attorneys, including Ren Crews of Juneau, who was considered “one of the finest trial lawyers in Alaska.”13

In 1909, Price moved to Cordova during the construction period of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway, a 196-mile railroad built by the Kennecott Corporation between 1907 and 1911 to take copper ore from Kennecott to Cordova. Price held similar posts, operating a sheet metal business and working at his trade as a plumber. He served on the Cordova City Council14 and was the city’s fire chief.15 Price continued to study law after moving to Cordova, this time under Edward J. Medley. In 1915, he passed his bar examination in Valdez and was admitted to practice law in the Third Judicial Division. Shortly afterwards, he moved his family to Anchorage to set up a law practice while continuing to work as a plumber.

Anchorage

Price was one of the first settlers to arrive in Anchorage in 1915. He opened a plumbing business on Fifth Avenue with H.C. Bennett under the firm name, Price and Bennett.16  It appears that the two partners were in the plumbing business until their partnership was dissolved around 1923 or 1924.17

According to Alaska Magazine, Price “organized the first fire fighting force in Anchorage and was its first fire chief.”18 From 1915 to 1920, the Alaskan Engineering Commission (AEC), the federal agency in charge of construction of the Alaska Railroad, had to assume responsibility for townsite matters. The AEC provided basic necessities, including fire protection, water, light, and sewer, and ran the city until it was incorporated and assumed its own government on November 23, 1920.19 It appears that Price served as fire chief sometime between the period of 1915 and November 28, 1918, when G.H. Ross was appointed to the position.20

Price established a law practice, with an office located in the Reed Building (614 West Fourth Avenue).21 Price, a Democrat, served in the territorial House of Representatives from 1917 to 1919, and 1923 to 1925. He served in the territorial Senate from 1919 to 1923.22

In 1935, Price was appointed as U.S. Commissioner for the Third Judicial Division at Anchorage, a position which he held until his death in 1944. Designated as ex officio justices of the peace, U.S. Commissioners handled all lower court functions.23 In this capacity, Price served as Anchorage’s U.S. Commissioner, coroner, and recorder.24 Most commissioners were attorneys who carried out these judicial responsibilities while continuing their own practice.

In his obituary, the Anchorage Daily Times gave this description of Price's personality and character as U.S. Commissioner: "The struggles of his early days were reflected in the tolerant yet judicial method in which he handled hearings as local commissioner. He knew how to be tough with repeated offenders but when some dirt-grimed lad of 12 appeared before him, the juvenile law breaker would usually be sent home, not instilled with a hatred of the law, but rather with the desire not to misplace the gray-haired judge’s confidence in him."25

Active in civic affairs, Price was president of many civic clubs. He was a charter member and Exalted Ruler of the Elks (Anchorage). Price held memberships in the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, Masons, Moose, Pioneers of Alaska (charter member, Igloo No. 15), and Redmen. He served four terms as president of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. Local historian Evangeline Atwood said: “Probably no one individual exerted more energy in keeping the Chamber of Commerce alive through its earliest years. At times there would be but a handful of stalwart souls still interested, but he would fire them with such visions of Anchorage’s potential that they would go out and spread the gospel among their business associates.”26

Later Years

In 1935, Thomas "Tom" and Lois Price purchased the former homestead property of Victor Carlson near Otter Lake, within the area that would become Fort Richardson. The land was used for recreational purposes as the Prices probably had another residence in town. The Prices were sued by the federal government in 1941, when it stepped in to buy all the land that had been set aside for military purposes. The final judgment was in favor of the plaintiff, with the Prices receiving $2,500 for the land.27

Thomas Cyrus Price died on August 20, 1944, at the age of seventy, while sitting in his favorite easy chair, after suffering a stroke. He is buried in the family plot in the Masonic area of the City Cemetery in Seward, Alaska.28

In 1945, his widow moved to Bothell, Washington to be near her daughter, Lois Ethel Price (Mrs. A.D. Haverstock), who lived in Seattle. Lois Isabelle Evans Price died on May 12, 1964. Her remains are interred at Acadia Memorial Park Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.29

Price Street in Mountain View was named in Thomas Price’s honor.30

Click an image to see more

1924 Officers of the Elks Club, which with the Masons, Shriners, Moose, and Pioneers, were important fraternal organizations in Anchorage. Social events sponsored by these organizations were major events for a community that had to provide much of its own entertainment. Thomas Price was active in several of these groups, and stands in the back row, fourth from the left, with his hands on the back of the bench in front of him.
Thomas Price’s law office, ca. 1940. Hazel Seaburg was his clerical employee.
Thomas Price stands fourth from the left, next to author Rex Beach, along with several Anchorage notables including Dr. Howard Romig (first from the left). Beach, who had been an unsuccessful Gold Rush miner, turned to writing novels about Alaska, including The Spoilers, about his experiences in Nome. These were very popular, and Beach was well known.
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1924 Officers of the Elks Club, which with the Masons, Shriners, Moose, and Pioneers, were important fraternal organizations in Anchorage. Social events sponsored by these organizations were major events for a community that had to provide much of its own entertainment. Thomas Price was active in several of these groups, and stands in the back row, fourth from the left, with his hands on the back of the bench in front of him.

B1970.19.256, J.J. Delaney Collection, Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, AK.

Thomas Price’s law office, ca. 1940. Hazel Seaburg was his clerical employee.

B1972.88.23, Muller Collection, Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, AK.

Thomas Price stands fourth from the left, next to author Rex Beach, along with several Anchorage notables including Dr. Howard Romig (first from the left). Beach, who had been an unsuccessful Gold Rush miner, turned to writing novels about Alaska, including The Spoilers, about his experiences in Nome. These were very popular, and Beach was well known.

BL1985.63.515, Romig Collection, on loan from the Anchorage School District, Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, AK.

Endnotes

  1. Evangeline Atwood, Evangeline Atwood, Anchorage: All-America City (Anchorage: Binfords & Mort, 1957), i-ii and 49.
  2. John W. Price, 1880 U.S. Census, Butte City, Deer Lodge County, Montana Territory, ED 10, page 122A, National Archives Microfilm Publication T9, Tenth Census of the United States, 1880, Roll 742, 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed August 31, 2015); and Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond, Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics: A Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884-1974 (Portland, OR: Binford & Mort for the Alaska Historical Commission, 1977), 80-81.
  3. Thos. C. Price, 1893 Washington State Census, Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington, Washington State and Territorial Censuses, 1857-1892 [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed August 31, 2015).
  4. A notice appeared, stating: “T.C. Price has opened a tin shop in the annex of the building occupied by Sam Cohen on the Water front.” See, “Local Rays,” Alaska Searchlight (Juneau), December 17, 1894, 10.
  5. [Advertisement, T.C. Price, Tin and Iron Worker], Alaska Searchlight (Juneau), January 7, 1895, 9; [Advertisement, T.C. Price, Tin and Iron Worker], Alaska Searchlight, January 14, 1895, 8; [Advertisement, T.C. Price, Tin and Iron Worker], Alaska Searchlight, January 21, 1895, 7; and [Advertisement, T.C. Price, Tin and Iron Worker], Alaska Searchlight, January 29, 1895, 11.
  6. Thomas C. Price, 1900 U.S. Census, Juneau, Southern Supervisors District, Alaska Territory, ED 5, page 41A, National Archives Microfilm Publication T623, Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Roll 1830, 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed August 31, 2015).
  7. “John Price Dies Here at St. Ann’s Late Yesterday,” Daily Alaska Empire (Juneau), January 25, 1941, 1.
  8. Ed Ferrell, compiler and editor, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, Volume 5 (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2004; reprinted from Alaska Magazine, May 1917), 230-231. 
  9. Ibid.
  10. Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond, Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics: A Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884-1974, 80-81; and Ed Ferrell, compiler and editor, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, Volume 5, 230-231.
  11. Ed Ferrell, compiler and editor, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, Volume 3 (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1997), 228-229. Quoted from Jameson’s Legislative Souvenir Manual of the Territory of Alaska, 1923.
  12. Ed Ferrell, compiler and editor, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, Volume 5, 230-231; and Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond, Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics: A Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884-1974, 80-81.
  13. “Judge Price Passes Away,” Anchorage Daily Times, August 21, 1944, 1 and 8.
  14. Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond, Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics: A Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884-1974, 80-81; and Ed Ferrell, compiler and editor, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, Volume 2 (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1995; reprinted from The Pathfinder, September 1922), 267-268.
  15. Ed Ferrell, compiler and editor, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, Volume 5, 230-231.
  16. Ed Ferrell, compiler and editor, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, 1850-1950, Volume 2, 267-268.
  17. In Polk’s Alaska-Yukon Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1923-24 (Seattle, WA: R.L. Polk & Company, 1924), 61, there is an advertisement for H.C. Bennett, Sanitary Plumbing, Fitting, Pipe and Fittings, Plumbing Supplies and Plumbing Contractor.” There is a separate listing for “Thos. C. Price,” lawyer, on page 93.
  18. Ed Ferrell, compiler and editor, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, Volume 5, 230-231.
  19. William H. Wilson, “The Urban Frontier in the North,” Interpreting Alaska’s History: An Anthology, ed. Mary Childers Mangusso and Stephen W. Haycox (Anchorage: Alaska Pacific University Press, 1989), 247-269.
  20. After the City of Anchorage was incorporated in 1920, Mayor Leopold David named M.J. Dolan as the town’s first fire chief (November 1918 – March 1922). See Fire Chiefs, 1915-1990, in Patricia A. Nolan, editor, Anchorage Fire Department, 75th Anniversary Yearbook, 1915-1960, Limited First Edition (Anchorage: Anchorage Fire Auxiliary, 1990), 11.
  21. Michael Carberry and Donna Lane, Patterns of the Past: An Inventory of Anchorage’s Historic Resources (Anchorage: Community Planning Department, Municipality of Anchorage, 1986), 76.
  22. Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond, Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics: A Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884-1974, 80-81; and Entry for Thomas Price, “100 Years of Alaska’s Legislature: ‘From Territorial Days to Today’," State & Territorial, 1913 to 2013, Alaska State Legislature, Alaska Legislative Celebration Commission, http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/100years/bio.php?id=1389 (accessed August 30, 2015).
  23. See Claus-M. Naske, “The United States Commissioners in Alaska,” Pacific Historical Quarterly 89 (Summer 1998): 115-126.
  24. “Judge Price Passes Away,” Anchorage Daily Times, August 21, 1944, 1 and 8.
  25. “Thos. C. Price, Veteran Alaskan, Passes Away,” Anchorage Daily Times, August 21, 1944, 8.  Quoted from Kristy Hollinger, Homesteads on Fort Richardson, Alaska, edited by Glenda Lesondak (Fort Collins, CO: Center for Ecological Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University; Fort Richardson, AK: Natural Resources Branch, U.S. Army Alaska, 2001), 32.
  26. Evangeline Atwood, Anchorage: All-America City, 49.
  27. Kristy Hollinger, Homesteads on Fort Richardson, Alaska, 32.
  28. Thomas C. Price, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed August 31, 2015).
  29. Mrs. Lois Price, “End of the Trail,” Alaska Sportsman, September 1964, 61.
  30. Rae Arno, Anchorage Place Names: The Who and Why of Streets, Parks, and Places (Anchorage: Todd Communications, 2008), 60.

Sources

This entry for Thomas C. Price originally appeared in John Bagoy’s Legends and Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1935 (Anchorage: Publications Consultants, 2001), 62.  See also the Thomas C. Price file, Bagoy Family Pioneer Files (2004.11), Box 6, Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, AK.  Note:  updated, expanded, and revised by Bruce Parham, August 15, 2015.

Preferred citation: Bruce Parham, “Price, Thomas C. ‘Tom’,” Cook Inlet Historical Society, Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940, http://www.alaskahistory.org.

Major support for Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940, provided by: Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Atwood Foundation, Cook Inlet Historical Society, and the Rasmuson Foundation. This educational resource is provided by the Cook Inlet Historical Society, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt association. Contact us at the Cook Inlet Historical Society, by mail at Cook Inlet Historical Society, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, 625 C Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 or through the Cook Inlet Historical Society website, www.cookinlethistory.org.