William Henry Pricer - Civil War Veteran

In the State Centennial History of Ohio and Highland County, by the Rev. J. W. Kiser, published in Madison, Wisconsin, the following account of the life of William H. Pricer is given:

William H. Pricer, veteran of the Civil War with a long and honorable record, now residing in Greenfield, Ohio, comes of one of the old Ross County families. The founder of the family was Henry Pricer, who came from Pennsylvania when the settlement of Ohio had hardly well begun and bore his share of the burdens involved in the task of clearing the wilderness. Among his children was a son named Daniel, who was born on what is known as Pricer Ridge in Ross County in 1815, subsequently became a farmer and died at South Salem in 1890. He married Nancy, daughter of William Stinson of Ross County, by whom he reared a family of seven children. Of these, Elizabeth and Martha J. died after marriage; James H., while serving in the Union Army was taken prisoner at Little Blue, Mo., and is now a farmer in Illinois; Mary C. is the wife of a Nebraska farmer named Jack, and Nancy M. is married and living in the same state; Lucinda Ellen is the wife of Jacob Smith of Illinois.

William H. Pricer, eldest of the children, was born and reared in Ross County and at the outbreak of the Civil War was farming with his father. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company H, Twenty-seventh Regiment, Ohio Infantry, which was sent to Missouri and took part in the campaigns against Van Dorn and Price. After much marching and counter marching, picket fighting and skirmishes innumerable, the Twenty-seventh Regiment found itself hotly engaged in the great conflict at Corinth, Miss. In that battle, Mr. Pricer was wounded and being taken to hospital at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., remained two weeks and was sent home on thirty days' sick leave. At the expiration of eighteen days, however, he reported for duty and rejoined his company at Ripley, Miss., after which he participated in all of the lively skirmishes and large engagements which characterized the succeeding campaigns, notably the battles at Holly Springs, Iuka and Atlanta. Then followed the march to the sea, the trip up the coast through Carolinas and battle of Bentonville, all winding up with the grand review at Washington. Mr. Pricer was mustered out with his command in July, 1865 as a corporal, and immediately returned to his home in Ross County, where he resumed the peaceful pursuit of farming.

For the ten succeeding years he carried on his business in Ross and Fayette Counties alternatively, removed to Greenfield in 1887 and for seven years has been overseer of the cemetery in that city. In 1868, he was married to Sarah, daughter of James McCann, of Highland County, by whom he has five children. Herbert Lee, the eldest, at present an electrician at St. Louis, Mo., was a member of Company E, Fourth Ohio Regiment, in the Spanish-American War and took part in the Puerto Rico campaign. Louis C., the second son, now an operator on the Vandalia railroad station at East St. Louis, was also in the Spanish War as a member of the Signal Corps. The other children are: Gertrude, wife of L. Mobray, electrician with the Swift packing house in St. Louis; Madge and Harry at home. Mr. Pricer is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and one of the comrades of Gibson Post, Grand Army of the Republic.