own family, through a college course, and in some years the number of his beneficiaries was two or three. When the project for securing one of the state normal schools for Lock Haven was proposed he promptly donated the necessary amount of land (ten acres) for that purpose and thus enabled the projectors of the institution to go before the legislature fully prepared to comply with all the requirements of the law. This donation of land was subsequently increased to eighteen acres. Among his numerous benefactions to Lock Haven institutions should be mentioned the lots on which now stand the Roman Catholic church, the Methodist Episcopal church, St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal church, lots for the Roman Catholic cemetery, twenty-five acres for Highland cemetery and also ground for two schools. Always an earnest advocate of the abolition of slavery, his home, then a few miles out of the city of Philadelphia, became one of the safest stations on the famous "Underground Railroad," where many escaping slaves were provided with rest and comfort, and ultimately were furnished with the means to carry them to sure refuge farther north and in Canada. Philanthropy in its true sense-the love of mankind— was the moving principle of Mr. Price's life. In his early life he had been interested in the promulgation of socialistic doctrines and in founding a socialistic colony which was to expound them; and he suffered no loss of faith when that community was, like all others of its kind, finally abandoned. Afterward, however, he relied more on individual effort in accomplishing his purposes. Charles S. Price, general manager of the Cambria Steel Company, whose mammoth works may be well considered the very soul of industrial Johnstown, was born at West Chester, Pennsylvania, on the 27th day of August, 1852. He acquired his early and preparatory education in private schools, then entered Cornell University and was graduated with the class of 1872, with the degree of Bachelor of Civil Engineering. During his college days he assisted in organizing and was a charter member of Xi Chapter of Chi Phi Fraternity. After graduation from college his first employment was with the Detroit Bridge & Iron Works at Detroit, Michigan, as draughtsman, and after a short service in that position he was elected city engineer of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, serving in that capacity three years. In June, 1876, he secured employment as draughtsman with the Cambria Iron Company in its engineering department at the works in Johnstown. When the Cambria Company began the erection of its first open hearth steel plant, Mr. Price was detailed for duty in connection with that work and supervised the details of construction for the engineering department; and upon the completion of the open hearth plant he was appointed foreman of one turn in the work of the new department, and thus began his connection with the operation of the vast enterprise which now is under his personal management. From the comparatively unimportant position of foreman in a single department of the company's works Mr. Price has been advanced, in accordance with the "Cambria policy," steadily and surely to the highest working position in its service. After three years' service as foreman, in which capacity he worked alternate weeks, day and night, he was made superintendent of the open hearth works, and filled that position from July, 1881, to May, 1884, when he was advanced to the more responsible position of superintendent of the Bessemer steel open hearth and blooming department. In January, 1886, the metallurgical department was organized, combining the Bessemer and open hearth steel works, the blast furnaces and rolling mills, and Mr. Price was placed in charge. During his incumbency of the position of superintendent of the metallurgical department occurred the "Great Flood" of 1889, which may well be said to have been the period which "tried out" every Cambria official. So well, however, did Mr. Price succeed in the work of bringing order out of chaos in his own department and placing it in condition for successful operation, that when a vacancy occurred in the general superintendency, his name was the only one that suggested itself to the principal officers of the company in connection with the position; and in October, 1890, he was made general superintendent of manufacture, his duties covering all processes of steel production and manufacture. And again, when there came a vacancy in the office of general manager, a position which imposed duties far beyond those usually accompanying such a position elsewhere, there was no question of choice among the company officers in the selection of a new incumbent, and Mr. Price was chosen to that position in the month of March, 1892; and since that time he has been the head of the works of the great Cambria Steel Company, the sole responsible head of its local operations. When he first assumed the duties of general manager the total number of men employed under his direction was seven thousand six hundred and sixteen. Some idea of the subsequent growth of the plant and the added responsibilities of the managing officer may be gathered when it is said that at the present time the Cambria pay rolls provide for fifteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-six men. It is not merely as the finished executive skilled in the technique and minute detail of iron and steel manufacture, daily determining matters that call for the expenditure of large sums of money and the placing of almost an army of men, that Mr. Price is known in the city of Johnstown. With a wide reputation for executive and managerial ability and an almost perfect knowledge of the iron and steel trade extending throughout all its ramifications, his recognized business acumen has made him available in other lines. In 1896 he was elected president of the Johnstown Water Company and the Johnstown (now Consumers') .Gas Company, and he has exercised supervisory control of the operation of these corporations. He assisted in the organization of the Johnstown Trust Company and served as its president for one year; served several years as president of the Conemaugh Valley Hospital Association, and now is president of the Citizens' Electric Light, Heat & Power Company. He also is president and a director of the Manufacturers' Water Company and of several corporations subsidiary to the Cambria Steel Company, as well as having been a director of the parent organization since 1897. Mr. Price is an attendant at the services of St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal church, and in political preference is a Republican; but he has steadily refused to consider any suggestion of political advancement, although he has served the borough of Westmont as councilman and also as school controller. His chief personal characteristics are grasp of detail and determination. A patient listener, he has a remarkable faculty of quickly solving a given business problem and is equally quick in announcing his decision. He is a strict disciplinarian, but always courteous to those with whom he is in association and to his subordinates, and it is a great compliment to the man that his methods and manner are unconsciously copied in the conduct of other men throughout the length and breadth of the Cambria works. |