[19] Frederick Scott Price (1869-1959)

Both of this son’s Christian names are not previously found in the Price family. ‘Scott’ is the maiden name of Frederick’s elder brother James Cattrall Price’s wife, Alice. They married in early 1870 and would probably been engaged at the time of Frederick’s birth, so he may have been named in her honour. He was born in Blackheath on 10th May 1869.

Fredrick Scott Price

He is to be found living in Greenwich with his family in the censuses of 1871 and 1881, but emigrated to the USA in about 1886. He obtained United States citizenship whilst in Oakland, California in 1892. He used to play cricket - according to family tradition he once stayed with, and played in a match against, the actor Boris Karloff in Hollywood. He married Louisa Bird, on 3rd October 1899 in Alameda, after meeting her while studying farming at Berkeley College, and they had four children, Charles Urban (1900), Kenneth Lewis (1907), Martha Fern (b. 10th October 1908, but not baptised until 11th October 1914 in Sonoma) and Frederick Scott (1914).

The Bird Ancestry

This family can be traced back to the village of Souldren in Oxfordshire, England where John Bird (b. ca 1800 in nearby Aynho, Northamptonshire) and his wife Mary nee Warmington (b. 1805 in Souldern) married on 28th October 1822 and raised eleven children between 1823 and 1849. John was a farm labourer and butcher who died in late 1862, Mary having died in 1852. There were nine sons and two daughters and a number of the men, including Urban and Thomas, emigrated to the USA. Before leaving England, Urban Bird married Martha Bell, the third of five daughters of George and Elizabeth Bell of Wrelton, near Pickering, Yorkshire. The wedding took place in Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast in mid-1867.

In the USA the brothers settled in Alameda, near Oakland, California, where they ran the Bird Hotel and they are buried in Mt View Cemetery in Oakland.

Apparently, Urban’s son, Harry, used to row out in the estuary to deliver milk from Urban’s small dairy farm to the author Robert Louis Stevenson.

At one time he farmed in Sonoma and then moved to Coalinga. He was also employed at various times in San Quentin Prison and by Otis, the elevator company. In around 1904 he made a visit to England to see his family, bringing his young son, Charles, with him. Amongst other places, they went to the family home at Vanbrugh Park Road, Greenwich. He died in 1959.

Charles Urban Price

Martha Fern Price

The Descendants of Frederick Scott and Louisa Price

Charles Urban Price married Jeanette Beverly Shumaker in 1929 but they had no children, dying in 1977 and 1984 respectively. Kenneth Lewis Price married but had no offspring either. Frederick Scott Price married twice and had two children, Barbara Leigh and Frederick Scott soon after World War II, but nothing is known of them.

Martha Fern Price had a short-lived marriage to John Anthony D. Donato (married 1942) and then married Leo Joseph Lunders in 1947. She died in 1994 after suffering from Alzheimers and he died in 1997. They had one son in 1949, Kenneth Louis Lunders, who married twice, secondly to Nancy Sue Gormezano.

The cremated remains of Frederick Scott Price, Louisa Bird Price and Martha Fern Price (Lunders) are deposited in the Columbarium at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California.

The Price Family Heirloom

This object is hand-engraved with the name ‘WILL PRICE’ and was passed down to William Samuel Price II’s son Frederick Scott. The item is approximately 3 1/4” long by 3/8” wide (8.5 x 1.0 cm) and 1/16” thick (2-3 mm).

On the other side is a manufacturer’s engraving of the word ‘Daisy’ and ‘PAT 6 6 16’ – probably a Patent number. The item is made of metal. It does not tarnish, so would not be silver, but may be nickle/silver (white brass).

The tool is thought to have been used for lifting buttons away from garments so that they could be polished without marking the cloth.