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ABOUT GENERAL STERLING PRICE
SterlingPrice was born on September 14, 1809 in Prince Edward County, Virginia. He was educated at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. After completing his education he entered the clerk’s office at Prince Edward County Courthouse, with a view of being bred to the bar. However, in the fall of 1831 his father, Pugh Price, moved to Fayette, Missouri taking with him his two sons, Sterling & John. They later moved to Keytesville.
For a number of years he engaged in the mercantile and hotel business and agricultural pursuits. He moved some five or six miles south of Keytesville and settled on a farm in Bowling Green Prairie, on which he remained until the breaking out of the War of 1861.
In 1840, Price was elected to the Lower House of the Missouri Legislature at which session he was elected speaker of the same. In 1842 he was 43-elected to both positions. In 1846 he was elected to a seat in the Congress of the United States from the State of Missouri. The war with Mexico soon broke out after he took his seat in Congress and he resigned and was commissioned a Colonel by President Polk to raise a regiment of Missouri Volunteers, rising to the position of Brigadier-General before its close.
After the Mexican War, General Price returned to his farm in Chariton County which, during his absence, had been managed by his wife. In 1852 he was nominated by the Democratic Party and was elected the 11th Governor of Missouri. He served two terms and returned to the Keytesville community in 1856 to engage in farming. In 1857, he interested himself in the canvass for a county subscription of $250,000 to secure a railroad through his county. In 1833 the railroad was a part of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railroad. By his efforts mainly, the project was carried by a vote of 341 majority.
The threat of war came in 1859. General Price fought nobly for the Union, but his friends all being against him, in May 1862, finally succumbed and joined the confederacy, being appointed a Major General. His name became a household word throughout the south for his gallant service in behalf of the confederacy. The war between the states ended on May 26, 1865.
 After the war, General Price moved to St. Louis where he died on September 29, 1867. After his body had lain in state for several days, where thousands took their farewell look. He was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery on the 3rd of October, the anniversary of one of his greatest battles. It was one of thelargest funeral processions that had ever been known in St. Louis.
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