Rice Family Newsletter

Your Rice Family E~Zine

Generation by Generation ~ Century by Century

TWICE MONTHLY VOL. 2, NO. 16 Aug. 31, 2009

Mrs. James Swan Frick of Baltimore

(Granddaughter of Maine Judge & Railroad Magnate Richard Drury Rice)

........ See Story in This Issue......

IN THIS ISSUE

We highlight a Maine branch of the Rice family

~~~~~

Some Rice Trivia

A Little Item

with Big Significance

Longest Book Title

in the World?

(There's a Rice Inside)

Richard D. Rice

Maine Judge &

Railroad Magnate

Richard H. Rice

Maine Inventor

Merwyn Ap Rice

Early Wall Street Broker

The Rice/Dana/

Frick Connection

Descent from Edmund-1 Rice of Sudbury, MA

Root Diggers & Branch Climbers: Cute Quotes

What the Readers Write: Variant Name Spellings, Complete Dates?

Southern Family Trees:

Rev. War Soldier

William Rice of Virginia

_______

Quick Links

for Curious

Rice Ancestor

Chasers

RICE FAMILY BOOK PROJECT

BOOK ONE INDEX

BOOK TWO INDEX

~~~~~~~

EDMUND RICE ASSN

ITS NEWSLETTER

RICE DNA PROJECT

~~~

RICE EMAIL LISTS

(Check all spellings)

~~~

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.)

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

Our past issues are

being

archived here.

OUR EZINE SIGN-UP

FORM IS HERE

If your newsletter looks like it is not properly formatted, or is garbled, please let us know!

Address newsletter correspondence to:
ricebooksreb@yahoo.com

Some Rice Trivia

THE FIRST FILM KISS

John C. Rice (ca. 1858-1915) was an American born Broadway stage actor who is credited with performing the first onscreen kiss with May Irwin in 1896 for the Thomas Edison film company movie, The Kiss.

SWORD OF THE LORD

John Richard Rice (1895-1980) was a Baptist

evangelist and pastor, plus founding editor of The Sword of the Lord, an influential fundamentalist newspaper. He was born in Cooke County, Texas in 1895, the son of William H. and Sallie Elizabeth (La Prade) Rice.

GENETIC BASIS OF EVOLUTION

William Rice, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is a specialist in the genetic basis of evolution who has received numerous National Science Foundation research grants.

RICE'S FINGER BITTEN OFF

You know the debate over health-care reform has "gotten really ugly," said Matthew Shaer in The Christian Science Monitor, "when people FINGER

start losing body parts." That's reportedly what happened at a California vigil held by MoveOn.org in support of ObamaCare. Bill Rice, 65, walked over from a group of counter

protesters to the MoveOn camp and punched a protester who called him an idiot; the guy bit his pinky finger off. Doctors couldn't reattach Rice's finger.

A LITTLE ITEM
WITH

BIG SIGNIFICANCE

The Item:

MARRIAGES:

6 January 1841 - Robert B. Stanton of Brooklyn, Connecticut, and Almanda Rice of Worcester, Massachusetts.

The Significance:

What is so important about this marriage record from Records of the Congregational Church in Windham, Conn., published in 1943 under the direction of the Hartford historical Society and the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Connecticut?

If you were a descendant of Robert and Almanda, where would you look for their marriage record? Certainly not in Windham, CT. In fact, as a Rice family researcher you probably would have been looking in Massachusetts which is, after all, where Almanda was from.

This is the kind of circumstance which makes genealogists give up on a certain line. They simply hit a dead end!

Never underestimate the value of a small piece of information!

THERE'S A RICE INSIDE!

Longest Book Title in the World?

We don't know what the world's longest book title is, but maybe this one should be in the Guinness Book of World Records:

A Brief Genealogical History of Robert Starkweather of Roxbury and Ipswich, Massachusetts, Who Was the Original American Ancestor of All Those Bearing the Name of Starkweather, and of His Son, John Starkweather of Ipswich, Massachusetts and Preston, Connecticut, and of His Descendants in Various Lines, 1640-1898

This book authored by Carlton Lee Starkweather, M. D., of Occoquan, Virginia, was published in 1904.

Once you get beyond the title and check out the index you can find a Rice in this book. He is Stephen Ashley Rice, born in 1806 at Henrietta, New York, and married in 1834 at Lake Port, Michigan, Lucy Hicks, who was born in 1813 in Palmyra, New York. It is Lucy who has the Starkweather ancestry.

Lucy was a daughter of Borden and Sarah (Starkweather) Hicks, who were married in 1810 in Galway, New York. Sarah Starkweather was born at Preston, Connecticut, the daughter of Avery-6 Starkweather (Arthur-5, Joseph-4, Timothy-3, John-2, Robert-1).

Stephen and Lucy Rice had these children, all born at Fibre, Michigan:

MEHITABLE RICE (1836-1847)

PRISCILLA RICE (died in infancy)

SPENCER RICE (1840-1841)

DWIGHT RICE (1842-1847)

SARAH RICE (1845-1847)

CLARK RICE (b. 1848)

How sad it must have been to have five children in a row die before they were 12 years old! Three of them died in September of 1847.

Richard D. Rice, Maine Judge & Railroad Official

Richard Drury Rice, a distinguished businessman and astute judge, was born in Union, Maine, April 10, 1810, the second son of Hon. Nathan D. Rice, and a descendant of Deacon Edmund Rice.

At age 16, Richard ws apprenticed to the printing business at nearby Thomaston and followed that trade at Exeter, NH, and Boston, MA, before taking a course in classical studies at an academy in China, ME. Following several years as a joint proprietor and editor of the Maine Free Press in Hallowell, Richard Rice moved to Augusta to read law with U. S. Senator James W. Bradbury and, after being admitted to the bar in 1840, entered Bradbury's law practice.

In 1848, Rice was apppointed a District Court judge by Governor Dana and served until the court was abolished and its jurisdiction conferred upon the Supreme Judicial Court. In 1852, Judge Rice was appointed by Gov. Hubbard as Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. At the expiration of his term in 1859, he was reappointed without opposition, this time by Governor Morrill.

One of his contemporaries paid this tribute to Judge Rice:

He brought to the aid of a thorough legal and mental training a scope and vigor of intellect rarely surpassed...he possessed quick perceptions and acute powers of discrimination which enabled him to comprehend at a glance the nicest distinctions of the law...he was patient and courteous, withholding his own opinion till he heard the whole case. In charging the jury, he had great power of grasping and combining the leading and prominent parts of evidence and laying bare to the jury the pivot upon which the case should turn...He was a good judge of men and quick to discover ability and integrity in young lawyers.

Judge Rice resigned his position on the bench in 1863 to take the presidency of the Portland and Kennebec Railroad (later the Maine Central) and, in 1871, bcame a director and vice president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

When Rice resigned his judicial position, he was yet a vigorous man with acute mental and physical powers. By the late 1870s, howsever, his responsibilities in the railroad industry had drained his energy and broken his health. Richard Rice was then compelled to seek recovery at his quiet home in Augusta. The strain on his nervous system had been too great and too prolonged for either medical skill or rest to cure and he died at age 72 in 1882.

Judge Rice was twice married, first to Anne R. Smith of Hallowell, who died in 1838, leaving one son, Albert Smith Rice, a successful lawyer in Rockland, Maine. His second wife was Almira E. Robinson, daughter of Joseph D. Emery and widow of George Robinson of Augusta. They had one daughter, Abbie, who married Samuel Dana and died in California in 1868.

The following biography is of Judge Rice's grandson, Richard Henry Rice.)

(SOURCE: Biographical Encyclopedia of Maine, compiled by H. Clay Williams and published in 1885 in Boston.)

Grandchildren of Richard Drury Rice

RICHARD HENRY RICE

MAINE ENGINEER & INVENTOR

Richard Henry Rice (l863-1922), engineer and inventor, was born in Rockland, Maine, the son of Albert Smith and Frances W. (Baker) Rice and a descendant of Deacon Edmund Rice, who settled in Sudbury, Mass. in 1638.

His grandfather was a prominent railway executive and his father served as a representative in the Maine legislature.

Rice received his early education in his native town, and in 1881, being particularly interested in engineering, he entered Stevens Institute ot Technology. After his graduation in 1885 as a mechanical engineer, he spent a year in Dennison, Ohio as a special apprentice with the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railway, then entered the employ of the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine as a draftsman.

In 1887, Rice accepted the position of designer and chief draftsman with E. D. Leavitt, engineer, of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, and in four years gained a reputation as an able engineer and machine designer. This brought him the position of general superintendent of the William A. Harris Steam Engine Company at Providence, R.I., an office he resigned when he organized the Rice and Sargent Engine Company in Providence to manufacture steam engines invented jointly by himself and his partner. He held the office of secretary and treasurer of the company until it was merged with the Providence Engineering Company in 1899. He resigned as treasurer of the new company in 1903 to join the General Electric Company at Lynn, MA. There, for 15 years, he directed work on the development of the steam turbine.

From the beginning of his engineering career, Rice demonstrated an inventive talent and in the course of his life was the recipient of some 50 patents. Chief among his original creations was the design of the first turbo-blower for blast furnaces to be installed in America, though of equal value were the Rice and Sargent steam engines designed jointly with John W. Sargent. These were recognized as among the best slow and medium speed engines in the country.

For the first two years of its existence, he was president of
the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. He served as president of the National Conference of State Manufacturers' Associations and was a member of the Lynn Fuel Commission during World War I.

He also found time to write a number of technical papers dealing with the steam turbine. Rice was both a skilled engineer and an able executive and was widely recognized for fairness, justice and honesty of purpose, as well as a thorough understanding of industrial problems.

In 1924 General Electric Co. established and endowed in his memory the Richard H. Rice Scholarship at Stevens Institute.

Rice was married first in 1887 to Mary Sue Durgin of Concord, N.H., who died in 1891, and in 1898 to Alice Woodman Kimball, who--with the two daughters by his first wife--survived him.

(The following biography is of this Richard's brother, Mervyn Ap Rice.)

Rice Was Early Wall Street Broker

Merwyn Ap Rice, son of Albert Smith Rice and the former Frances W. Baker, was born in 1867 at Rockland, Maine, and was prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Rice graduated from Bowdoin College in 1889, then studied at Columbia University School of Law in New York City, after which he was admitted to the bar in Maine and practiced law in Rockland, Maine for seven years.

Merwyn returned to New York City and was a member of the law firm of Hubbard & Rice. In 1908 Merwyn became engaged in the brokerage business as a partner in the firm of Hutchinson and Rice, which later became Hutchinson, Rice & Huntington, with offices on Wall Street. Merwyn was also a member of the National Arts Club.

Rice and his family lived in Montclair, New Jersey. His wife, the former Ella Frances Dow, was the daughter of Herbert J. Dow of Rockland, Maine. Merwyn and Ella had children Merwyn Ap Rice and Albert Smith Rice.

SOURCE: Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Vol. 4,

by George Thomas Little, Henry Sweetser Burrage & Albert Roscoe Stubbs.

Abbie Rice Marries into Prestigious Family

She was Abbie Emery Rice, daughter of Richard Drury Rice, and named for a grandmother. She came from a family that was growing in power and prestige. In this generation she, her siblings and her cousins were making marriage matches that led to position and wealth.

Abbie married Major Samuel Dana (1838-1870), son of Samuel and Nancy (Winchester) Dana, a Civil War soldier who had been injured at the Gettysburg battle and was still on crutches when they were wed. It is a sad story. She and her husand, who was still in the U.S. Army, were posted to San Francisco, California (not yet a state then). Both died within five years, leaving two children, George (1867-1885),and Elise Winchester Dana (b. 1864). It is Major Dana who is pictured above right.

In this next generation, George (1867-1885) died in London, where he probably was visiting a wealthy aunt on his father's side. His sister, Elise Winchester Dana, married well. She wed, in 1886 at her father's mansion in Augusta, Maine, James Swan Frick of Baltimore. It is Elise who is pictured at the beginning of this newsletter.

A MAINE RICE FAMILY

Descent from Edmund Rice

Richard Drury Rice and his descendants, featured in the preceding stories, descend from the immigrant Edmund Rice, who came from England to settle in Massachusetts. He arrived at Sudbury, MA, in 1638.

EDMUND RICE

HENRY RICE (b. ca. 1617) of Sudbury & Framingham, MA

m. 1643, Elizabeth Moore

JONATHAN RICE (b. 1654) of Sudbury & Framingham, MA

m. 1674-5, Martha Eames

m. 1677, Rebecca Watson

m. 1690-1, Elizabeth Wheeler

EZEKIEL RICE (b. 1700)

m. ca. 1722, Hannah Whitney

m. 1753, Prudence (Pratt) Bigelow, widow of Daniel Bigelow

m. 1769, Margaret, widow of Isaac Bond

m. 1772, Ruth Chapin

RICHARD RICE (1730-1793) of Natick, MA

m. 1755, Sarah Drury

JAMES RICE (1758-1829) of Natick, MA

m. Sarah Perry
moved to Union, Maine

NATHAN D. RICE (b. 1784)

m. 1806, Deborah Bannister

m. 1851, Abby M. Emery (widow)

RICHARD DRURY RICE (b. 1810) of Union, Maine

m. 1) Anne R. Smith

FOR FELLOW ROOT DIGGERS
&
BRANCH CLIMBERS

Genealogical Bonsai: Little Family Trees

Some family trees grow overnight. They are fertilized with internet fodder.

I traced my tree back to zip, but who were Adam and Eve's ancestors?

Always remember you are unique, just like everyone else.

Genealogists never die. They just get filed away

Genealogists are time unravellers

Genealogy is T-R-E-E-rific!

Isn't genealogy fun? The answer to one problem, leads to a dozen more!

What the Readers Write ...

VARIANT SURNAME SPELLINGS

How would you describe the connection of these family lines? To the best of my knowledge, I have ancestors named Rhys, Rees, Reese, then Reece.

Thanks,
Ralph Turner Reece

Sometimes families with different surname spellings are connected and sometimes they are not. There are no hard and fast rules around this.

Before the early 1800s, most people in America could not read nor write. Their name was written down on paper by clergymen or military officers as it sounded, which means when a person was born it might be spelled one way, when a young man was mustered into the army it was spelled a different way, and when he married it was spelled yet another way. In my own direct Bachelor line there are more than 14 spellings of the surname.

Some of the spellings can be connected to places of origin. Rhys is most common among people of Welsh origin, whereas Reese and Reis are often, but not always, of German origin.

"Royce" is how "Rice" is pronounced by people with certain (primarily rural) Welsh and English accents, especially when you get back before the mid 18th century. This phenomena may or may not account for why several New England Royces had descendants who changed the spelling to Rice. Such a change would be an update: Nobody in America now pronounces what looks like "Rice" as "Royce".

I am oversimplifying in order to give you a fairly brief answer. The important thing to remember is that it is not safe to sort people into separate family groups based solely upon differences in surname spellings. Two examples:

1) In early Connecticut there were Royces and Rices who did not have a common ancestor, but also Royces and Rices who did have a common ancestor.

2) In the 1700s there is a church congregation in the Philadelphia region in which there were members who spelled their surname as Rice, as Royce, as Rees, as Reese and as Reece. They all lived in the same community.

If, Ralph, you can give me names, dates and places for some of your early ancestors with these surnames, I may be able to shed more light on how your ancestors may be connected.

WHY DON'T YOU USE COMPLETE DATE?

Several readers have asked why, in the Rice Ezine, only the year is given for most dates, even when it appears that the month and day are probably part of, for example, the birth, marriage or death record?

The answer is simple. Most of what I share with you is meant as clues to help you research your own family. I don't believe genealogists should have others doing their work. Yes, I often have the full date. However, I want you to find it on your own. Each individual family researcher should be confirming by documentation where each record can be found.