J.W. Price

Birth:  

Family Information:  

Description: He always had a warm friendliness. He delighted in a garden and had a lovely one with both vegetables and flowers at his home.  

Pre-Colony History: He came to the colony from Oakland, California where he had been quite a "substantial citizen financially".  

Home in Colony: In December 1930 a house was being built for he and Comrade Gill. They wanted to enlarge their family to help fill the extra space in the home and were hoping to find a man and wife who would be glad to use the extra rooms and help make a home for the two comrades, giving a family touch and a woman's care.

In 1931 they lived in the house, known as the Bachelor House, built for them near the Banta family. Mr. and Mrs. Bohnstedt lived there with them to help them keep house.  

Job in Colony: In December 1927 he was doing machinist work with Oberlitner and J. Maxwell and they had almost finished the repair work on the sawmill engine. 

Other Info: In November 1927 he was part of a program composed chiefly of instrumental and vocal music by himself, Mesdames Louise Gaddis, Anna Besse and Ruby Nesnow and Messrs. Max Beavers, Harry Nesnow and Mickey.

He was one of 42 colonists who signed a petition, dated January 10, 1928 and sent to the governor of Louisiana, which objected to the securing of a new charter being issued to the colony. Among other things, this petition claimed that affairs of the colony had been grossly and intentionally mismanaged and conduct of the management so flagrantly opposed to good morals that a receiver assigned by the District Court was necessary to handle affairs. It alleged that management had: 1. Used misleading propaganda which caused hundreds of people to invest their money in the colony, only to be disillusioned and have to leave with nothing to show for their investment. 2. Reduced the colony to a peon camp - these "peons" being poorly fed, clothed and housed. 3. Advocated "free-love", including promiscuous relations of the sexes and other practices contrary to good morals. 4. Expressed contempt for courts and authorities by taking it upon themselves to punish two boys for stealing from the colony store. 5. Prostituted colony schools by employing nondescript persons as teachers, while issuing fraudulent reports and drawing hundreds of dollars from the Parish School funds in the names of certified teachers and by exploiting child labor. The case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court but eventually was annulled and the plaintiff's demands rejected.

In 1931 he had just returned from Hot Springs feeling fit and happy again.

Post-Colony History:  

Death:  

Sources: "Llano Colonist": November 19, 1927, December 24, 1927, February 25, 1928, August 1, 1931, July 9, 1932, May 13, 1933 (Story of Llano), May 20, 1933 (Story of Llano)