By Sentinel Staff
After three decades and four generations, a Bible that Jessie Agnes Weir Price donated in memory of her husband Frank David Price is back with the family.
The book was discovered last spring in the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church, which was closed in 2018, by an archaeologist who’s working with new owners of the church building to develop it as part of a housing complex.
The archaeologist, Candace Rutledge, posted information about her find on Sitka Chatters, asking for help finding the family whose names appeared on an inside page of the book.
“My friend (Shirlene Jensen) saw it and called me,” said Laura Black, one of the Prices’ granddaughters, who lives in Puyallup, Washington.
Both Frank and Jessie Price were prominent citizens of Sitka. Frank Price was a member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood at its founding in 1912 and was the second Alaska Native to be elected to the territorial legislature. Jessie Price, who outlived her husband by 45 years, was a beloved community matriarch until she died in 1991 at age 80.
After hearing from Jensen about the archaeologist’s find, Black started calling her large extended family, with members in Washington and California as well as Alaska, and scheduled a gathering here for a long weekend. More than 22 family members and friends had dinner at the Mean Queen last Friday night, visited the Prices’ graves, and took in local sights and visitor attractions on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday afternoon they met at the church, where Black’s mother, Georgia Barnard, 84, one of the three surviving Price children, spoke about her parents and heritage, and took possession of the Bible for the family. The large volume is a type known as a pulpit Bible, which Protestant denominations traditionally leave open on the lectern at the front of the church.
Black said her mother likely will put the Bible on her coffee table, where it will be on view to the rest of the family.
A page at the front of the Bible bears a handwritten dedication: “Given in memory of Frank David Price churchman, legislator, humanitarian by Jessie Agnes Weir Price.”
Top: Family and friends of Frank and Jessie Price stand behind a large gilded Bible found in the former Presbyterian Church that was returned to the descendants of the Prices recently. Family members, mostly from Washington state and California, visiting Sitka to witness the return of the Bible include, at front center holding Bible, Georgia Price Barnard, the daughter of the Prices, and Calvin Anderson, a great-great-grandchild of the Prices. The Presbyterian Church land was purchased by housing developers. Bottom: Georgia Price Barnard holds the pulpit Bible that was returned to the family last week. (Sentinel Photos by James Poulson)
Black said she’s not certain when her grandmother donated the Bible to the church, but thinks it would have been shortly after Frank Price died in 1946.
Frank Price was born in Sitka in 1886. His mother was Tlingit and he attended the Sitka Training School before it evolved into the Sheldon Jackson School. He was a charter member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, and in 1926 was the first Alaska Native to be appointed to a federal office (U.S. Deputy Marshal). In 1946 he became the second Alaska Native to be elected to the Alaska Territorial Legislature, but suffered a heart attack and died before he was sworn into office.
Jessie Agnes Weir was born Dec. 20, 1901, and was a member of Sheldon Jackson High School’s first graduating class in 1921. She was a teacher at the school when she and Frank Price were married on April 14, 1927.
They were faithful members of the Presbyterian Church, sang in the choir, and participated in church events. Frank served as a church elder and at the time of his death was church treasurer.
The Prices had six children, one of whom died as an infant. The others were Gertrude and Myrtle, both now deceased, and Frank, who lives in Seattle; Jim, who lives in Federal Way; and Georgia, of Puyallup.
The brothers were unable to attend the reunion, but many others made it, ranging from daughter Georgia Barnard, the oldest of the four generations who attended, and great-great-grandchild Calvin Anders of Shoreline, Washington, the youngest.
The grandchildren included Laura Black, Judy Ross, David Price, Suzie Price, Toni Barnard, Sherry Ragusa, Andrew Strobel, Kyle Ross, Jaelyn Davis, Marc Anderson, Jessica Whitehead, Caleb Black, Paul Barnard, Eddie Lobato, Joseph Sherry, Tori Sherry, and Rebekah Sherry.
Black lived in Sitka for only short times, in the 1970s, but remembers her grandmother fondly.
“When I got my first job (as a waitress while going to college) I was so excited I sent her a box of mixed fruit, because I knew it wasn’t easy to get in Sitka,” Black said. “When I called her to see if she’d gotten it she said ‘Oh, yes, we all loved it so much!’
I told her ‘But Grandma, I bought it for you!’ but she just said ‘Oh, honey, we share everything here.’
“She was an incredible person,” Black said. “We’re a lucky family.”
