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Your Rice Family E~Zine
Generation by Generation ~ Century by Century
TWICE MONTHLY VOL. 2, NO. 14 JULY 31, 2009
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We return this week to the Archibald Rice family in Jackson County, Missouri, where their farm was next to the Santa Fe Trail and wagon trains stopped to rest and get re-supplied for the long journey ahead.
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Historic Rice Home in Raytown, Missouri
Archibald Rice built this home in 1844 and his son Elihu Coffee Rice inherited it. After Elihu's 1903 death, it was owned by Judge Joseph M. Lowe and his son, J. Roger Lowe. Shown at right are Roger and his daughters, and at far right is Judge Lowe.
The home is now known as the Rice - Tremonti house because Dr. Louis G. Tremonti and his wife, Lois Gloria, who lived there almost 60 years, were the last owners before the property was acquired in 1988 by the Friends of the Rice-Tremonti Home Association.
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IN THIS ISSUE
Archibald Rice Family
and the Santa Fe Trail
Aunt Sophie's Story
For Root Diggers
and Branch Climbers:
A Genealogical Puzzle
- The Case of the Baffled Butler
Confusion in the Family Forest: CORRECTING THE RECORD
The Archibald Rice Family
Southern Family Trees:
~ Rice Marriages in
Oldham Co., KY
~ Rice Marriages in Baltimore, MD
~ Who was David Rice
of Surry Co., VA
in 1683?
~ An 1854 Rice-Rogers Marriage in Louisiana
Chart of Taylor Co., KY
Rice Family
Dozens of Rice-Bartlett
Family Connections
Artist William H. Jackson
Portrays the Old West
(Pictures Along the Sante Fe & Oregon Trails)
for Curious
Rice Ancestor
BOOK ONE INDEX
RICE EMAIL LISTS
(Check all spellings)
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ROYCE FAMILY
ASS0CIATION, INC.
REECE/REESE
DNA PROJECT
WEBSITE OF JOHN FOX
(Desc. of Thomas & Marcy Rice of Virginia)
(Send links to your genealogy pages; they must include
a Rice line.)
GOIN' FISHIN'
FOR
ANCESTORS?
WANT A
BIGGER
CATCH?
TWO THINGS
TO TRY:
1) If you are not a male bearing the Rice surname, find a relative who is and have a DNA test done.
2) Send in the name of your earliest known Rice ancestor, giving at least one date and location, and we will try to match it with those families being researched by other readers. Email: ricebooksreb@yahoo.com
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
If your newsletter looks like it is not properly formatted, or is garbled, please let us know!
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FOLLOW-UP
A Jackson County, Missouri, Rice Family
ELIHU COFFEE RICE (1824-1903)
Elihu C. Rice stayed in Jackson County, Missouri, when his older brother William--the subject of our last issue's feature story--freed his slaves and headed by wagon train to California.
Their father, Archibald Rice, and his wife, Sally, had come from North Carolina to Missouri in the 1820s and settled in Jackson County within a decade. In 1836, he moved his family to a claim of 160 acres at what is now Raytown, MO. The Rice home was located eight miles from Independence on the Santa Fe Trail, a location which probed to be quite lucrative.
Archibald, his sons and their slaves cleared the land and established a home site and by 1839 had the northwest corner of Section Five almost entirely fenced and seeded with corn and wheat.
The first Rice home and several slave cabins were built of logs. About eight years later, in 1844, Arcibald and Sally built a new Gothic Revival frame farmhouse. It is one of the few pre-Civil War homes still standing in the Kansas City region.
SANTA FE TRAIL STOP-OVER
The Rice farm became a popular stopping-over place for travelers taking the Santa Fe trail westwrd. Thousands were headed for the California gold fields. Others, including several Rice families, were headed west on the trail and would end up taking the Oregon Trail to settle on land in what became Oregon. (Some of these families were from Tennessee and settled in Oregon. They are covered in Rice Book 3: Tennessee and Connecticut Rice lineages.)
These traveling families would camp on the land, rest and replenish their supplies. The Rices--and many others in the area--had space for wagons, springs for watering and corn and prairie grass to feed animals. Amazingly, at least 27 original accounts by these travelers, dating from 1838 to 1849, have been located. They all spoke favorably of Archibald Rice's hospitality during their long and difficult westward trek. Nearly the entire Jackson County community was somehow involved with these hundreds of wagons passing through on the Santa Fe trail. Farmers grew corn to feed the animals, or raised and butchered hogs for trail supplies. Thousands of Spanish mules and oxen fattened on the good grass travelers were welcome to use.
Local men left their families and served as teamsters for the freighters.
During 1849, about 490 men and 132 wagons paused at the Rice farm. Perhaps it was the lure of the trail, or the possibility of better opportunities, that caused Archibald's oldest son, William, to head for California with his wife and children in 1859.
THE NEXT GENERATION AND THE CIVIL WAR
Arfchibald Rice died in 1849 at age 67. His estate passed to his son, Elihu Coffee Rice. A year later Coffee and Catherine "Kitty" Stoner White were married. Sophia White, a slave, came with Kitty to her new home. ("Aunt Sophie's" story is in the next article.)
The Civil War threw this Rice family into turmoil. Although William had freed his slaves before heading for California, apparently Archibald and "Coffee" had not. As slaveholding southerners they did the same as many others: They fled to Texas in 1861, handing their home over to the James Hunter family.
When, in 1863, Union General Thomas Ewing imposed martial law, all of Jackson County's remaining southern sympathizers were forced from their lands. The Hunters were evicted from the house. For some reason the Rice home escaped destruction, unlike other antebellum houses.
E. Coffee Rice prospered in the cattle business while in Texas and brought his family back to their Jackson County home in 1866. He became a promineng Jackson County citizen, serving as road commissioner before his death in 1903. His will ldirected that the old homestead be sold, probably because the next generation had headed west.
The Rice home passed on to other families and now is owned by the city.
WE HEAR FROM AN IMPORTANT DESCENDANT
One of the emails received after the last issue went out was from Michael O'Brien, vice president of Friends of the Rice-Tremonti Home Association. Michael is a great-great-great-grandson of Archibald Elihu Rice, his descent being through William and Coffee Rice's sister, Lettitia, born in 1818, who married a Mr. Chiles.
Michael tells us that this organization, which manages and maintains the Rice-Tremonti house, needs to do more maintenance to preserve the house than they have funds to finance. This is a non-profit organization that depends upon private donations, memberships and admission fees for all operating income.
I told Michael I would ask our readers to consider making a donation. Here is the information you need in order to do that. If you use the link, then go to the "friends" section, you can make a donation online.
The Friends of the Rice-Tremonti HomeP.O. Box 9393
Raytown, MO 64133
Friends of Rice Tremonti Membership: Individual: $15.00 Family: $25.00.
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Aunt Sophie's Story
Aunt Sophie was mentioned in the above story as the slave who reared Catherine "Kitty" Stoner White and joined the family after Kitty married Elihu Coffee Rice in 1850.
The log cabin that was Sophie's home on the Rice property has been rebuilt and is open to the public. Here is more of Aunt Sophie's story.
Frank Ballard came to Raytown in the 1880's, lived on the same plantation as Sophie and often visited her. She spoke of the Santa Fe Trail which passed the Rice home and told stories of the pioneers who made up the sparse village of Raytown. When Sam Rice left his home to go to California, the Ballard family moved into it.
"Aunt Sophie was a personage in her own right," Mr. Ballard often said, "dignified, truthful, and industrious." To his question on why she hadn't married she replied: "Why, Mr. Frank, I didn't have time. I was only 15 when Miss Kitty was born and I was her personal nurse from then on. When she married Mr. Coffee Rice when she was 15, I was one of her wedding presents. She needed me and needed me bad, to help with the house, the cooking, and to care for her babies. Besides, we loved each other."
Annie Lane Jackson, granddaughter of Coffee and Kitty Rice, had many recollections of her grandmother and Aunt Sophie. The grandmother bought clay pipes four at a time from Peddler Dave and saw no harm at all in sharing the treat of smoking with six-year-old Annie. "Somehow my teacher in Independence heard about it," said Mrs. Jackson, "and made me promise never to smoke again. This promise was kept."
Her daughter, Natalie (later Mrs. C. A. Fowler), a Red Cross director in Washington, liked to tell how "Mother quit smoking at the age of six."
Aunt Sophie at regular intervals went to a "professional hairdresser to have her hair washed and braided - probably the first colored woman in Raytown to patronize a beauty shop," Mrs. Jackson said.
All the family meals were cooked by Aunt Sophie over her own fireplace and carried into the big house. On rainy days someone would hold an umbrella over her and her kettles. She scorned the modern cookstove in the large house.
For part pay, Aunt Sophie was given young livestock which she tended and sold. She was allowed to peel, dry, and sell all the apples she wished from the large orchard. She had accumulated $750 at the time of her death.
When she became infirm, Sophie decided to move into the big house to live. A large pantry being built onto the house was fixed up comfortably for her, and a nurse was provided for her care. She died at the age of 90 and was buried in the family gravesite in Woodlawn Cemetery.
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FOR FELLOW ROOT DIGGERS & BRANCH CLIMBERS
A Genealogical Puzzle: The Case of the Baffled Butler
Terwilliger Throckmorton, the twice-married millionaire, was happy when the butler announced the arrival of Throckmorton's three sons--his only remaining relatives--for his 70th birthday. As he ushered them into the parlor, the butler couldn't help notice the strong family resemblance all three bore to old Terwilliger.
After the birthday visit was over and he was helping them with their coats, the butler commented on this resemblance.
Turnbull Throckmorton, the first son to respond said:
Actually, I'm not Terwilliger's natural son, I'm adopted. But my resemblance is not accidental. I wasn't born out of wedlock and there haven't been any divorces in our family.
Tremont Throckmorton, the next son to speak said:
I see the remarks of Turnbull have mystified you. This may help you, or it may further mystify you. He omitted mentioning that he's my half-brother, although he's only a step-brother to Tobias here. On the other hand, he is also a cousin to me and to Tobias.
Tobias Throckmorton, the last son to speak, added this:
My brother Tremont hasn't told you quite everything, either. He and I are the only two natural sons of Terwilliger, but we are also only half-brothers.
The butler was now totally confused. Only after he'd gotten pencil and paper, and drawn several trial diagrams, was he able to see that everything he'd been told could be true. Can you do the same?
(From Genealogy, by Willard Heiss, No. 66, January, 1982.)
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Confusion in the Family Forest
The Archibald & William Rice Family
In our last issue we had items about Archibald Rice and his son, William. We noted that these Rices, who were in North Carolina before migrating westward, probably did not have the alleged New England Rice ancestry and advised caution in working with this family. We had considerable feedback on these stories, some of which is elsewhere in this issue. The following was contributed by Charles Rice.
I suspect we see the hand of Charles Elmer Rice in this New England "ancestry". Charles Elmer Rice was the author of a book called "By the Name of Rice", which contained a totally fabricated genealogy for (Deacon) Edmund Rice of Sudbury, Mass - simply making up a few generations to tack him onto the Rice family of Baron Dynevor of South Wales. CE Rice also sold fictitious "genealogies" tying everyone named Rice to old Edmund the Puritan emigrant.
I had my own fun proving my family is NOT descended from Edmund Rice and is in fact Southern, not New England. CE Rice simply stuck my 4x great grandfather onto a line of Deacon Edmund's - and had them suddenly up and moved to Virginia for no particular reason. When I looked into the "connection", I found that the NE emigrant to VA never left Massachusetts. He died and was buried there. Furthermore, my family was in North Carolina (not Virginia) at that time and had been for decades at least. Irritatingly, that faked pedigree is still all over the internet. (My DNA is nothing near the New England Rices.)
I would imagine someone accepted Charles Elmer Rice's offer to trace their ancestry - I think it was $5 for the US side and $5 more for the "English" ancestry (which made them a close cousin to Queen Elizabeth I). I got the "genealogy" from some great aunts, who in turn had got it from Cale Young Rice's brother. (CY Rice was apparently the one who paid for it.) It contained no dates, no residences, just lists of names and begats. Any genealogist today would laugh at how amateurish it was.
Check some and I'll bet you will find this "genealogy" came from Charles Elmer Rice of Alliance, Ohio back in the 1920s. The man's lies are still causing problems. This bible entry is just another of them.
Yes, Charles, this is a very distinct possibility, although I believe it is the first time  I've ever encountered faked Bible records. That this man's erroneous assumptions are still being repeated numerous times in online family trees is unfortunate. We will be talking more about proliferation of errors in Rice family genealogy in a future issue. - Rosemary
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SOUTHERN FAMILY TREES
Early Rice Family Marriages
in Oldham County, Kentucky
Peter Blake and Margarette Rice, June 21, 1827
Leander Bradshaw and Mary Rice, daughter of Thomas Rice, Sept. 2, 1839
Leonard Button and Margarette Rice, Oct. 11, 1833
John A. Rice and Lucy Ann Taylor, daughter of Francis Taylor, Dec. 23, 1839
Daniel Rice and Susannah Folly, daughter of Richard Folly, July 17, 1826
Hezekiah Rice and Mary Anderson, daughter of Thomas Anderson, Dec. 29,
1834
Thomas Rice and Catharine Bradshaw, Nov. 28, 1839
William Rice and Eliza Button, daughter of J. H. Button, May _(?)_, 1848
James Rice and Diona Carpenter, Jan. _(?)_, 1844
John Wilson and Emily Rice, Dec. 7, 1826
Source: Kentucky Vital Statistics: Record of Marriages in Oldham County, Kentucky for 1823-1851, compiled by Annie Walker Burns of Frankfort, Kentucky, 1932; typescript on file at the D.A.R. Library, Washington, DC.
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Early Rice Marriages in Baltimore, Maryland
Gilbert Bigger and Sarah Rice, May 7, 1791
William Dunkin and Bridget Rice, Feb. 1, 1794
James Rice and Elizabeth Davenport, Oct. 26, 1794
Joseph Rice and Ann Gray, Feb. 16, 1788
Source: Marriage Records of Baltimore City and County, Maryland, 1777-1799, compiled and copied in 1938 by Esther Ridgely George, chairman of genealogical records for Gen. Mordecai Gist Chapter, D.A.R.; typescript on file at D.A.R. Library, Washington, DC.
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Who Is David Rice of Surry Co., Virginia, in 1683?
David Rice's name appears on Surry County, Virginia, tithables lists in 1683, 1694 and 1698. He had property on Lawnes Creek.
Does anybody have ancestors or descendants for this David Rice?
Source: Colonial Surry, by John B. Boddie, 1948, The Dietz Press, Richmond, VA.
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An 1854 Rice - Rogers Marriage In Louisiana
Thomas I. Rice (married) to Ida Auguste Rogers, Jan. 17, 1854.
Source: Records compiled in 1931-1932 under the direction of Mrs. J. Harris Baughman, state chairman, genealogical research committee, Louisiana State D.A.R. These records are on file at the D.A.R. Library in Washington, DC. This entry is on page 22.
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Chart of Taylor County, Kentucky Rice Family
The following chart shows descent from a Capt. George M. Rice who served from Virginia in the Revolutionary War. His son Joseph was born in Kentucky in 1798 and Joseph's son William was born in 1831 in Ireland District 4 of Green Co., KY. Taylor County was carved out of Green County in 1848. The chart was furnished in the 1980s by Charles G. Rice of Morton, IL. A story about the line on the left that ends with Edward C. Rice of Columbia, KY, was sent to your editor by Edward in 1972. It is rich with anecdotal and biographical material, centering on Aaron Rice (1804-1880), a country doctor, and his son, David. This story, with photographs of both, appears in Rice Book 1: Celebrating Our Diversity.
(The chart below is a bit difficult to read. If you would like a full-size more readable copy, please email your editor.)
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Dozens of Rice - Bartlett Family Connections
There are many marriages between the Rice and Bartlett families. It is always useful to check material on allied families. It often can give you Rice data you might not find elsewhere. Below are Rice index entries for two Bartlett genealogies. The first list gives year of birth for some of the Rices. The second list is particularly helpful because it gives maiden names for many of the Rice wives. It is also from a recognized Bartlett genealogy. Copies are available in many libraries, especially in the Boston area.
Happy hunting!
SOURCE FOR LIST 1
Forefathers and Descendants of Willard and Genevieve Wilson Bartlett, by Genevieve Wilson Bartlett, published 1952, St. Louis, Missouri.
Rice, Anna (1633), 176; Bethiah (1682), 175, 177; Daniel (1655), 176-177, 182; Edmund, 160, 174, 181, 189; Edmund (1594), 176; Edward (1619), 176, 189; Elizabeth (1656), 165, 177; Henry, 160; Mary, 160; Mercie, 176; Samuel (bp 1634), 177; and, Thomas, 176
SOURCE FOR LIST 2
A Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Bartlett of Newton, Mass., compiled by Aldis Everard Hibner; published in 1934 by The Tuttle Company of Rutland, Vermont.
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THE OLD WEST
Artist William Henry Jackson Portrays
Wagon Train Era on Santa Fe and Oregon Trails
In this issue we have revisited the Archibald Rice family and their property by the Santa Fe Trail. I also have taken the opportunity to share with you works by artist William Henry Jackson, most known for capturing this era in photographs and on canvas.
Jackson's talent was recognized at an early age while he was growing up in New York and Vermont. He came home from the Civil War and would have settled near his parents, but a love affair gone wrong convinced him to head west to work in the silver mines. During most of his life he owned photography studios in western cities and, by the time he was 80, had accumulated more than 75,000 pictures of the old west. At 81, he took up the brush and painted about 100 landscapes before his death at age 99.
For trivia buffs: Jackson did the murals in Washington's Department of the Interior Building and was a technical advisor for the filming of Gone with the Wind.
The largest collection of his paintings is at the Scotts Bluff National Monument.
The pictures above and below are of Westport Landing, not far from the Archibald Rice home. This is where wagon trains crossed the Missouri River to begin their westward trip on the Santa Fe Trail.
CHIMNEY ROCK IN NEBRASKA
THE BARLOW CUT-OFF IN OREGON
SCOTTS BLUFF NATIONAL MONUMENT IN NEBRASKA
Our thanks to the staff at the Scotts Bluff National Monument for permitting our use of pictures of the William Henry Jackson paintings in the collection there.
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Draw the Family Circle Wide, Then Draw It Wider Still
Share both the fruits of your genealogical labors
and the puzzling problems you encounter
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FIRST THREE VOLUMES AVAILABLE:
The Rice Book Project
BOOK 1: Celebrating Our Diversity
Biographies of dozens of Rice family members from different backgrounds, different decades and different branches of the family; also a directory of Rice Revolutionary War soldiers; 248 pages
BOOK 2: The Immigrants
Lists of immigrants for three centuries; early generations of the Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut branches of the family; chapters on English, Irish, Scottish and German Rice families; 258 pages.
BOOK 3: Connecticut & Tennessee Rice Lineages
This covers several branches of the Rice family and chronicles in detail descendants of Henry Rice, the pioneer gristmiller in Tennessee; 512 pages.
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BOOK 4: Pennsylvania and Maryland Rice Lineages
This is the book we are now working on.
Order books from the Rice Book Project Website.
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(The RICE FAMILY EZINE is sponsored
by the Rice Family Book Project)
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