Rice Family Newsletter

Your Rice Family E~Zine

Generation by Generation ~ Century by Century

TWICE MONTHLY VOL. 2, NO. 21 December 2, 2009

Featuring the Shanks Family Massacre:

William Rice's Wife Witnessed Family Slaughter in Kentucky

THIS 1873 WOOD ENGRAVING IS ON FILE AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS IN WASHINGTON

IN THIS ISSUE:

FEATURING

THE SHANKS FAMILY MASSACRE IN BOURBON CO., KENTUCKY, AND THE DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM AND SUSANNAH (SHANKS) RICE

Root Diggers &

Branch Climbers:

Some Unusual Names & Comments Found in Genealogical Records

Canadian Indians Who Descend from New England Rices

What Our Readers Write:

Inquiries about Four Rice Families

Contents of

Rice Book 2

Ordering Info

for Giving

Rice Books

at Christmas

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Quick Links

for Curious

Rice Ancestor

Chasers

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ROYCE FAMILY
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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.)

Are there bare branches on your family tree?

Want to thaw out some ancestors who are frozen in time?

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

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GIFT PACK

Susannah (Shanks) Rice Saw Mother Scalped

INTRODUCTION

The 18th century wilderness that later became Bourbon Co., Kentucky, was a frontier barrier protecting Virginia civilization from hostile Indians. Daniel Boone explored it in the late 1760s, calling it a hunter's paradise. Then, following the American Revolution, settlers started pushing westward. Those settlers included the Shanks and Rice families.

In 1986, Cynthia (Rice) Hogan of Fort Wayne, Indiana, returned to places her ancestors William S. Rice and his wife, the former Susannah Shanks, spent their life. After a quarter of a century of research, Cynthia only knew that William Rice had been born in Virginia, perhaps around 1765, had married Susannah Shanks in Bourbon County, Kentucky, and they settled in Fleming County, Kentucky.

We begin with Cynthia's "Research Critique on Thurman B. Rice's The Shanks Family Massacre." Thurman's article appeared in Vol. XLVIII (April, 1951) of The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. Cynthia's critique was written in 1971 as part of a course requirement in the graduate school of St. Francis College.

~ By Cynthia (Rice) Hogan

ABSTRACT

On the evening of March 22, 1788, a band of Shawnee Indians brutally massacred Catherine Shanks, a widow, and four of her children. The cabin was then set on fire and the Indians made their escape to the Ohio River, pursued by a posse of neighbors aroused by the fire. Christian Shanks, the husband of Catherine, had been killed the previous year, also by Shawnees. It is known that Daniel Gillespie, the husband of Betsey Shanks, the oldest daughter, was also killed by Indians in 1787, but whether these two men were killed together or not, no one is certain.

There were four survivors of the tragedy. Each escaped unknown to the others. Thurman Rice's great-grandmother, Susannah Shanks, a girl of about 14, hid under the wagon that had brought the family over the Cumberland Gap from Virginia, and witnessed her mother being scalped only a few feet away. (Statement by Mary Holland Rice in a personal interview, September 6, 1938.) In a state of shock, she ran to the nearby woods and hid. Michael Shanks, around twenty-one years old, escaped to the home of a close neighbor. Betsey (Shanks) Gillespie and her baby escaped, too, due to the heroic fight a younger brother initiated to draw attention to himself and divert the Indians from the young mother and her child. Susannah was found in the woods several days later and taken to the house of Robert Clark, where she resided until her marriage to William Rice. She used the name of Clark on her marriage bond.

CRITIQUE

In Rice's narrative, he stated that Susannah--in telling her story--always stressed the fact that she was the only survivor, which made his research more difficult. In doing further research on the Shanks family, however, this writer discovered that Michael, after his days in the Bourbon County militia, had dropped out of sight. As no cemetery inscriptions, wills, nor other vital data were found, the possibility existed that he had left the area. Information in the 1880 census related a daughter of Susannah (Shanks) Rice had stated that both her parents were born in Virginia. Perhaps Michael had become disenchanted with Kentucky and gone back to Virginia. In the 1830 census of Berkeley, West Virginia (then in Virginia), were two men named Christian Shanks and one named Michael, aged 70/80. This was the only area in the state of Virginia or West Virginia where more than one or two Shanks families were found. Since Michael was close to age twenty-one at the time of the massacre, he would have been over seventy when the 1830 census was taken. In other words, the dates and family names match nicely.*

Further searching in Bourbon County revealed that Betsey had married William Jones and had five children by him, and that the baby was named after his deceased father, Daniel Gillespie.

Daniel Gillaspy (sic) died intestate and the right of said land descended to his mother Elizabeth Jones, wife of said William Jones, and to her five children by the said William Jones as heirs at law of the said Daniel. (Deed Book H, Bourbon County, Kentucky, October 19, 1811, p. 344.)

A later transaction stated that a patent of one thousand acres came from Virginia to Daniel Gillespie, which probably was awarded for services in the Revolutionary War. The amount of acreage implies that Daniel Sr. was an officer as privates only received one hundred acres. (Deed Book M, Bourbon County, Kentucky, May 13, 1816, p. 23.)

Susannah married William Rice one year after the massacre and they lived on his family plantation near Sherburne in Fleming County, Kentucky, some forty miles from the tragedy. She died in her seventies, never knowing that a brother and sister had survived.

Susannah and William had eleven children. (Will Book C, Fleming County, Kentucky, Will of William Rice, 1824/5, p. 191.) See list of their descendants below.

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* Your editor calculates this differently.

THE PIONEER HOME DEPICTED HERE IS FROM AN 1867 CURRIER & IVES LITHOGRAPH (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Descendants of William and Susannah (Shanks) Rice

[The following is Cynthia (Rice) Hogan's information on the families of William S. Rice and his son, Henry, through whom she descends.]

I. William S. Rice, born Virginia, ca. 1765; married in 1789 in Bourbon Co., Kentucky, Susannah Shanks, born Virginia, ca. 1774, daughter of Christian and Catherine _(?)_ Shanks. William and his wife settled at Olive Branch, Fleming Co., Kentucky. William had a sister, Sarah Rice, born April 27, 1770, and died March 25, 1842 in Fleming Co., Kentucky. She married Jacob Lawson. William Rice's 1824 will was witnessed by a Henry Rice. His son Henry was then only about age 7, so this Henry may be a brother. Earlier Rice family members from Virginia found in Fleming Co. include a John and Jane Rice. Could they be William's parents? The children of William and Susannah were:

James B. Rice, born 1793; married Margaret Moss.
Elizabeth Rice, born ca. 1794; married Wm. Allender in 1825; she must have died young as he married three more times.
Nancy Rice, who married Samuel Tribby in 1819.
Sally Rice, born ca. 1800; married Wm. Tribby in 1822.
Jane (Jenny) Rice, born ca. 1797; she didn't marry and died after 1880.
Malinda Rice--no information.
Polly Rice--never married.
Lucy Rice--no information.
Wm. J. Rice, born 22 Jan. 1808; married Rhoda Johnson (see further data below).
Henry A. Rice (his family given below).
John Rice, born ca. 1816; married, 13 Oct. 1840, Elizabeth Rigdain.

II. Henry A. Rice, born ca. 1817; married, 3 Oct. 1833, Margaret Mers, daughter of Samuel and Christina (Plank) Mers; he died in March of 1859. Their children, all born in Fleming Co., KY, were:

Samuel William Rice, born 31 March 1835; married, 19 July 1856, Mary Jane Holland, daughter of Samuel and Frances (Lawson) Holland. Samuel died 16 July 1916 in Darke Co., Ohio. Children:
1. Thomas Rice, born ca. 1858; had a son, Paul; died in Indianapolis, Indiana.
2. Henry Benjamin Rice, born 21 Jan. 1859, Olive Branch, Kentucky; married in 1881 at Indianapolis, Belle Buchanan, daughter of William Tilson and Nancy (Long) Buchanan of Cumberland, Indiana. Henry died at Urbana, Ohio, in 1949. Cynthia (Rice) Hogan, contributor of this material, is the daughter of Henry's son, Dr. Wilkie Benjamin Rice, born 6 Sept. 1882 at New Madison, Ohio, and died 5 Jan. 1962, Fort Wayne, IN. Wilkie had four sisters.
3. Roberta Rice, born ca. 1861; wed Chas. Shriver; died at New Madison, Ohio.
4. Lou Ida Rice, born 14 Jan. 1864; married a Mr. Arnold; she died 22 Feb. 1938 at Akron, Ohio.
5. Robert Rice, born ca. 1870; lived at Norwood, Ohio.
6. Dulcina (Dulla) Rice, born ca. 1874; married Bert Eddins; died in 1962 at Eldorado in Darke Co., Ohio.
7. Jesse Boone Rice, born 13 Jan. 1873; married in 1900, Ollie Noggle; died 30 June 1946, New Madison, Ohio.
8. Lillian Rice, born ca. 1876; married in 1900, William Oswalt; died at New Madison, Ohio
Jane Rice, born ca. 1837; married John Littrell.
Sarah Rice, born ca. 1846; married Michael Plank.
Christiana Rice, who was born about 1847 and who married William Plank.
Permelia Rice, born ca. 1855; married Valentine Ley.
Wesley Rice, born ca. 1852; married Tena _(?)_.

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The following sumary of the family of William J. Rice, son of William and Susannah (Shanks) Rice, and brother of Henry A. Rice (above), is from Thurman B. Rice's 1951 article on the Shanks family massacre.

William J. Rice (1808-1877) and his wife, Rhoda Johnson (or Tribby), had these children.

William Wallace Rice (1846-1877) married Sarah Porter and had a daughter, Maggie, who wed Charles Porter.
La Vina Rice/Melvina (1848-1929) wed Richard Prate/Prather and had children Jennie (wed Nelson Porter), Willie and Lizzie (married James Emmons)
John Rice (1850-1918) who married 1) Margaret Porter and 2) Mary King. Children: James, Willie and Fred.
Cynthia Rice (1852-1906) married James Hull and had children Addie, Warren, Pearl and Clay.
James G. Rice (1853-1907), who never married.
Martha E. Rice (1855-1934) married William Peck; had a daughter, Lottie.
Robert T. Rice (1857-1923) married Ruth Porter; they are the parents of Thurman B. Rice.
Wiley B. Rice, born 1859; he married Anna Peck and had no children.
Francis E. Rice (1861-1915) married John S. Porter; had a son, David.
Mattie Rice, who wed Cal Harmon and had no children.
Jennie Rice (twin), never married.
Josie Rice (twin), never married.
Anabel Rice, who married James Smoot Moxley; they had no children.
Sarah E. Rice (1864-1924) wed Nathan Williams. Children: James, Ethel, Emma and Rhoda.
Dora B. Rice (1866-1927) married Thomas Smart and had children Hazel, Anna and Thomas.
Charles Fleming Rice (1869-1931) married Maggie Blood and had children Harry, Elmer and Lucile.

THE ANCESTRY OF WILLIAM RICE

1. There are online family trees that say the William Rice who married Susannah Shanks was born in 1757 in King William County, Virginia in 1757, the son of Samuel Squire Rice and the former Sarah Ragland, but the documentation is inadequate. This Samuel Squire Rice allegedly had an older brother, Michael, and the two of them may have been sons of a Michael Rice born about 1680.

2. During the 1980s, your editor corresponded with L. C. Rice Jr. of Frankfort, Kentucky, who had a double Rice line. His first line is from John Rice and Janet Cockrell, who were married in 1797 in Loudoun Co., VA, through their son, Clark Rice, who is buried in Clark Co., KY. Mr. Rice believed this John Rice may have been a son of Revolutionary War soldier Benjamin Rice of Loudoun Co., VA. Mr. Rice also descends from William Zachary of Culpeper Co, VA, who settled in Bourbon Co., KY, before moving on to Pulaski Co., KY. William Zachary married Ann (or Nancy) Rice, who in turn is believed to have been a daughter of a Benajah Rice of Virginia who had a Bourbon Co., KY, land grant. William Zachary witnessed the will of a William Rice who had a wife Sarah and may have been Benajah's father.

3. In 1977, Mrs. Jeanne Orr Rice Clark of Louisville, KY, was looking for "the John Rice of Bourbon Co., KY, father of William Rice." Her John Rice was born in the 1770s. His son William married Amelia Pendleton and had children John, Cynthia, Edmund, Catherine, William (who married Miss Knott in 1846 and Sarah Glenn in 1850), Nancy, Clayborn, Amelia and Lou.

4. Cynthia (Rice) Hogan, who provided the data for our feature story on this branch of the Rice family, notes that about 1805 Charles Rice Jr., along with Campbell, Fleming and Holman Rice, moved on adjoining Fleming Co., KY, land and says her grandfather, Henry B. Rice, said they are related. DNA studies show these Rices as descendants of Thomas-1 Rice and his wife, Marcy, of Virginia. (Your editor has additional information on this branch of the Rice family that shows that Charles Rice Jr. was a son of Charles Rice and Mary (also given as Molly & Sarah) Toney, who were wed in 1774 in Albemarle Co., VA.

5. Noting that the William Rice featured in this story named his oldest son James B. Rice and had a grandson William Wallace Rice, your editor has wondered if there is kinship to Revolutionary War soldier James Brown Rice (1764-1851) who married Susan Wallace. This family came from Fauquier Co., VA. A descendant of James reports James was the son of a James Michael, or Michael Rice, who went to Kentucky after his wife's death, leaving his children to be raised by their Brown grandparents. Considering the possibility stated in #1 above, this may be an avenue worth pursuing. Your editor may be able to trace down to a current Rice male who could take a DNA test that could rule out at least one of the above scenarios.

(Information on the James Brown Rice family will be appearing in a future edition of our Rice Family E~zine.)

FOR FELLOW ROOT DIGGERS
&
BRANCH CLIMBERS

Here are some interesting things found in genealogical records. If you have more to share, send them in.

LUNENBURG CO., VA, RECORDS

Death Register

For Joe Phillips, who died 30 January 1867 at age 65: Cause of death - "worn out".

1870 CENSUS

Occupation for adult daughter living at home with her parents: "no gumption"

1825 CENSUS, JEFFERSON CO., NY

"Oldest inhabitant in town is 105 years old and no prospect of her dying."

1880 CENSUS, RUSK CO., TX

In the family of J. R. Strong the occupation for his mother-in-law, Rebecca Crow, is given as "living at ease".

FOUND AT SALT LAKE FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY

In a book of wills was one for a woman who requested that all of the pallbearers at her funeral be female. She wanted no men because, she explained, "They wouldn't take me out when I was alive and they aren't going to take me out now!"

Some Canadian Indians Descend

from New England Rice Family

Indian raids on New England took a heavy toll in colonial times, especially from outlying settlements not well protected. Indeed, early descendants of Deacon Edmund Rice-1 of Sudbury and Marlborough, Massachusetts, had children who were carried off to Canada by the Indians.

The Deacon Edmund Rice Association has chronicled some of these Indian families in Quebec Province, but remains facing a brick wall when it comes to identifying others.

The following family group sheet has been on file for several decades in the archives of the Utah Genealogical Society in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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IGNACE (Sonawenhese or Sohninon) RICE was born ca. 1740 at Caughnawaga, Quebec, Canada, son of Silas Rice and Marie Tsiakohawi. He died 24 Aug. 1810. Ignace Rice married Anne (Aratoraton or Kanonsatonkwas) Konwatiesatha, who was born ca. 1745 and died 11 July 1829. Their children were:

Thomas (Sonatsiowane) Rice, born in 1766
Marie (Kakhasionkwas) Rice, born in 1768
Ignace Rice, born in 1772
Francois Xavier Rice, born in 1775
Pierre (Taetsiaronsere) Rice, born in 1778
Joseph (Kanonowihen) Rice, born in 1782
Jean-Baptiste (Totaraherha) Rice, born in 1785
Marguerite (Konwatiesata) Rice, born in 1789

(The information in this family group sheet was compiled by Mrs. Moroni H. Brown of Salt Lake City, Utah, whose chief source was Henri Bechard, S. J. (a Jesuit) of the Kateri Center in Caughnawaga, Quebec, Canada.)

Information about some of these Indians and their descent from Edmund Rice is given in Rice Book 1: Celebrating Our Diversity. It tells the story of Silas Rice, captured as a child, who grew up in Canada and took an Indian bride.

What Our Readers Write

CHARLES RICE: VIRGINIA TO MISSOURI

Marie Baroni Allen is researching a Charles Rice family from Virginia and would like to share info with others researching this line.

Charles E. Rice (b. VA about 1796; d. Otterville, MO about 1866) married Julia Ann Carr (b. Albemarle County, VA about 1794 ). Marie is especially interested in information about their son, Charles Overton Rice.

Colonel Charles E. Rice may be the Chas Rice who enlisted in the Army on Aug 27, 1813 as a private in the 10th regiment under Capt, Joseph Clay; birthplace, Pittsylvania, VA

Residences as given in census records:
1840- Unknown Township, Cooper County, MO; roll M704_222, page 117, image 235
1850- District 23, Cooper County, MO; roll 397, page 135
1860- Lebanon, Cooper County, MO
1870- Lebanon Township, Cooper County, MO; roll 772, page 455
1880- Otterville, Cooper County MO; divorced and living with Ashhurst family (daughter and son-in-law).

Children may include: Charles Overton Rice, William Morris Rice, Adelia Frances (Rice) Ashhurst, James E. Rice and Julia Ann Rice.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Charles E. Rice and Julila Ann Carr were married 18 June 1813 in Albemarle Co., Virginia. Try contacting Pat Noble, who is a Carr family researcher familiar with this family.

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ALABAMA RICE FAMILY

I am looking for Ervin Foster Rice, born in NC on 06 Dec 1827 and died in Scottsboro(Goosepond Community) , Jackson County, Alabama on 23 Mar 1907. He first appears in Benton (Calhoun) County, Alabama in about 1851 where he married Louisa Jane King who was born in SC on 23 Apr 1832 and died In Piedmont, Calhoun, Alabama on 25 Aug 1889. I cannot find him in any 1850 census of Alabama, NC or SC. He just suddenly appears. I have not been able to find his parents either. I have extensive information on him after his marriage.

Larry G. Williams, 43 Crisp Lane, Trenton, GA 30752

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here's a rather remote possibility. Go here and punch Ervin into your browser. These are South Carolina Rices.

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KENTUCKY TO CALIFORNIA

I'm writing to see if anyone has my great-grandfather in their tree. He was Joseph William Rice, born in 1860 in Kentucky and died in California. He married Lucinda Galbraith. They had four children, Irvin Galbraith Rice, Iva Rae Rice (my grandmother), Bessie Mae Rice and Margaret Clay Rice. I think that Joseph's father may have been
John, also born in Kentucky.
Ruth Edwards

EDITOR'S NOTE: Kurt Inscoe Hahn is working on this family and I believe he has parents for your Joseph William Rice. I don't have an email address for him, but here's his address: 222 Alexandria Dr., Healdsburg, CA 95448-3423.

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OHIO RICE FAMILY

Patricia Maher is looking for info on a Margaret Rice, born in 1833, who was married to Isaac G. Hazel of Amherst in Lorain Co., Ohio.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You might try to contact Denise Frederick or Amanda Sanford, but they may be more interested in the Hazel family than the Rice family. (These email adresses may not be current.)

RICE BOOK 2: THE IMMIGRANTS

Contents

Earliest Generations Summarized for Families of Following 1600s Immigrants to New England:

~ Richard Rice of Concord, Massachusetts (and his Connecticut descendants)
~ John Rice of Dedham, Massachusetts (and his Connecticut descendants)
~ Robert Royce of Massachusetts/Connecticut
~ Edmund Rice of Sudbury, Massachusetts
~ Thomas Rice of Kittery, Maine
~ John Rice of Warwick, Rhode Island

The German Rice Immigrants:

~ The Family of Pennsylvania Revolutionary War Patriot Zachariah Rice
~ Bible Records of the Johann Christopher Rice Family of Pennsylvania
~ Conrad Rice, a Revolutionary War Soldier in Pennsylvania
~ Descendants of Jacob Rice of New York
~ The Peter Rice Family in Massachusetts and Maine
~ Caspar Rice, a Prussian who Settled in Indiana
~ Two Rice Families from Bavaria

The Irish Rice Immigrants:

~ Dominick Rice: To Virginia from Ireland in the Latter 1600s
~ William B. Rice (1760--1856) of Monroe County, West Virginia
~ Thomas Rice, Who Came from Ireland to U.S., then Canada in 1788
~ Did Isaac Rice of Philadelphia Flee the Irish Famine?
~ The John Rice Family of New Jersey

Special Features:

~ Historical Background: Coming to America
~ The Problematical Virginia Rices
~ DNA Testing Connects All of Us...Or, Does it?

Directories:

~ Rices Who Came to America in the 1600s
~ Rices Who Came to America in the 1700s
~ The Irish Famine Immigrants of the mid 1800s
~ Rice Immigrants to Canada

Other Articles: