MR. JOHN M. HANLEY

    Roland Pryce, M.D., C.M., was born near Machynlleth, Wales, March 31, 1848, and died at his country home near Gold Hill, August 19, 1894, aged 46 years, 4 months and 19 days. In his early youth his parents removed to Liverpool, England, where he received his rudimentary education. His father was a lumber dealer and shipping merchant, and carried on an extensive business. His parents were both church members, his father belonging to the Church of England and his mother to the Presbyterian Church, and he was raised under strict religious influences. He inherited from his father his wonderful executive ability, and from his mother, who was a woman of great piety and force of character, his fine mental temperament and exalted spirituality, blending in him a personality gifted with the most delicate sensitiveness and extraordinary skill, and an idealized conception of spiritual things, which exalted and refined his entire nature. He was sent to Trinity College, Dublin, where he completed his education. Choosing the medical profession for his life work, he entered Ledwick Medical College, Dublin, where he completed the prescribed course of study with high honors, carrying off the highest prize in the anatomical contest in a class of three hundred, for which his native town presented him with a handsomely engraved gold watch which he carried until his death. Returning to Liverpool, he followed one of those sudden impulses that so often changed the current of his eventful life and married a Miss Williams, and embarked at once for America, without receiving his degrees from the Royal College of Surgeons, to which he was entitled by the successful and honorable completion of his studies. Arriving in America he first located in Newark, Ohio, where he was appointed surgeon to a large coal company. Here his only child, William Roland Pryce, was born. Soon afterward he removed with his family to Hillsboro, Oregon, when, his marriage proving a most unhappy one, a separation ensued. He came south about twelve years ago and located in Phoenix, in this county, and after a few years' practice went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to attend a course of lectures, where he received his degrees. On his return he located at Medford, where he practiced medicine with great success until his health failed completely. Six years since he met Miss Mary A. Chavner, the lady who afterwards became his wife. In her he found the embodiment of all his finer conceptions of womanhood. All through life his mother had been the guardian angel whose benign presence had shed a ray serene upon his pathway. But a new chord had been touched in his heart; a new hope like a white-winged angel spread its pinions o'er him, and henceforth twin stars came out upon his horizon and ruled his destiny. He loved the gentle maiden with all the ardor of his intense nature, and in full measure she gave back to him her unchanging devotion. His health, which had become impaired by his devotion to his professional duties, gave no promise of improvement, and he visited Arizona, hoping to be benefited by the change of climate. After several months' sojourn there he returned to his home in Southern Oregon nothing better but rather worse. He found his affianced wife true to her plighted troth, and they were married September 10, 1893, by Judge H. K. Hanna. For three months, blessed with the companionship of his devoted wife and surrounded by all the loving endearments of home, his health seemed to improve, and he basked in the sunshine of an earthly Eden. In January, 1894, pulmonary disease fastened itself upon him and for seven months he bravely battled with the fell destroyer, while he whispered words of love and consolation to his sorrowing wife, whose hopes and prayers were so soon to be crushed by the relentless hand of certainty. He had been for many years a communicant of the Presbyterian Church, and as the summer months waxed and waned, his physical strength grew weaker while his spiritual nature expanded in the fading sunset of earthly dissolution. On Sunday morning, August 19th, 1894, while the church bells all over the land were sending heavenward their joyous chimes, the pale watcher in the sickroom noticed a sudden change, and before a full sense of the awful reality dawned upon her, with a weary sigh the husband fell back in the arms of his faithful wife, dead, while the freed and happy spirit returned to the God that gave it. In that hallowed room, where a few months before had been consummated the marriage rites, a lonely and heartbroken wife now knelt beside the bier which held the mortal remains of her departed husband. "God's full orbed peace was shining on head and hand, on lip and eye, on folded arms, on pale unmoving breast." When death comes thus how sad it seems; the same hands that turned the bridal wreath now shape the funeral flowers, and hopes that shed their benison on a bright young life are now blotted out forever. But Dr. Roland Pryce still lives in blessed memory enshrined in the heart of a devoted wife, cherished by the son who bears his name, honored and beloved by his associates in his professional life, and held in everlasting gratitude by the many patients his wonderful skill relieved. This is not death; the good in every man lives on, fortified by the sorrows of earthly separation. Beyond the cares of earth, life basking in the sunlight of God's eternal love and goodness, he bides the time when waiting angels shall "open wide the mystic gates" and give back to him the wife and friends who now so sadly mourn him. The funeral took place at his former home in Medford. The Presbyterian Church was decorated with flowers, and many beautiful floral offerings mutely testified to the high esteem in which he was held. The interment was in the Jacksonville Cemetery, and many sorrowing friends followed the remains to their last resting place. Requiescat in pace.
Medford Mail, September 21, 1894, page 2


    The son of the late Dr. R. Pryce was visiting Jackson County this week. He is a young man from Farmington, Washington County.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, November 22, 1894, page 4


    Mrs. M. A. Pryce, of Gold Hill, is attending the Chautauqua at Ashland.
"Personal," The Monitor-Miner, Medford, July 16, 1896, page 3


    F. M. Wilson, the baker, has rented the Pryce residence, on South C Street, and will move his family thereto next week.
Medford Mail, March 16, 1900, page 6


    Surveyor Garl T. Jones was at Gold Hill Monday surveying out some town property for Mrs. Pryce.
"Purely Personal," Medford Mail, December 27, 1901, page 4


    L. L. Jacobs, the genial bookkeeper of the Jackson County Bank, has purchased the Pryce residence, situated on C Street [approximately 127 South Central--lot 10, block 15], paying $700 therefor. He will have it improved at once. W. B. Roberts bought the south half of the lots on which the dwelling stands.
"Local Notes," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, May 8, 1902, page 5


    ROLAND PRYCE was born in North Wales in 1848, growing to manhood in his native land, where he received a fine education. He attended Dublin Medical College, after which he came to the United States, settling first in the state of Vermont. From a residence in Vermont he removed to Ohio, and later came to Hillsboro, Ore., where he lived for a few years, after which he located in Medford. He practiced his profession of physician and surgeon after coming to the United States and met with entire success in his work. September 10, 1893, he was united in marriage with Mary A. Chavner, who was born in Jackson County, and in 1893 they removed to the ranch which had been the property of Mrs. Pryce's father, where they lived at the time of Dr. Pryce's death in 1894. He was then a prominent and influential physician of the community with a large and lucrative practice, to the attention of which he gave the effort and energy of a practical knowledge. He was also largely interested in the political affairs of the community, serving as county coroner for several terms in the interests of the Democratic Party, of whose principles he was a staunch adherent. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Portrait and Biographical Record of Western Oregon, Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904, page 202