USA > New York > Genealogical and family history of central New York : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, Volume I > Part 58
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92
3IC
NEW YORK.
and trustee in the Methodist Episcopal church, of Mexico. He married, in Washington coun- ty, August 27, 1825, Maria W. Warner, born August 13, 1807, in Washington county, daugh- ter of Solomon Warner. She died June 15. 1857. Children : Elizabeth J., born February IO, 1827, died October, 1905; Solomon W., February 7, 1829, died March 20, 1897; Will- iam Woodsworth, June 22, 1831, died June 6, 1887 ; Daniel H., mentioned below ; Rosa, Oc- tober 14, 1838, died September 4, 1883.
(III) Daniel H., son of Heury Austin, was born at Mexico, New York, December 17, 1833, and was brought up on his father's farm there. He attended the public schools of his native town and the Mexico Academy. For five years he was employed in farming. In the first year of the civil war he went to the front, enlisting, October 10, 1861, in Company K, Eighty-first Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and joined the Army of the Potomac. Afterward his regiment was transferred to the Army of the James. His regiment was in many of the important battles of the war, and he took part in them. He was wounded at the battle of Cold Harbor. He remained in active service to the close of the war and was muster- ed out, with his regiment, August 30, 1865. He returned to the homestead in Mexico and resumed farming, following it successfully until he retired from active business, in 1893. Since then he has made his home in the village of Mexico. He is a member of Melza Rich- ards Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a steward. In politics he is a steadfast Republican.
He married (first), June 14, 1873, Florence Moorhouse, born in Phoenix, Oswego county, New York, daughter of Somers Moorhouse. She died in June, 1875, and he married ( sec- ond). December 3, 1879, Minnie A. Chesebro, who was born at Phoenix, January 9, 1852, daughter of Elmanson and Mary (Sweet) Chesebro. Her father was a native of Man- lins, New York, a son of Jesse Chesebro, who came thither from Preston, Connecticut, where the family has been prominent from the first days of the settlement. Child of first wife: I. Florence, died September, 1893; married Ambrose Orser : children : Harold Orser, died in infancy ; Austin Ilarold Orser, born Sep- tember 7, 1893. Children of second wife: 2. Edith May, born April 19, 1882 : married, June 28, 1905, Wesley Moore. 3. Henry Warner,
born September 23, 1884; inspector on Balti- more & Ohio railroad. 4. Minnie Luella, born August 25, 1887 ; married, June 26, 1906, Carl- ton D. Calkins.
RICE The surname Rice is identical with Roice or Royce, which was the spell- ing in this family during the first century or more in this country.
(I) Robert Royce or Rice, the immigrant ancestor, was born in England, and settled early in Boston, Massachusetts. Some accounts locate him in Boston as early as 1631, and he seems to have been a member of the Boston church in 1632. Perhaps he returned to Eng- land, for there is a record of Robert Royce coming over in the ship "Francis," in 1634. At any rate he was a member of the church, and admitted a freeman April 1, 1634. In 1637 he was disarmed with other supporters of Wheelwright, and Anne Hutchinson, on ac- count of his religious views. He removed to Stratford, Connecticut, in 1644, and was liv- ing there in 1658. About that time he located at New London, Connecticut, where he was a constable in 1660, and he was a member of the general assembly in 1669. He left an estate valued at £420. lle married Elizabeth Children: Joshua, born at Boston, April 14, 1637; Nathaniel, baptized March 24, 1639, removed to Wallingford, Connecticut ; Patience, born at Boston, April 1, 1642, died young; Ruth, married, December 15, 1669, John Lothrop : Sarah, married John Caulkins ; Nehemiah, removed to Wallingford; Samuel, mentioned below; Isaac, married, December 15, 1669, Elizabeth Lothrop, who married (sec- ond), in 1696, Ebenezer Clark ; Jonathan, mar- ried Deborah Caulkins.
(II) Samuel Rice (Royce), son of Robert Rice, was born in Connecticut, January 9. 1647, and was admitted a freeman in 1669. He died, according to the probate records, at Meriden, Connecticut, prior to March, 1712. He married (second), June 5, 1690, Sarah Baldwin. He left children: Robert ; Samuel ; Abigail, married Joseph Cowles ; Prudence, mar- ried John Austin ; Deborah, married Thomas Mix; Isaac ; John ; Mary, and Jacob.
(IHF) Isaac Rice (Royce), son of Samuel Rice, was born about 1690. According to the probate records at New Haven (book v, p. 535), he died prior to November II, 1729, leaving a widow and four children: Joash. Phoebe, Asa and Isaac.
311
NEW YORK.
(IV) Lieutenant Asa Rice, son of Isaac Rice, was born about 1720, probably at Wall- ingford. Ezekiel Rice was appointed his guar- dian (book vi, p. 210, New Haven probate records). He married, at Wallingford, No- vember 25, 1746, Anna, daughter of Ezekiel and granddaughter of Samuel Rice. He was a first lieutenant in the provincial troops, in Cap- tain Israel Woodward's company, from March 26 to December 5, 1756 (p. 119, French and Indian War Records, Conn. Hist. Society). He was a shoemaker by trade, and also a farmer in Cheshire, formerly part of Walling- ford. He died at Sharon, Connecticut, in 1785. Children : Asa, mentioned below; Seth, born June 6, 1752 ( ?) ; Isaac and Barnabas.
(V) Asa Rice, son of Lieutenant AAsa Rice, was born in Cheshire, September 1, 1754. He was a soldier in the revolution, in Captain David Downs's company, Colonel Burrell's regiment, and was taken prisoner at the Cedars, Canada, May 19, 1776. In 1777 he was in the company of Captain Jarius Wilcox, a corps of artificers, in Colonel Jeduthan Baldwin's regi- ment, and his regiment served in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and other battles (pp. 112 and 290, Conn. Rev. Rolls). In October, 1897, Arvin Rice, of Ful- ton, read a sketch of the family, and it seems best to preserve this account :
"One hundred years ago to-day, Asa Rice (V) and his family landed upon this shore, and founded the first permanent settlement in this part of the country. The following facts with regard to his an- cestry, his family and the circumstances of the jour- ney to this place, and the making of a settlement in the then wilderness, are from statements made by my father, Arvin Rice, who was then a boy of eleven years of age. I will give the history in his own words :
"'My father's name was also Asa, and he had the honor of taking part in the struggles of the revolu- tion ; was taken prisoner by the Indians at the north ; was at the taking of Burgoyne, and was an assistant in placing the great chain across the Hudson river at West Point. After the close of the war he set- tled in Connecticut, and became possessed of four acres of land worth $40. This land he traded with an old soldier for a lot in the military traet. and when the military tract was surveyed, lot No. 2, Hannibal (which lot lies upon the lake shore three miles west of Oswego) fell to him. He married Elizabeth Merriam, daughter of Nathaniel Merriam, and about the year 1789 moved with his family from Cheshire. Connecticut, to Aera, Green county, New York, and in 1705 to Rensselaerville, in Albany coun- ty. In 1795, while the British were in possession of Oswego. and when there was no settlement upon the west side of the river, he came on to view his lot of land. In February. 1797, he moved to Whites-
town, Oneida county, having then a family of eight or nine children. By selling a part of his land he obtained enough help to move on to his lot, and on September 26, 1797, left his abode in Whitestown for a wilderness home upon the shores of Lake Ontario.
"'The first day we reached the boat on the Mo- hawk, and the next day moved up the river and found a large number of Irishmen digging the canal across from the Mohawk to Wood creek, a distance of two miles. We passed the carrying place and entered Wood creek, two other boats being in our company, and were three days in reaching Oneida lake, the water being low in some places, and all hands dragging the boats, one after another over the shoals. My brother Heman, then two years old, fell overboard. He had on a red dress, and we could see him in the water, and soon got him out. Where Wood creek empties into Oneida lake, the boat struck a log, and ] fell into the water and was helped out by my father. We reached the lake at evening, and at two o'clock in the morning reached Rotterdam (now Constantia). The next day we reached Three River Point, where lived Squire Bingham, who professed to be a pilot, and the next morning he took charge of our boat to conduct it down Three River Rift (opposite the present vil- lage of Phoenix). In going down the boat struck a rock in the middle of the river, and whirled around across the stream, the bottom upon the rock. The upper side sunk and the boat filled with water, wash- ing off many light articles which were never recover- ed. All the goods were thoroughly drenched except the upper drawer of the bureau, in which were the writings. The family fortunately were placed upon the shore previous to reaching the Rift, and stayed in a fisherman's camp opposite the boat, where we remained three or four days through a tremendous northwest storm. After the storm a light hoat came along and helped get our things out, and our boat righted. We then came down the river, and at Oswego Falls found a carrying place of about a mile, thence down the river to the lake, and along the shores to father's lot. It was on October 6, 1797. at about two o'clock in the afternoon, we ar- rived at Four Mile creek, and father said: "This is our land.' and turned the boat towards the shore. } got to the bow, and when the boat touched the shore. I jumped off and said. 'I'll be the first to take pos- session.
"'The goods were taken out upon the beach, and the boatmen went back. It was a beautiful day, and the first business was to open the goods and spread them out to dry. Not a bush had been cut towards a elearing, but father had borrowed at the garrison in Oswego, a tent, seven by ten feet, which he raised for a temporary shelter a few rods back from the beach. Toward night the wind blew hard off the lake, and it began to lighten and thunder, and a little after sundown it rained and stormed very hard, while we. a family of ten, crept into the little tent and stayed all night. The next day father went back about thirty rods from the shore and eut some logs and made a pen, seven by ten feet, and placed the tent on top, and put some boards or pieces of boats he found on the lake shore across, making a cham- ber for the boys. Soon afterward we built of poles twelve feet long, a pen about six feet high, and made a roof by putting hemlock honghs on the
312
NEW YORK.
rafters, and the family moved into it. About that time mother and one of the children were taken sick with fever and ague. The boatmen who left us the day we landed were to have returned in three weeks with provisions for the winter, but did not return for six weeks. We had a little bag of flour, about twenty pounds, and father caught a salmon, and took another one from an eagle. That was all the pro- visions we had. Father went to Oswego and bought, for six dollars, a barrel of flour, which had been under water, and was wet and mouldy; no light bread could be made of it, and it made the children sick when they ate it. When the boatmen returned (probably about November 20) they helped father build a log house, sixteen by eighteen feet, covered with basswood bark, about a hundred rods back from the lake, and then the family moved in, draw- ing our sick mother upon a sled, as winter had al- ready set in. After we had moved in the boatmen said we must name our village, and they drank wine and named it 'Union Village.' In February, 1798, my brother Joseph, aged fourteen, and myself, clear- ed about four acres, and in the spring some corn and potatoes were planted, and a pair of oxen and a heifer brought from Whitestown. Once during the summer the cattle strayed away, and were gone some three weeks. On the fourth of July, 1798, Joseph and I went to Fort Oswego, and returned home at dusk. Lois, aged ten, and Ira, aged seven, had been set to hunt for the cattle, and had not returned. We searched till late in the evening but did not find them. The next morning we went out again, and as we called they answered. They had spent the night lying between the roots of two large birch trees. During the first winter but one family remain- ed at Oswego, and a man by the name of Hudson lived up the river about a mile, and hunted through the winter. From Oswego west to Big Sodus Bay, thence south to the Seneca river, and down the river to Three Rivers Point, and thence to Oswego, there were only two or three families, and they were at the Point and the Falls. In the fall of 1798 the children were all taken sick with the lake fever, and father, who was of feeble constitution, was sick for three months. In 1790 the family were well and some progress was made in clearing. For two years we pounded corn in a maple log for our bread and pudding. In 1800 the family were all sick again. About this time the hears began to trouble us by catching calves and pigs. We also suffered for lack of clothing, and the ticking of our beds and pillows was cut up, the feathers being emptied into barrels and hoxes. Wild game and fish were then plenty. and we began taking grain to the mill to be ground, sometimes to Sodus Point or to Ellisburg in Jeffer- son county, and once to Oswegatchie, now Ogdens- burg. Once father and mother and one child started to go to Oswego in a log canoe, and there being a south wind, hoisted a sail. When they were about half a mile out the wind shifted, and the canoe was turned bottom upwards; they got upon the canoe, and a boat went after them, so they arrived safely at home.
"The first plow my father had was made hy Mr. Church, and when I was about fifteen years old I walked up to Van Valkenburg's ( probably ncar Ful- ton), and carried the plow share to be repaired. For ten years after our first arrival there was no oppor-
tunity for school, and then it was at Oswego, three miles from our home.
"'1898 the townships of Hannibal, Lysander and Scipio were organized into one town, and Asa Rice, my father, was supervisor. He reported fifteen in- habitants and the valuation of taxable property at $1,500. He continued supervisor until 1806. The first marriage in the town was of Augustus Ford and my sister, Damaris Rice, in the year of 1800.'
"Here closes the history as I find it in papers written or dictated by my father. From the year 1800 the family history was similar to that of other carly settlers in a new country, but their perils and privations and the struggles and hardships they en- cured for the first two or three years of their resi- dence here, were equalled by few if any in our state. In one respect only did they suffer less than those in some other localities, and that was from the In- dians, who at that time were few in numbers, and friendly. How different their experiences from those of the emigrant or new settlers of the present day. Then ten days were necessary to make the journey of less than one hundred miles; now a few hours are sufficient to carry them several hundred miles. Then in their want and distress, relief was six weeks in coming; now in cases of destitution or great calamities, distant towns and cities respond in a few hours with assistance and supplies.
"Notwithstanding their exposure and the hardships they endured our family survived, most of them living to a good old age. Asa Rice lived twenty- six years from the time of his settlement here, and although not rich, was in comfortable circumstances. He had some two score of grandchildren, and died at the age of sixty-nine. His children were:
"I. Damaris, born in 1781, married Augustus Ford, in 1800, and died in 1852. She was the mother of thirteen children, of whom, I think, none are now living. The Ford Brothers, who kept a jewelry store on East Bridge street, Oswego, about forty years ago, were of this family. Augustus Ford, a successful jeweler now of Freeport, Illinois, is a grandson.
"2. Joseph, horn in 1783. married Sally Burt in 1800, and died in 1871, aged eighty-eight years. He had a family of ten children, all of whom are dead. Mr. E. M. Rice and Mrs. Dora Saunders, of Hanni- bal, are his grandchildren.
"3. Miriam, born in 1784, married Daniel Pease in 1816, and died in 1857. She was the mother of seven children, of whom Levi Pease, Alfred Pease, and Amos Pease, of Oswego town, and Mrs. Nancy Plumb, of Red Creek, New York, are living.
"4. Arvin, born in 1786, was married three times, and died in 1878. aged ninety-two years. lle was the father of seven children, of whom Dr. Alfred Rice, of Hannibal, Mrs. Eliza R. Hull, and myself ( Arvin), are now living. Marshall Dunham and Thurston Dunham, of Elmira, New York, Rev. Dwight Dunham, of Kansas, Mrs. C. C. Place, of Oswego, Mrs. Charles R. Plumb, of Red Creek. New York, Rev. E. C. Hull, now of Oswego Town, Ernest W. Rice, of Hannibal, and Eugene E. Rice, of Montana, and my children are the living grand- children.
"5. Lois, born in 1787. married Stephen Brace in 1807, and died in 1833. She was the mother of eleven children. One, Lucretia, married A. Ogden Hay-
313
NEW YORK.
wood, and settled in Ohio, but it is many years since I have known anything of them.
"6. Mehitabel, born 1789, married Montgomery Perry in 1811, and died in 1847. . She was the mother of Mrs. Eliza P. Casey, later of Anburn, New York, deceased. Two sons of Mrs. Casey, Nicholas and Frank, still reside there.
"7. Ira, born in 1790, died in 1809.
"8. Polly, born in 1792, married Erastus Todd in 1813, and died in 1827. She was the mother of five children, one of whom was Mrs. Lanra Johnson, late of Hannibal, New York, deceased. Mrs. John- son's children : Henry A. Johnson, of Friend, Ne- braska, and Mrs. Frances Beadel, of Geddes, New York, are all of this branch of the family I know of. "9. Heman, born in 1794, married Eliza Wilson. and died in 1887, aged ninety-three years and one day. He was the father of three or four children, all of whom, I believe, are dead. Some of his de- scendants are living in Wisconsin.
"10. Horace, horn in 1796, died in February, 1798. "11. Sally, born in 1799, never married, died about 1852.
"12. Nathaniel, born about 1804, died in 1807.
"13 Thomas Jefferson, born February 20, 1801, and died about 1875. He was the first white child born in Oswego county. He was the father of three chil- dren, all of whom are dead.
"The family were remarkable for their integrity of character, and all enjoyed the fullest confidence and respect of those who knew them. We trust the same may be said in the future of their descendants.
"In the old cemetery on the west bank of the Union Village creek, about twenty rods below the bridge, are the graves of some forty or fifty persons, marked by rude stones, all without inscriptions, ex- cept five. Those are Asa Rice, his wife, and two of their children, and one other. Around their graves a substantial stone wall was erected some years ago. An orchard was once planted there, but now the place presents more the appearance of the wilderness to which our forefathers came than any- thing else. Few of us, I am sorry to say, ever visit the place. What a commentary it is upon the hurry and strife of our lives and the age in which we live. Those to whom we owe so much, who endured the privations and hardships of a settlement here, with- ont neighbors or friends, and prepared the way for our comfort and happiness, are forgotten. and their last resting place neglected.
"We are here at the precise time of year and at the place where the family first settled. The sky above and the earth beneath our feet are the same. We see the lake, and imagination pictures the little boat, with the family and all their possessions, draw- ing slowly to the shore, the father directing the expedition, the mother doubtless full of anxious care with the little ones, and the older children full of impatience to explore the land. Wearied and worn with the vicissitudes of the journey, they land, and as soon as their scanty furniture can be taken ashore, they see the boat leave them, the hoatmen promising to return in a few days with provisions for the winter. We see the mother and children seeking to dry their clothing and bedding, which had been wet in the disaster at Three River Rift, while the father cuts away a few bushes and erects the little tent, their only protection from the hard storm that came upon them the first night of their
arrival. In a few days their supply of flour is gone, and famine stares them in the face. The children become puny and sick. How anxious and weary must have been those six weeks before the relief came. Then the building of a little cabin, and the moving in after winter had commenced, and the attempt at rejoicing as they drank some wine, and gave a name to their settlement. I remember well of hearing my father sing a verse of a hymn sung upon the occasion. It was :
"'Where nothing dwells but beasts of prey, Or men as fierce and wild as they, He bids the oppressed and poor repair, And build them towns and cities there, They sow the fields, and trees they plant, Whose yearly fruit supplies their want; Their race grows up from fruitful stocks, Their wealth increases with their flocks.'
"I cannot give you the tune, but I think it was 'Whitestown.' Many of you doubtless, as well as myself, have heard father tell some of the incidents of his early life here. At the risk of being tiresome, 1 will speak of some of them.
"On one occasion he set a trap for a rabbit or fox, and on going to it found caught therein a large wild- cat, which flew at him as far as the chain would allow. The little stick he had was not sufficient, and he had to bring large stones from the lake shore and stone it to death. In speaking of it, he gave me the impression that if the animal had once reached him, it would have done him serious injury.
"Another time he was washing his hands at the house, when some one said, 'There is a bear.' He took down his gun, and stepping out saw the bear up yonder hill, some thirty rods away. He thought he would shoot it anyway, and raising his gun fired it. The bear turned his head a little, but kept on and went over the fence. Following on, when father reached the fence he saw the bear weak from loss of blood, and it soon died. It seems the bullet struck a little above the tail, and passed lengthwise nearly through the body.
"In the year of 1804, the 'Fair American,' a small schooner, was built at Oswego by Mr. Wilson, and either Uncle Joseph or my father drove an ox team and drew timbers for it across the river on ice, every day, except Sundays, in the month of March.
"Two of the boys went to Big Sodus to mill, and returning, their lunch being gone, they took some of the meal in the scoop and with water from the lake, made batter for pancakes, baking them upon a flat stone over the fire. The stone burst, and they had a great langh over their new way of turning the cakes.
"After my father was twenty-one years of age, he worked two seasons and earned enough to pay his way at school at Constableville, in Lewis county, walking out in the fall and back in the spring. He said at the beginning of the school the little boys stood at the head of the class, and the large ones at the foot, but at the end of the term, the order was reversed.
"In 1809, as I understand it. grandfather bought or helped my father buy the States' one hundred acres on Lot 58. Hannibal, and in May or June of that year my father commenced clearing there; the first tree cut stood just across the road from the
314
NEW YORK.
house in which my father resided for thirty-eight years before his death. The first season he spent entirely in cutting down the forest, commencing work at sunrise and working as long as he could see at night.
"In March, 1812, he married Polly Colton, who died in 1841. He then married Lydia Dada Cowles, my mother, who died in 1864. His third wife was Mrs. Jane McCool, who survives him. Many of you know what a strong, vigorous man he was, and how earn- est he was in the cause of temperance and other matters of public welfare. He was a strong anti- Mason, and was earnestly opposed to slavery. In my early days it was rumored in the family that his house was a station of the underground railroad, and that a certain old gray horse he had, knew well the road to Oswego in the darkest night. Much more might be said but time forbids."
(VI) Arvin Rice, son of Asa Rice, was born itt Cheshire, Connecticut, June 25, 1786; died October 13, 1878, at Hannibal, New York. He settled in Hannibal, in 1809, and was one of the most successful farmers in the town. He was supervisor, 1829-30-40; town clerk from 1822 to 1828, 1831-32; justice of the peace, 1829-37 ; member of assembly, 1838. He united with the Presbyterian church about 1819, was elected deacon, and afterwards deacon for life. He married (first) Polly Colton, born 1812, died 1841. He married (second) Lydia Dada Cowles, December, 1841; she died May 18, 1864. He married (third), October, 1864, Jane M. McCool. Children of first wife : Cor- nelia, married H. Dunham; Jackson ; Alfred ; Eliza, married Isaac E. Hull; Nathan ; Ann A. Child of second wife : Arvin Jr.
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.