No 6: Logansport, Indiana

Elihu S. Rice, brother to Gilbert J. Rice and longtime resident of Logansport, Indiana told of his own life story in a lecture for the historical society in 1907. Among what he wrote was the following:
“In 1835 B.O. Spencer, my half-brother, came here from Cincinnati, and went into the grocery and commission business.  In 1837 he was joined by my brother, G. J. Rice, and the firm of Spencer and Rice was established.  They were so well pleased with the city, its location and future prospects, and the profitable business they were doing, that they persuaded our mother to dispose of her home in Pavilion, Genesee County, New York and move here, which she did in the month of October 1838.  The family at removal consisted of my mother, three sisters, brother R. D. Rice, and myself.”

He tells of Market Street and of “ three two-story frame store buildings”.  One which was “by Spencer and Rice, groceries and provisions.” He continues with: “Logansport was granted a city charter in 1838 with a population of only about one thousand.”

Half-brothers Benjamin O. Spencer and Gilbert J. Rice established themselves in Logansport only one decade after the first permanent white settler arrived in the area in 1826.  The Spencer-Rice brothers arrived at this small community of 1000 persons at the exact time of economic opportunity.  Established at the junction of the Wabash and the Eel Rivers, Logansport became a part of transportation facilities connecting it with the east, and allowing for passage of raw materials, products, and immigrants. By 1837, the Wabash and Erie Canal originating in Toledo, Ohio, had reached Logansport. Later came the Michigan Road (most important north-south highway in Indiana), and again the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

A painting of early Logansport. Owned by Cass County Historical Society showing the Eel or upper river, and the Wabash or lower river.

These were significant in the economic development of the city and the consequent move of the Rice family from Pavilion, New York to this city.

It was at a time when seemingly overnight a thriving commercial center sprang up. At its height, the railroad employed nearly one-third of the city’s workforce and brought as many as 200 trains through town each day. It was an energetic city that was home to opera houses, renowned hotels, movie theaters, restaurants, and ice cream parlors. The town continued to flourish with its population in 1850 at 2000, in 1870 at 9000, and 1920 at 22 000. In 1844, 5,262 bushels of corn passed through Toledo, increasing in 1846 to 555,250 bushels and in 1851 to 2,775,149 bushels.

At the locks the approach of the boats was heralded by a great blowing of the boat's horn, bringing out the townsmen. At the dock the crowds from the boat mingled with the residents, fraternized genially and exchanged information until the boat's horn again gave warning of departure. To this thriving community where he and his brother had already successfully established themselves as proprietors of a grocery store, Gilbert Rice encouraged the entire Rice family to move from their home in Pavilion, New York. Gilbert’s mother, Lucretia [Howe, Spencer] Rice, had been previously married to Benjamin Spencer (Sr.). After his death in 1813 she then married Erastus Rice. When Rice died in 1834, the time was fitting to make the move.

A Google map of today showing Pavilion, New York at A) and Logansport, Indiana at B).  According to Elihu in his lecture of 1907 the family traveled by team to Buffalo, then boat to Toledo and fourteen miles further. Then by team again to Ft. Wayne and from there by boat on the new beginnings of the Erie Canal to Logansport. The distance today by road is about 500 miles.  They would have unknowingly passed by in the general direction of Mayville, New York C), then the home of Julia M. Rice, Gilbert’s future wife. 

Elihu writes: “On our way up the river we fell in company with other passengers westward bound, and all stopped for the night at a large double log tavern.  There were beds enough fortunately for the women, but the men and boys had to sleep on the floor. The next morning while the travelers, nearly a score of them, were sitting around waiting breakfast, in came one of the native Buckeyes, thinly clad, and very bilious looking, and walked up in front of the fire, turned his back to it and gave us the worst specimen of shaking ague I have ever seen. It so happened that not a traveler present had ever seen a case of the kind before, and it was amusing the way they gathered around and plied him with questions.”  Elihu goes on to explain that at the time the entire river valley “was notorious for its ague and bilious diseases.” Ague can be a malarial fever characterized by regularly returning spasms, marked by successive cold, hot, and sweating fits.  

Gilbert apparently became quite successful in his business adventures and in a letter of June 20, 1898 writes of his own prospects and the possibilities Julia Rice might have had should she have remained married to him and lived in Logansport.  He writes: “…but to you I must say that I do not believe she has ever seen a happy day since she deserted her home in 1854 now nearly 50 years ago.  How can she, after so ruining herself, husband and family, in the promise of life and when no young married woman of the City of Logansport, had fairer prospects of a long respectful and happy life with a fine home as any in that city and with a husband who delighted in the making her one of the most popular ladies in Indiana.”

Gilbert had great expectations of himself for the future, especially reiterated in the “husband who delighted in the making her one of the most popular ladies in Indiana.”

By 1838, the entire Rice family was located in Logansport.

Credits:
- http://www.countyhistory.com/history/211.htm. Copywrite Ronald Branson 2000-2006
- Cass county historical society, 1004 E. Market St. Logansport, Ind.
- State of Indiana at www.in.gov
- Wright, W. Swift. “Pastime Sketches”. 1907

No 5: Ninth Street Cemetery

In the middle of downtown Logansport, Indiana lies the antiquated, diminutive Ninth Street Cemetery. Its nearly 700 inhabitants barely make themselves known to those passing by on the quiet street below. And yet, upon climbing the stairs and stepping onto the grounds, I am immediately and seductively drawn to the left.  Not by any mysterious, spiritual energies, but having been here before I know that this is my goal.

In this corner, there is a meditative atmosphere which allows me to experience the very persons with whom I have lived ever since my fascination, yes, obsession, with family history began.  Nearly fifty years I have lived with these individuals, learned the facts of their lives, become acquainted with their personalities, experienced their joys and sorrows.  Yes, I know, they are actually not here, but I know, and can experience, that at one time all stood on these same grounds. No place anywhere on the continental United States are there any grounds such as these upon which so many members of the Rice family and its components have trod and remain in the form of monumental grave stones. Here is truly a place to meditate, to dwell upon the lives of our ancestors.

Logansport is the one city which truly experienced the combined branches of the Rice family. It is here that many remain, albeit in the form of gravestones, as nothing else remains.  Not their homes, their business places, their churches, their court house. All has disappeared through fires, floods, and uncaring futures. But the stones remain.

Starting on the upper right, the two “black” stones. The first Lucretia Rice, the other her son Gilbert. Behind these, a tall white stone is for Gilbert’s half-brother Benjamin Spencer and his wife Clarissa. The tall white stone in the foreground is for Minerva and her son Seldon. It was Minerva, Julia Potter Rice’s sister who was the reason for the arrival of the Potters. On the immediate left, lying barely visible on the ground are the remains of the stone for Anselm Potter, Minerva and Julia’s father.  True examples of the end of time, and yet, a continuance of the same.  With the stories I write, their lives might be remembered.

No 4: The Families Become One

According to my way of thinking, there are two cities in the United States which are of particular historical importance for our Rice family history. The first one is Boston, Massachusetts. The other is Logansport, Indiana.

Boston, Massachusetts was the entry point for nearly all of the Puritans who immigrated to New England during the “Great Migration”, 1630 to 1640. From here the immigrants branched out to local areas near Boston and then towards the end of the 17th century, began to slowly move westward as land areas became available.

The genealogy of the Rice family includes numerous immigrant families, however, in my work I have at this time concentrated on the families of Rice, Howe, and Potter. And in the near future will begin working on the Turners. Members of each of these families immigrated to Boston, but several generations would pass before they were united into one family. It was in Logansport that all four of these branches lived together as the Rice family as we know it. It was also in Logansport that the family split, that is, it was here of the event of the divorce.

The progenitor fathers of four branches which I have chosen and their arrivals were as follows:

William and Frances Potter: from Kent, England to Boston aboard the “Abigail” in July of 1635

John Howe: from Warwickshire, England to Boston or Sudbury sometime before 1637

Edmund and Thomasine Rice: from England to Boston, probably in 1638, during the “Great Migration” of 1630 – 1640

Edward Turner: very likely the first Turner immigrant arriving in America sometime before 1650

Gilbert and Julia Rice were the parents of Francis Jay Rice and the grandparents of Leslie Francis Rice.