Price, Sir William & Amelia Blanche (Smith)

Sir William Price 1867-1924 & Amelia Blanche Carrington (Smith) 1863-1947

William Price was born in Talca Chile to Henry Ferrier Price 1833-1898 and Florence Stoker Rogerson. He was the eldest of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. His surviving siblings were Henry Edward (Harry), Arthur John, Terracita (Terry), and Florence (Flo).
Amelia Blanche Carrington Smith was born in Quebec City to Robert Herbert Carrington Smith 1825-1898 and Amelia Jane LeMesurier 1832-1917. She had six brothers and one sister.
The three original ‘Price Brothers’ of what would become the Price Brothers Pulp and Paper Company were William Evan, Evan John, and David Edward. All three were bachelors. Having no legitimate heir, they persuaded their brother Henry Ferrier and his family, then living in Chile, to return to Canada. Their eldest son, William, arrived in Canada in 1879. After one semester at Bishop’s College School, he was sent to St Mark’s in England where he completed his studies in 1886 and started his apprenticeship with Price Brothers. In 1899, with the death of the last surviving ‘Price Brother’, he became sole proprietor, president and managing director of the family business. William inherited a tottering empire, heavily indebted, technically in receivership -- more one of potential than actual wealth. In the first decade of the 20th century, William planned and built a large newsprint mill in the town of Kenogami. The Kenogami Mill, the most productive newsprint mill in the world at that time, began operations in 1912. William associated with James Buchanan Duke, the legendary North Carolina tobacco tycoon and Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook), helped with financing for the Kenogami Mill and the development of hydroelectric power with the Ille Maligne Dam and Power Plant in which he and Duke were partners.
In 1884 William married Amelia Blanche Smith at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Quebec City. Three years his senior and a celebrated beauty, she would bear him eight children. The surviving six were John (Jack), Arthur Clifford (Coosie), Charles Edward, Willa (Glassco), Richard Harcourt (Dick) and Jean (Harvey).
On August 7, 1914, William was asked, by the minister of the Militia, to build, in twenty days, a camp where troops could be assembled and trained. William shut down his establishments, moved his workforce to Valcartier, and built the camp on schedule. Quebec had been selected as the port of embarkation for the Canadian Expeditionary Force and William was appointed Director General of Embarkation. William was not a soldier. He had, however, joined Quebec’s militia 8th Royal Rifles and risen to Captain when he resigned in 1903.
For his contribution to the War effort, William was knighted by King George V on January 1, 1915.
On October 2nd, 1924, Sir William was taken down by a landslide on the Au Sable River behind the Kenogami Mill. His body was found ten days later in the Saguenay River at St. Fulgence. His grave lies at the end of Price Park in Kenogami on the point of a high cliff overlooking the confluence of the Au Sable and Saguenay Rivers where he lost his life. He would be pleased that the focus of the Sir William Price Museum in Kenogami is on the employees of the Company. He deeply appreciated their loyalty and work skills and touched their lives in ways their descendants remember fondly to this day.
Sir William was foremost a family man, a patriot, an industrial visionary and a builder; amongst them, it is difficult to say which stood first. His wife did not share his fascination for a remote, largely wilderness area and his love of the outdoors and rarely came to the Saguenay/Lac St-Jean region. Nevertheless, he was a loving and inspirational father and nobody who knew him mentioned his name without talking of his affection for children.
Along with his business, war efforts, political activities and sports William was President of the Quebec Harbour Commission in 1912 and Director of many companies including Union Bank, the Canadian General Electric Company, the Wayagamack Pulp and Paper Company Ltd., The Montreal Trust Company, The Quebec Railway, Light and Power Co., The Transcontinental Railway and the Prudential Trust Company.
William’s first mention of Tadoussac is in a letter written during the summer of 1880 to his parents who were still in Chile. He tells of happy days spent in a canoe in the bay fishing for Tommy cod, perhaps hinting at the renowned salmon fisherman he would become. He did not spend much time in Tadoussac but he did acquire Fletcher Cottage, a lifelong source of pleasure for his wife. He also bought the Pilot House and the Harry Price House, which he gave to Harry for his family and as a place for their sister Terry to spend her summers.
After Sir William’s untimely death Blanche moved from 145 Grande Allee to Ave de Bernier in Quebec City where she lived until her death in 1947. She was fortunate in her companion, Muriel Hudspeth, daughter of Dean Evans and his first wife.
We are told Blanche was handsome and charming and though her memory faded her charm did not. During summers in Fletcher Cottage, her sister Edith (Edie) and brother Edmond were with her. Also in residence for the summer were many grandchildren - ten or more at times. By then she remembered only ‘long ago stories’ yet continued to extend a warm welcome and to look most elegant, dressed in black as she had since the death of her husband.
She is buried in Mount Hermon Cemetery in Quebec City.

Willa (Lal) Price Mundell



From the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/price_william_15E.html