Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume II, Part 35

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 1008

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 35

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

(VI) David, son of Nathaniel Rice, was born in 1781, probably at Buxton. He was brought up on his father's farm at Buxton Four Corners, and became a teacher in the Gorham Academy. He married Eliza Warren, who was a teacher in the academy also, and who died in 1838. After marriage he became a surveyor of lumber logs. He died in 1829, at the age of forty eight, at Buxton. Children : 1. Francis Warren, born 1815; mentioned be-

low. 2. Henry J., born May 7, 1816; died June 5, 1894; married, November 10, 1840, Melinda Burbank; children: i. Frank, born December 3, 1841, married Josephine L. Hig- gins ; ii. Willis B., born January 28, 1844; iii. Adelaide E., born January 2, 1848, married, June 28, 1872, Charles H. Dennett, and had Henry R. Dennett, born November 3, 1873, and Kate E. Dennett, born June 15, 1877; iv. Elizabeth, born February 14, 1855; v. Philip H., May 29, 1857 ; vi. Edith M., April 3, 1861. 3. Thomas, lost at sea. 4. Martha, born July 15, 1813; died March 14, 1889; married, June 25, 1836, Beniah C. Goodwin; children : i.

Elizabeth Goodwin, born July 5, 1837, died November 14, 1865, married June 7, 1860, H. F. Eaton ; ii. William H. Goodwin, born Janu- ary 26, 1839, married Helen Underwood; iii. Mary J. Goodwin, born August 13, 1841, died December 21, 1899, married October 2, 1865, Dr. W. A. Wright, and had Willis Howard Wright, born March 14, 1867, Philip Henry Wright, May 6, 1870, Arthur Goodwin Wright, May 3, 1872, Hamlin Edward Wright, Febru- ary 20, 1874, and Julia May Wright, Febru- ary 23, 1879, died March 23, 1879 ; iv. Lucy A. Goodwin, born March 16, 1843, died June 8, 1850; v. Abbie T. Goodwin, born August 31, 1844, married F. F. Graves ; vi. Richard Good- win, born November 25, 1849, died September 15, 1850; vii. Charles W. Goodwin, born Sep- tember 27, 1853, died October 6, 1890, mar- ried Hester Richardson. 5. Elizabeth, burned to death. 6. Sarah, born 1823. 7. Charles Albion, born 1825; mentioned below.

(VII) Francis Warren, son of David Rice, was born in 1815, at Buxton, and died Septem- ber 22, 1888, of paralysis, at Saco, Maine. He learned the printer's trade at Saco, and worked for a time at Portland, in the Portland Advertiser office. He worked some time in Boston and New York, and in 1837 became assistant editor of the Mobile ( Alabama) Ad- vertiser. Two years later he returned to Saco and engaged in the West India trade with his brother, Henry J. Rice, removing soon to Michigan, where he engaged in general trade. The next year he went to Paris as correspond- ent of the Boston Olive Branch and other other American publications. At the end of four years he returned to Boston and became assistant editor of the Olive Branch. In 1849, in company with Joseph M. Crane, of Vir- ginia, he went to California and founded the San Francisco Courier. A year later he sold out and went to Panama, then returned to Bos- ton. He was appointed consul at Acapulco,

829

MASSACHUSETTS.

Mexico, under President Fillmore, and held that office a year. Then he went to Panama, and was South American correspondent of the New York Times. Under President Lin- coln he was appointed consul at Aspinwall, which he held during Lincoln's and Johnson's administrations. President Arthur reappointed his consul at Aspinwall. He subsequently be- came owner and director of the Boston Ice Company's business at Panama, and was en- gaged in that business at the time of his death. He married (first) Josephine Arosamina ; (second) Carmen Arosamina. Children : I. Ernesto, died at Lynn, Massachusetts. 2. Elysa, born at Somerville, Massachusetts; married Henry Cook, vice consul at Aspinwall. 3. Maria, died young, in New York. 4. Hen- rico. 5. Ricardo. 6. Dolores, married James B. Schuber.

(VII) Charles Albion, son of David Rice, was born at Buxton, October 22, 1825, and died at Lynn, Massachusetts, October 7, 1903. At the age of twelve he and his sister Sarah, aged fourteen, went to Boston on a schooner ; two other sisters had preceded him, and were living in families in Boston. His sister Sarah found employment in a Charlestown family, and he worked in a grocery store there. Rev. Thomas Starr King (or Starr King, as he was then called) was a fellow clerk in the same store, and the friendship formed at that time continued through life. His sister Elizabeth was living then in the Loring family, on Beacon Hill. The Lorings wished very much to adopt her, but her mother would not consent. One evening when the family was absent, Eliza- beth's dress caught fire from the fireplace, and she was so badly burned that she died two weeks later. The next year ( 1838) he return- ed home to see his mother, who died of con- sumption the day after he arrived. Return- ing to Boston, at the age of fifteen he enlisted in the navy on the man-of-war "Warren." Having no parents or guardian, his aunt, at his request, gave the necessary consent for his enlistment. The ship remained in harbor two months, and he acted as instructor of two classes of boys; but when the ship was ready to sail, his brother, Francis W., objected to his going, and proved before the court that the enlistment was illegal. He then went to Saco again, and worked in the grocery store of his brother for two months, and then shipped in the merchant vessel "Windsor Castle," owned by Stephen Glover's son, of Roxbury, for two voyages. They sailed from New Orleans to Liverpool, and from Mobile to Liverpool, with

cotton. He was in London in November, 1841, when the Prince of Wales, now King Edward VI, was christened. The ships were gaily decorated with flying flags in honor of the occasion. While there he and sixty of the officers and crew boarded on Denison street, with a Mrs. Davidson. In 1878, on a voyage to England, he visited the old board- ing place. His next three voyages were with Captain Carter, of Bath, running between Boston and Mobile, Alabama. While in Mo- bile he contracted the yellow fever and was in the Chelsea hospital two weeks, then going, against the advice of the doctor, to Freyburg, Maine, to the home of his sister. The long hard trip, in which he was obliged to wade across the Saco river, caused a relapse, and he was sick for months with intermittent fever. He shipped at Saco with Stephen Fairfield for Marseilles, France, but changed his mind and went to Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, to learn the painter's trade with Thayer Brothers. He had trouble with his employers because he refused to attend church twice a day, pre- ferring to visit his uncle Sunday afternoons, and therefore left them and finished his trade with Rogers & Phillips, Union street, Boston. The last year he worked for them he received one hundred dollars for the year's work. He worked at his trade in South Weymouth, East Abington, Charlestown, and also six months in the car shops at Fitchburg, and six months in New York. In 1848 he was with Jacob Chase of Lynn, remaining until January, 1849. At this time the gold fever broke out, and he was one of the first to go to California, going on the sailing vessel "Josephine," taking six months for the voyage around the Horn. He opened a general store in San Francisco, than a small mining town. The following year he returned east, and married, at Providence, Rhode Island, February 16, 1850, Miranda Rawson, born June 17, 1831, daughter of Artemas (2) and Dorcas B. (Rice) Rawson, of Paris, Maine (see Rawson, VI). The young couple re- turned to California by way of the Horn, on the ship "Ellen Noyes," and Mr. Rice con- tinued his business two years more, success- fully. In September, 1853, he returned east again, and after a brief residence in Somer- ville, Massachusetts, finally settled in Lynn, in April, 1854. He engaged in the painting business in company with Joseph E. Huse, under the firm name of Rice & Huse, on Broad street, later on Lewis street. He carried on the business for thirty-five years with success, and then the firm was dissolved. Mr. Rice

830

MASSACHUSETTS.

located on Charles street, in Boston, in the same business, with James M. Rawson 'as partner, under the firm name of Rawson & Rice, continuing seven years. He then retired from active business in order to devote his time to study and travel. At the age of sixty- nine he made a voyage around the world, and visited the various places which he had seen when a boy. He spent his winters in the warmer climates, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Southern California, and the Western Islands.

He was a member of Bunker Hill Lodge, No. 14, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Charlestown. In politics he was a Repub- lican, and a great admirer of Charles Sumner and Charles Francis Adams. He was interest- ed in the public questions of the day and was unusually well informed. Of good judgment, high ideals and character, he possessed the respect and friendship of his townsmen to an unusual degree. Children: I. Charles Ocean, born September 18, 1850; died next day. 2. Florence Eldora, born February II, 1852; married, May 1, 1880, Frank Cyrus Smith, of Boston, and had Florence Marion Smith, born February 26, 1881, at Topeka, Kansas. 3. Anna Cora, born February 17, 1854; died May II, 1863. 4. Charles Francis, born February 19, 1856; mentioned below. 5. Frederick Lander, born August 5, 1862; died May 27, 1863. 6. Dr. Frederick Ernesto, born May 5, 1873; mentioned below. 7. Alice, died young.

(VIII) Charles Francis, son of Charles Albion Rice, was born at Lynn, Massachusetts, February 19, 1856. He graduated from the Brickett grammar school at the age of fifteen, and took a college course at the Eaton Acad- emy at Norridgewock, Maine, for two years. He entered the employ of the Lynn Semi- Weekly as reporter, in 1874, remaining three years, acting also as correspondent for the Boston Herald. In 1878 he made an extended trip to Europe, returning in the fall to a posi- tion on the Boston Herald, covering Somer- ville, Charlestown, the States Prison and Navy Yard for fifteen years. During this time he was correspondent also for the Army and Navy Journal, and Bunker Hill Times. In 1890 he was made political editor of the Bos- ton Herald, and covered the Massachusetts General Court, state and city politics. He re- signed his position on the Herald in December, 1893, following which he was executive officer of the relief committee that raised a hundred thousand dollars during the hard times of 1893 to relieve the suffering poor of Boston. He assisted in managing the Women's Bureau

in connection with this charity during 1893 and 1894, having offices on Bedford street, and being under the direction of the general committee of prominent citizens of Boston. When the office of state fire marshal was created by the legislature in 1894, Mr. Rice was appointed chief fire aide to the state fire marshal, with offices in the state-house. When the office of fire marshal was abolished, on recommendation of Governor Crane, May 7, 1902, and its duties transferred to the Massa- chusetts district police, Mr. Rice was appoint- ed chief fire inspector of the state by Gov- ernor Crane. He was reappointed by Gov- ernor Bates, and has held the office to the present time. Under the present law the in- cumbent of the office is appointed for life, or during good behavior. In 1903 Mr. Rice began the study of law at home, according to the course prescribed by the Boston University Law School, and later continued in the law office of Charles H. Innes. He successfully passed the examination for admission to the bar August 20, 1907, practically at the same time as his son, Fisher K. Rice.

Mr. Rice and his family attend the First Unitarian Church, of Somerville. In politics Mr. Rice has always been a Republican, and active in the councils of his party, serving as delegate to many nominating conventions, as secretary of the Republican ward and city committees of Somerville during the Harrison- Cleveland presidential campaign, and also sec- retary of the State League of Republican Clubs. He was secretary of the Fifth Con- gressional district committee, when General Nathaniel P. Banks was elected to congress the last time. He was secretary of the state committee supporting Governor John Q. A. Brackett against Hon. W. W. Crapo. With Governor Greenhalge and A. C. Burrage, he was instrumental in procuring the nomination of Congressman Allen, who was against the then invincible Governor William E. Russell. He was active in the campaign that resulted in the nomination of William H. Haile as lieutenant-governor, and in that which result- ed in the first election of Henry Cabot Lodge to the United States senate. He was the first chairman of the Eighth Congressional district committee. He was the projector of the Cen- tral Club of Somerville, incorporated in 1886, and was its first secretary, continuing for four years. The club owns one of the largest and best appointed club houses in the state, with a membership of three hundred prominent citi- zens. He is a member of the John Abbott

831

MASSACHUSETTS.

Lodge of Free Masons of Somerville; of the Republican Club of Massachusetts; of the Eaton School Alumni Association; of the Everett Debating Society of Lynn and of the Brickett School Association, and a Son of the American Revolution. He was formerly com- mander of the Prospect Council, American Legion of Honor. He was for seven years financial secretary of the Boston Press Club and served as delegate to various conventions of the International League of Press Clubs, in different parts of the United States and Bermuda, and was secretary of International League of Press Clubs, elected at New Or- leans in 1898; at Baltimore in 1899; at New York City and New Orange in 1900; at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1901 and 1902; at Boston in 1902 and 1903, and at Atlantic City. He declined a re-election, and on motion of the famous Mrs. Belva A. Lock- wood, of Washington, the following resolution was adopted by the convention: "Resolved, that the thanks of the International League of Press Clubs are eminently due to our retiring secretary, C. Frank Rice, who has served us so faithfully for the past six years, who has done so much to make the league a success, who has answered all our letters so kindly and patiently and whose annual reports have been models of information and correctness." A committee was then appointed to obtain a suit- able testimonial and at a meeting of the gov- erning board, held at Reading, Pennsylvania, the league presented to Mr. Rice a silver lov- ing cup, inscribed: "In testimony of the ap- preciation of the International League of Press Clubs for five years service of C. Frank Rice as Secretary of the league." He was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the International League of Press Clubs in October, 1907, at Birmingham, Alabama, and at the Bermuda convention in 1909.

He married, at Boston, July 12, 1881, Emma Eliza Keeler, born April 15, 1858, daughter of Fisher M. and Mary L. (Wilkinson ) Keeler. Her father died at Somerville, April 9, 1907, aged seventy-four years. He was a wholesale druggist supply merchant, Boston. Children : I. Fisher Keeler, born at Somerville, Septem- ber II, 1882; graduate of the Morse school and the Somerville high school, class of 1902 ; studied law in Boston University, and received the degree of doctor of laws and master of jurisprudence in 1905, and was admitted to the bar in 1907; connected with the law office of Judge William H. Preble and Hon. Herbert L. Baker, Boston; is a member of the Sigma

Alpha Epsilon fraternity of Boston Univer- sity. 2. Francis Warren, born at Charlestown, June 28, 1884. 3. Nathaniel Pierpont, born at Somerville, September 30, 1888; graduate of Somerville high school, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and entered Dart- mouth College in 1909.

(VIII) Frederick Ernesto, son of Charles Albion Rice, was born at Lynn, May 5, 1873. He attended the public schools of his native place, and was graduated from the Lynn high school in the class of 1888. Afterward he attended the Oak Grove Seminary at North Vassalborough, Maine. At the age of sixteen he entered the employ of the General Electric Company at Lynn, and worked three years at the trade of machinist. He then was with the Standard Thermometer Company at Peabody for a year, and with the United States Shoe Machinery Company at Beverly for two years and a half. He entered the Boston Dental College in 1895, and graduated in the class of 1898, with the degree of D. D. S. He began to practice in Salem, opening his present office on Essex street in that city. He resides at 18 Highland avenue, Beverly. In religion he is a Unitarian, in politics a Republican. He has been a member of Essex Lodge of Free Masons since March 29, 1904; of Washington Royal Arch Chapter, since January 1I, 1906. He served three years in the Second Corps of Cadets of Salem, and is a member of the vet- eran company connected with that body. He belongs to the Essex Dental Association. He married, "September 9, 1901, Bertha Frances Goldsmith, born November 12, 1875, daughter of Nathan Burnham and Rebecca Frances (Clark) Goldsmith, of Beverly. Her father was a carpenter at Beverly. Children : Charles Frederick, born July 26, 1902; Frances and Jeanette (twins ), born August 6, 1904.

Barney Rice, stone mason, resided RICE in New Jersey, probably at Maple- ton. He was a contractor and is said to have had a contract for the stone work on Rutgers College. His wife Mary, born in 1699, died in 1800, aged one hundred years and six months, and thus lived in three cen- turies.

(II) James, son of Barney Rice, enlisted in the revolutionary service at Mapleton, New Jersey, in November, 1775, and served to the close of the war. He was first a private and then sergeant under command, first, of Cap- tain John Polhemus, and later of Captain John Holmes. His regimental commanders were

832

MASSACHUSETTS.

colonels Lord Sterling, William Wines and Matthias Ogden. He was engaged in the actions at Lake Champlain, Monmouth and Connecticut Farms. He applied, May 14, 1818, for a pension on account of his military service, which was granted ; and after his death his widow was a pensioner. When about sixty years of age he removed to Fayette, New York, and took up land in the then wilderness of the west at Geneva, where he died about 1822-23. He married, March II, 1789, Eliz- abeth Narran, who survived him some years. Their children were: James, Elizabeth, Jane, Stephen and John, next mentioned.

(III) John, youngest child of James and Elizabeth (Narran) Rice, was born August 5, 1804. He was educated in a log schoolhouse and frequently studied his lessons at home by the light of the fire in the great fireplace which warmed the room. He apprenticed himself to a carpenter, but just before completing his apprenticeship he departed from Geneva and in 1830 became a clerk for a flour and com- mission firm in New York City. In 1836, when he had started in business for himself, the great fire of that year swept away all he had. He was a man of energy and good busi- ness ability, and with the aid of friends again started in the flour and grain business which he carried on until his death in 1856. His store was at 109 Broad street. He owned two large flouring mills on the outlet between Keuka and Senaca lakes, one the Croton Mill, four miles from Penn Yan, and the other, the Hope- ton, five miles from Penn Yan. The flour made there he transported in his own canal boats, of which he owned eight or ten, and sold in New York City. He developed a foresight and keenness in business that made him a suc- cessful man, and he was invited to become interested in various business enterprises. He was president of the Atlantic Bank, afterward the Atlantic National Bank, and his portrait was on the one-dollar bills it issued. He was a trustee of the New York Life Insurance Company, and served as such until his death, which occurred at Utica, September 10, 1856. He resided in Brooklyn and was alderman of the sixth ward in that city. Besides owning the business house he occupied he had an ele- gant home on Carroll street, which was built on plans suggested by Mrs. Rice. He also owned a residence block on the same lot which he rented out. He attended Christ Church of which his wife was a communicant. He was a large-hearted, benevolent man and gave freely to all deserving persons who asked for

aid, and every winter he furnished flour and coal to a certain number of indigent persons who lived near him. For a year before his death he was affiliated with mental aberration brought on by overwork, which neither he nor any one else knew of until just before his death. Much of his business was in such con- dition that at the settlement of his estate there was left for his children only an insurance policy of $10,000 which he had in the New York Life. He married Sarah H. Smith, born in Ogdensburg, New York, in 1814, died in 1856, only a short time after her husband. Their children, all born at Penn Yan, were: Edward S., Albert R., Sidney D., Fred G., Sarah (died young), Helen, John (died young), James (died young).

(IV) Dr. Albert Raymond, second son of John and Sarah H. (Smith) Rice, was born at Penn Yan, Yates county, New York, April 26, 1841, and was left an orphan by the deatlı of both of his parents in 1856. Fortunately for him his brothers and sister, his aunt, Eliz- abeth Rice, spinster, to whom her brother John had given a house and lot, was a woman of splendid common sense and brought up the orphan children of her brother carefully and well. She died in Penn Yan in 1881, at the age of eighty-eight. Albert R. attended school until he was fifteen, and then went to work in a general store where he remained six months. At the end of that period he took a place in a jewelry store, where he stayed long enough to learn how to clean clocks. But none of these things suited young Albert R., who aspired to a profession, and against all opposition entered upon the study of medicine in the office of Dr. William Oliver. At eighteen years of age he went to Geneva and attended his first course of lectures. His second year's lectures he took at Buffalo Medical College, and the third at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. In 1861 he graduated and removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he settled April 2. He went into practice with Dr. William G. Breck, then a leading physician of the city, and con- tinued until May 2, 1862, when he was com- missioned assistant surgeon and assigned to the First Massachusetts Cavalry then in the field, and joined it at Hilton Head, South Caro- lina. He thus became one of the youngest surgeons in the army. In November follow- ing he was transferred to the Forty-inth Mass- achusetts Infantry, just then organized. He was appointed surgeon of this regiment, "but with rare modesty declined that position" and accepted the post of assistant. From August,

833

MASSACHUSETTS.

1862, until November of the same year, the regiment had stayed at Camp Briggs, Pitts- field. From there they went to Camp Wool, Worcester, and stayed till December 4. From that time until February, 1863, they remained in barracks at Long Island. From there they went to New Orleans, and were soon after- ward quartered at Camp Banks, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, remaining from February 19 until May 28. On the latter date the order was received to "Move on to Port Hudson." Upon arriving at their destination it was found that Dr. Rice was missing. "Captured," concluded the chief surgeon, Dr. F. Winsor. The rebels had circled around between Baton Rouge and Port Hudson. The chances that any one who was left behind should get through their lines were not to be thought of at all. But Dr. Rice did not think so. It was night and he had a beautiful Kentucky horse, the fleetest runner in the regiment, as had been proved many a time. The Union camp was twenty miles away, the rebels were as thick as bees, and a more perilous position could hardly be imag- ined. Mounting his horse, he dashed out of Baton Rouge with a yell and turned into the highway for Port Hudson. He was immed- iately fired upon, but darkness and poor mark- manship saved him. For the first few miles an occasional shot told that the enemy was not sleeping, but at Plains's store was neared it seemed as if the whole Confederate army was firing upon him. As the store loomed up not far away, a group of rebels could be seen awaiting the doctor's arrival. They expected the rider to stay, as it was the height of folly to ride on. They were deceived, however, for the doctor, instead of stopping, clung to his horse, Indian fashion, and spurred him into his swiftest pace and rode past the rebels like a streak. He was fired at, of course, but as he had a good start and darkness favored, he was not hit, and continuing all night, reached his comrades, who had begun to mourn his death in the morning. From his position in the rear Dr. Rice saw much of the battle of Port Hudson. As the number of wounded there was large, he had a great deal to do soon after the battle began. He opened and organ- ized the Theater Hospital at Baton Rouge, of which he had charge from June 5 to Septem- ber 1, 1863. After this engagement the Forty- ninth, being a nine month's regiment, return- ed to Pittsfield, and was disbanded. Half the regiment, including the doctor, was sick all the way home. Soon after his arrival at Spring- field Doctor Rice had a severe attack of typhus

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume II, Part 35

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 1008

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 1008