and place him in charge, and then make him felt with effect through every department and line of the work. Out of this grew the present plan of a superintendent of instruction, with supervising principals.

There were many other ways in which he aided the the cause of education, but suffice it to say that he was one of the moving spirits toward any reform that came up while he was connected with the schools. He has been a helpful and patriotic citizen in ways other than those enumerated above, and his voice and vote are ever given on the side of law, morality and good order. In all his public, business and social relations, he is a gentleman whom it is a pleasure to know, and the honesty and high-minded character he showed while in public station are evinced in all his dealings in private life. While a capable and successful business man, he is educated and cultured, loves his books, and keeps apace with the thought and knowledge of the world. Open-hearted and generous, he is accessible to all; and all in all is a modern American citizen, who does whatever lies in his power for the good of all about him.

WILLIAM H. PRICE.

Another name that should always be given a prominent place in the list of those who have made the schools of Cleveland what they are is that of the late W. H. Price, who gave out of his knowledge, energy and strong business sense a portion of help that was doubly helpful, at a time when the new ideas were compelled to do battle with the

old. His work for the public in the schools was invaluable, and was performed at a time when every suggestion of advance was denounced as a needless innovation, and every improvement characterized as a senseless misuse of money. But he, and a few of the same clear vision, saw the needs of the future rather than the mere demands of the day in which they worked, and laid the foundations broad and deep enough for any structure that might be built thereon.

Mr. Price was counted among the most successful and clearest-headed of the business men of Cleveland, and anything he undertook to do was done with all the energy of a strong character, and all the directness of an open and manly nature. Although not of Ohio birth, he came into this region at so early an age that he was in full accord with all the best forms of Western Reserve life. He was born in Freedom, Cattaraugus county, New York, on January 18, 1818, and when a mere boy came to Ohio. He received his education at the Grand River institute, in Austinburg, Ashtabula county-then one of the leading educational institutions of this section -and on leaving school decided to devote himself to the profession of law. He entered the office of Judge Hitchcock of Painesville and took the usual course of study. He was admitted to the bar, and although he never devoted himself to practice, because of the condition of his health at that time, the knowledge and training he had thus gained were of the greatest value to him in the large business transactions of later life. He turned his attention

to mercantile pursuits, and carried on business for some time in Ashtabula county. In 1856 he came to Cleveland, when the mercantile firm of Stilson, Leek & Price was formed. He remained therein for ten years, and at the conclusion of that time withdrew with a purpose of turning his attention to other and more congenial pursuits. In 1868 he was elected president of the Cleveland Gas Light and Coke company, in which office he remained until his death, which occurred when he was yet in his prime and greatest usefulness-on June 8, 1883-and after an illness that had extended over some months.

Long before his death, Mr. Price stood in the very front rank of the gas manufacturers of America, and the great success that attended the enterprise of which he was the head was largely due to his business genius, industry, and faculty of keeping up with all the demands of a progressive age. He enjoyed the confidence and respect not only of the stockholders but of the public with which his company was compelled to have such constant and intimate relations. He was untiring in his efforts to extend the usefulness and cheapen the cost of gas, and the numerous uses to which it has been put in this city; and the many reductions that have been made in price, testify to the success and value of his efforts. His opinions had great weight with the gas manufacturers of America, and he had a wide influence among them. He was a leading member of the National Gas association, and for some time held the office of pres

ident thereof. He contributed many able papers to the periodicals published in that line of science, and was a writer of force and grace in the handling of any subject he undertook to discuss. He was interested in a number of the business enterprises of Cleveland, and was everywhere regarded as an earnest, active and influential man. He was foremost in many charitable enterprises, and gave not only of his money but of his thought and time to the alleviation of suffering or the relief of distress. In his early life he was noted for his intense hatred of the institution of slavery, and he wielded no inconsiderable influence in aiding to mold public opinion against that system. He possessed a fund of varied information; his memory was especially retentive; while in character he was of conceded probity, integrity and truthfulness. and truthfulness. Unselfish and genial, he won friends in all directions. He was a speaker of force and eloquence, and had a faculty of thinking down into the heart of any subject he had in mind. In his domestic life Mr. Price was at his best, loving home and family with a deep and lasting devotion. He was married in 1843 to Miss Martha C. Guild, the daughter of Colonel Guild of Austinburg, who preceded him into the other world by several years. Two children only were left, Mrs. P. D. Briggs, and Mr. W. A. Price.

Mr. Price was useful not only to the schools of Cleveland, but in many other ways he gave his time and talents to the public use. He was chairman of the executive committee of the Huron Street hospital, and aided that beneficent in

stitution in many ways; for a number of years he was one of the trustees of the Northern Ohio Hospital for the Insane, acting as president of the board; and at the time of his death he was a member and president of the Cleveland

board of Infirmary trustees. In all these responsible positions his course was marked by the same good business sense, enterpsise and honesty that were a part of his private life. J. H. KENNEDY.

My story is not of a billiard table, a dinner table, a parlor table, a table of distances, or anything of that kind. I desire to tell simply the history of a plain yellow-pine table, with folding legs-such as is frequently made use of in camping expeditions and in war. This one has upon its face and legs many a scar and deep hole worn in it, as jolting in an army wagon it traveled over the rough roads of Virginia, now about a quarter of a century ago. It was my camp table all through the four years of the civil war. This fact would scarcely render it a fit subject for a special story, for although it went through a good many warlike scenes and has witnessed a good many incidents which, if it could talk, might prove interesting, its sole claim now in its battered, worn condition, as it hangs upon the wall of my room, surrounded by "the bruised arms" there hung up as "merry monuments," rests, for a special history, upon the fact that on one occasion it was used to perform an important duty which entitles it to an historic place in the record of the closing of the great civil war.

To tell what that duty was, it will be necessary to go back a matter of twenty

years and describe what took place at the little country town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on the ninth and tenth of April, 1865.

Early on the morning of the ninth, Lee's sorely pressed army of northern Virginia was in and about the little village, and its commander had decided to make a last desperate effort to break through our cavalry, which had been thrown across the Lynchburg road to the west of Appomattox Court House. A force of cavalry, infantry and artillery had been organized to make the attack and if possible clear the road for the further retreat of Lee's army westward to Lynchburg. The attack was made, our cavalry gave way before it, and the enemy was pushing forward amidst the thunder of guns and the rattle of musketry, when out of the woods, in their front, a long blue line of infantry made its appearance, stretching across the Lynchburg road, and accompanied by several batteries opened fire. This line was composed of Ord's troops, of the Army of the James, and on its right was the fifth corps of the Army of the Potomac, under Griffin.

Up to the time that these troops

opened fire, I had been occupied in hurriedly throwing them into line of battle from the column of march and pushing them forward through a dense piece of woods in the direction of the firing.

It may be as well to state that two days before (the seventh) General Grant had, from the town of Farmville, written a note to General Lee, summoning him to surrender his arry; and during the next thirty-six hours, a correspondence on the subject had been going on between the two generals.

The next morning (the eighth) at six o'clock, two divisions of my corps (the twenty-fourth), and two brigades of the twenty-fifth corps, all under my command, had been put in motion up the Appomattox river. A few miles from Farmville these troops united with the fifth corps and all were pushed rapidly westward after Sheridan's cavalry, a portion of which was overtaken during the morning.

To facilitate the march, the road itself was left open for the artillery and ambulances, and the infantry marched in the fields alongside when they could— the fifth corps on the left of the road, the twenty-fourth on the right. The day was hot, the roads dry and dusty, and the troops suffered considerably; but they pushed along as rapidly as possible, and late in the afternoon began to show unmistakable signs of fatigue.

Whilst riding some distance ahead of my troops a courier met me and placed in my hands a dispatch, which, on opening, I found to read as follows:

It may readily be imagined how intense was now the desire to see the head of the column approach the spot where, seated on some old railroad ties-the common road ran close to the rail-I awaited its arrival. For if the cavalry had struck the front of Lee's army, they would need all the support we could give them to hold on and prevent Lee from forcing his way through towards Lynchburg.

Scarcely had General Sheridan's dispatch been sent back to the command, when a staff officer reached me from General Ord, with a message to the effect that my men were very much scattered, had marched far enough, and he had directed them to go into camp for the night. In hot haste I dispatched a message to General Ord, telling him the news from the front and begging him to allow such of the men as could march to come on, and let the stragglers close