The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 522

WALTER PRICE.

Walter Price, a well known rancher living near Outlook, was born near State
Center, Iowa, July 19, 1860, a son of William O. and Martha (Tramel) Price, who
were natives of Pennsylvania and of Indiana respectively. They became pioneer
residents of Iowa, the father removing to that state in 1855, while the mother
had gone to the west in 1852. She had accompanied her parents on their removal
with ox teams from Indiana and her father had purchased thirteen hundred acres
of land in that state. Three years later William O. Price became a resident of
Iowa and there he formed the acquaintance of Martha Tramel, whose hand he sought
and won in marriage. At the time of the Civil war he responded to the country's
call for aid and joined the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, in which he served as
sergeant. With his return to Iowa he took up the occupation of farming, which he
followed continuously in that state save for a period of four and a half years
spent in California during the '70s. He was long numbered among the progressive
and representative agriculturists of Iowa, where he continued to make his home
until his death.

Walter Price acquired a good public school education in his home locality and
was associated with his father in the development and improvement of the
latter's farm until he attained his majority. He then started out in life on his
own account. In the spring of 1885 he went to South Dakota, where he took up a
homestead, preemption and desert claim, and his wife also secured a claim of
one hundred and sixty acres, so that they had six hundred and forty acres in
all. He became a successful farmer of that district, carefully and
systematically developing and cultivating his fields there until the fall of
1903, when he sold his property in that state, attracted by the opportunities of
the growing northwest. He then made his way to Yakima county and bought forty
acres of land two miles northwest of Outlook. This he partly cleared and has
improved the place, developing it into an excellent ranch. The summer seasons
find his fields green with good crops of corn, potatoes and hay, which, ripening
in the fall, find a ready sale upon the market, bringing to him a substantial
annual income. He also makes a specialty of handling hogs and cattle and
conducts a dairy business. He is interested in the most progressive methods of
farming, which he employs in the further development of his property, and for
four years he was president of the Outlook Irrigation District. He has closely
studied irrigation problems as well as the questions relative to the methods of
farming his land and caring for the crops and he is able to speak with authority
upon many problems relative to the agricultural interests of this section of the
state and its water supply.

On the 31st of December, 1886, Mr. Price was united in marriage to Miss Mary
Hartman, who was born in Iowa, a daughter of Valentine and Christina Hartman,
the former a native of Switzerland. He became a pioneer settler of Iowa, taking
up his abode first near Burlington and afterward removing to Keokuk county. To
Mr. and Mrs. Price have been born ten children: Clinton F., who is engaged in
ranching near Outlook; Ethel, the wife of Axel Lennstrom; William, who was an
ensign and was connected with the staff of the Officers' Training School in the
Naval Training Station at Seattle, teaching navigation; but has now been
discharged; Alfred, who in April, 1918, went to France as a member of Battery C,
Twelfth Field Artillery, Second Division, but is now on the Rhine with the
American Army of Occupation; Albert, twin brother of Alfred, who died at the age
of seven years; Martha, who is attending a business college of Yakima; Stella,
who is engaged in teaching school; Frances W., who died at the age of eighteen
months; Herbert; and Russell.

Mr. Price is a prominent member of the Grange and was deputy state master of the
Grange of Washington in 1915. He has done much public speaking in behalf of the
organization and upon other vital public questions. He is a socialist and was a
candidate for Congress in South Dakota. He has been active in the people's party
and was its candidate for the state senate in South Dakota in 1892. He has twice
been a candidate for congress on the socialist ticket in Washington and he
fearlessly and earnestly espouses the cause in which he believes. He served as
postmaster and also as town clerk while in South Dakota and at the present time
he is a member of the school board. He is the possessor of a fine library, reads
broadly and thinks deeply. He possesses the most important historical works of
the world and after thorough reading and investigation he forms his opinions,
which he presents clearly and cogently.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.