City councils approve budgets, tax rates for fiscal year 2009-10

12 | October 2009 Community Impact Newspaper • Georgetown/Hutto/Taylor Edition
Local History “The Ties That Bind” Georgetown
By Beth Wade
More than a century ago,
Southwestern University student
Early Price was planning to marry
and preparing for her school’s
first homecoming, which was
held April 21, 1909. Now, as the
school welcomes alumni back
for its 100th annual Homecoming
and Reunion Weekend in
November, Price’s granddaughter
will make the trip to Georgetown
to honor her memory.
Louise Walsh is the author
of “The Ties That Bind:
A Georgetown Texas Memoir—1904-1909,”
which is based
on more than 500 letters saved
by Price. The book chronicles
the lives of six children of an
affluent Georgetown family. The
letters, found by Walsh while
cleaning her aunt’s home, have
been incorporated with other
materials from family members.
The book was intended to be a
gift to Walsh’s mother, but as the
pieces came together it evolved
from a tribute to her family to a
tribute to Southwestern, Georgetown
and the state of Texas.
Price, who attended Southwestern
from 1901 to 1908 as a student
in the fitting school and as a
music student at the university,
was the youngest daughter of a
family whose ancestors arrived in
Georgetown in the 1870s. Price’s
uncle, Frank L. Price, helped get
Georgetown selected as the site for
the university.
While the book presents the
love story between Price and
her fiancé, Morris Fleming, it
also depicts the university’s first
homecoming, which Price described
in her letters as “magnificent”
and “full of revelry."
“The entire town was draped
with ‘Welcome’ banners in
Southwestern’s colors. Everywhere
you went, there were
greetings between long-lost
friends and well wishers exchanging
news of their lives
since leaving school,” she wrote
in a letter to Fleming dated
April 23, 1909.
In the same letter, Price describes
attending an orchestra
and glee club concert that lasted
until midnight and closed with
the crowd singing “Blest Be the
Tie.” Price said it was a moment
she would remember forever,
and the song was the inspiration
for the book’s title.
Along with the letters, Walsh
has included period photographs,
postcards, newspaper
and magazine clippings, greeting
cards, invitations, letterhead,
telegrams and announcements.
The memoir is laid out similarly
to a scrapbook that could have
been kept in the early 1900s.
The Price family home, built
in the 1880s, still stands at 209 E.
10th St. across from a house that
was once owned by Price’s aunt
and served as a boarding house
for male Southwestern students.
Walsh will be at The Williamson
Museum Nov. 6 from 6 to
8 p.m. for a book signing. The
limited edition, signed books
will be on sale at that time.
During homecoming, Walsh
will present her book, along
with a number of artifacts from
Price’s collection, to the Georgetown
Heritage Society Nov. 7 at
9:30 a.m. at the Grace Heritage
Center, 811 S. Main St. The book
will be available for purchase at
Hill Country Bookstore, 719 S.
Main St., Georgetown, and the
Southwestern University Book
store, 1001 E. University Ave. Author Louise Walsh
Courtesy Southwestern University
Courtesy Louise Walsh
Your trip
to Grace
just got shorter.
Join Grace Episcopal Church at their new West-side
location at 4701 Williams Dr., Bldg. #4.
West
Services begin at
8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Visit us on the Web at
www.graceepis.org
S. Austin Ave.
E. 9th St.
E. 10th St.
E. 11th St.
Early Price attended
Southwestern University
between 1901 and 1908.
S. Main St.
Central
Services begin at 8 a.m. ,
10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Southwestern U.
S. Church St.
1314 E. University Ave.,
(512) 863-2068
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