Eli Kirk Price (July 20, 1797 – November 14, 1884) was an American lawyer and politician from

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He served as a Whig member of the

Pennsylvania State Senate The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered ev ...

for the 1st district from 1853 to 1855, as commissioner of

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with ...

from the time of its founding, and as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Early life and education

Price was born in

East Bradford Township, Pennsylvania East Bradford Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 10,308 at the 2020 census. History The Cope's Bridge, Gibson's Covered Bridge, Worth-Jefferis Rural Historic District, Carter-Worth House ...

to Philip and Rachel Price. His ancestor, Philip, was a Welsh Quaker who came to the

Pennsylvania Colony The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to Wi ...

with

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

. He initially trained as a merchant before studying law in the office of John Sergeant. He was admitted to the bar in 1822 and specialized in real estate.

Career

He was elected to the

for the 1st district as a Whig and served from 1853 to 1855. He worked to secure the consolidation of the city and county of Philadelphia into one metropolitan unit. The

Consolidation Act of 1854 The Act of Consolidation, more formally known as the act of February 2, 1854 (P.L. 21, No. 16), is legislation of the Pennsylvania General Assembly that created the consolidated City and County of Philadelphia, expanding the city's territory to ...

passed in February 1854 and tripled the size of Philadelphia, making it the largest territorial city in the U.S.. Price quit his Senate office at the end of the term. Price supported other reform efforts, helping to rewrite Pennsylvania's real estate laws, strengthen married women's rights to property, establish a building inspectorate in Philadelphia, and secure the real estate for Fairmount Park. He was an active member of the

and a constant contributor to its "Transactions," a member of several foreign scientific and literary societies, president of the University hospital, of the Preston retreat, of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society, and of the Numismatic and antiquarian society, a vice-president of the American Philosophical Society, and a trustee of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He published "Of the Law of Limitations and Liens against Real Estate in Pennsylvania" (Philadelphia, 1857); several treatises that were contributed to the American Philosophical Society; and the memorial volumes "Philip and Rachel Price" (printed privately, 1852); "Rebecca" (1862); and the "Centennial Meeting of the Descendants of Philip and Rachel Price" (1864). Price was for a time an active member of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society. In 1860, he supported John Bell's Constitutional Union Party in the presidential election.

Personal life

Price was married to Anna Embree in June 1818. He was the grandfather of

Eli Kirk Price II Eli Kirk Price II (1860 – January 24, 1933) was a prominent American Philadelphia lawyer, called "the foremost civic and cultural leader in early twentieth-century Philadelphia". He was the commissioner of Fairmount Park during the planning an ...

, another noted Philadelphia citizen.

Legacy

The Eli Kirk Price fountain at

Eakins Oval Eakins Oval is a traffic circle in Philadelphia. It forms the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway just in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with a central array of fountains and monuments, and a network of pedestrian walkways. ...

in Philadelphia is named in his honor.

Notes

External links

* Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Eli Kirk 1797 births 1884 deaths 19th-century American politicians Burials at The Woodlands Cemetery Lawyers from Philadelphia Members of the American Philosophical Society Pennsylvania state senators Pennsylvania Whigs People from Chester County, Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania people 19th-century American lawyers