No 1: Rice Against Rice

In my hands I am presently holding a most remarkable piece of paper.  A newspaper article from 1854.  But it’s not the age that makes it notable.  It’s what it reveals.  Small in size, but with just a few words organized in only a few sentences, this article awakes the curiosity button of anyone reading it, at least it did mine.  I mean, a simple statement such as “It is probable taking this as a criterion, that three-fourths of the wives in the community are entitled to a divorce”, surely would encourage one to wonder what this is all about.  And as I delve deeper into this short news item, other phrases hop out to increase the adrenaline of curiosity.   “…a large audience had attended with considerable interest to the trial”, and “The verdict created universal surprise, and since considerable excitement”, or  “…public sentiments seldom as unanimous as it is in the case against the result.”

The article first came into my possession some fifty years ago, and since my first reading I have always wondered about the background for these descriptions. Through years of research, a few details have become available, shedding light on the individuals involved, but not enough to give full explanations. Thus, the article has remained in my archives, waiting to be taken up again and researched anew in an effort to bring alive the individuals who experienced the actual events of the courtroom in 1854.

Without a doubt the most notable aspect of this article is the event which it describes. But nearly as remarkable as the story itself is the path this yellowing news item took in order to come into my possession. This too is a part of the story lending itself to research and speculation, and to some extent wonderment.

The article is entitled “The Circuit Court”.  

It has been cut out from the “Logansport Journal” of Logansport, Indiana. 

The date of printing was May 6 1854.

Someone has written that very same date,  “May 6^th 1854” at the top.   

This is followed by “Tryal”, at least that’s what it looks like to me.

It describes the case of “Rice against Rice”.

 

The article is worn, yellowing, and in some places difficult to read. The following is a transcript:

The Circuit Court

   Adjourned on Sunday morning at 3 o,clock.

                                     …………..

   The Case of Rice against Rice, for divorce, detained the Court to the later hour at which it adjourned.  It was submitted without argument, as there was no time to allow it.  Much disappointment was felt in consequence, as a large audience had attended with considerable interest to the trial.  The verdict created universal surprise, and since, considerable excitement.  We heard but little of the evidence, but public sentiment is seldom as unanimous as it is in this case against the result.  It is probable, taking this as a criterion, that three fourths of the wives in the community are entitled to a divorce, and most of them could claim it upon juster grounds than were presented at this trial.  The jury, doubtless did what they conscienciously believed to be demanded by the facts in the case, but their manner of viewing them certainly magnified or distorted them.

Comments made by the journalist who wrote this little item have awaken a need to pry and poke, a need to follow an adventurous road of questions to see where it leads.  Or, to put it simply, I just need to satisfy my curiosity, it’s a pleasure in itself. 

 

What is meant by “submitted without argument”?
Why did a large audience attend a court case concerning divorce?  What was the reason for the “considerable interest”?
Why was this trial a jury trial?
Why did the verdict create “universal surprise, and since, considerable excitement”?
What were the grounds given for the divorce?
What were the “facts in the case”?
Who cut out this article and kept it?
I received this article from my Grandfather. How did my Grandfather obtain the article?

And so, in June 2013, the opportunity arose for me to set aside six days in Logansport. Sunny days of walking the streets, visiting the cemeteries, searching through archives of newspapers and historical documents, relaxing in parks.  Activities which have given me a sense of the location, insights in our family, and numerous upon numerous documents, all of which should allow us to find answers to some these questions and many more. 

As I pour through the material gathered, I will make this information available through the articles which follow.
The articles will be numbered in order to make them easier to read on this website.

 

 

Logansport, Indiana June 9, 2013

My stay here in Logansport is drawing to a close, much to my disappointment.  I could easily have stayed here for an indefinite period of time, well, except for the love of my family reminding me that I live somewhere else.  My stay in this 1838 Indiana community has not only been one of unraveling historical mysteries, but also one of emotions and imagined memories. Here in Logansport I have found an accumulation of historical people who have been a part of my life for many years.

These individuals of time passed first began to appear in the late 1960s when I read letters written by my great-great grandfather, Gilbert J. Rice, a one time resident of this Midwest  community.  Through the words in his letters, other family members who were a part of his life became a part of mine.  Julia G. Potter, Anselm Potter, Julia M. Rice, Francis Rice, Edward P. Rice, Minerva Stuart and many more.

Logansport is where my entire family history, as I have been involved with it, comes together, only to separate again with one branch going south.  Here in 1835-1838 the Rice family moved to the city, even before it became incorporated. This family with a true pioneer spirit took advantage of the opportunities available on the young frontier.  The Rice family came first, established themselves, and soon after, the Potters arrived. The two families mixed and became one.   

Gilbert and his half-brother Benjamin Spencer moved to Logansport in 1835-1837, and here they established a viable grocery business.  Their success encouraged their mother Lucretia, and the rest of their siblings to make the journey from Pavilion, New York to this growing community.  Lucretia with at least six of her children moved to Logansport in 1838, and thus the entire Rice family had arrived.

In 1838, seventeen old Minerva Potter married the young lawyer William Z. Stuart of Logansport.  Anselm and Julia Potter along with their daughter Julia M. made frequent visits to their young daughter, Minerva.  

During one of these visits, Julia M. met Gilbert Rice. They were married in 1845, a year of particular importance. In that year Anselm was placed in an institution for the insane and Julia G. joined Gilbert, Julia, and Minerva in Logansport.  Thus the entire Potter family had arrived and intertwined with the Rice. In 1850 Julia gave birth to Edward and then in 1852, Francis.

The names are many.

Lucretia: my great-great-great grandmother
Gilbert J. Rice: her son
Elihu Rice: her son
Benjamin Spencer: her son and half-brother to Gilbert and Elihu
Julia G. Potter: my great-great-great grandmother
Julia M. [Potter] Rice: my great-great grandmother married to Gilbert
Francis J. Rice: my great grandfather
Edward P. Rice: his brother
Minerva Hart [Potter] Stuart: Julia G Rice’s sister. (The reason the Potters moved to Logansport)

There is much to tell of each of these individuals, there failures and their successes, their personalities, their way of thinking.  After my stay in Logansport, we have become even better acquainted, they and I. Thus many more stories to write. 

A particular moving moment for me, which only avid and peculiar genealogists can understand, was standing by the grave of Minerva Stuart.  Knowing that on this very same small plot of soil, on an August afternoon in 1846, where I was now standing, stood much of my ancestral family. 

Twenty five year old Minerva had just died of complications in childbirth and now her grieving family watched as she was laid to rest. The very place where I now stood.  Minerva’s mother and sister. Her husband and two small children. And her extended family including Gilbert, Elihu, and Benjamin.  On these very grounds stood my historical family with whom I have lived for 40 years. 

My imagination evolved into feelings, not tears which sometimes occur, but mixed feelings of the end of time, and the continuance of time.

Today, on my last day in Logansport, likely never to return, I will visit the grave of Minerva one more time.  For here lie also the rest of the family, or at least many of them. Anselm Potter.  Lucretia and Gilbert Rice. Benjamin Spencer and his wife Clarissa. And of course Minerva and her son Seldon.  I will say goodbye, but not really, for their stories remain to be told. Maybe even a tear will be shed, not because of them, but because their stones remind me that time ends. And, of course, continues.  

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

A Child Named Julia

I wonder what it would be like to be given the same name as your dead sister or brother, and to carry that name for your entire life. Such it was for Julia Geraldine Turner, Leslie Rice’s great-grandmother.  She carried the name of her sister, but not the memories of the young toddler, since the little three year old died two years before her own birth. Would not one be forever reminded of the poor sister, the way she died, the cause of her death, the missing opportunities for her future?

When we try to answer such a question for ourselves, we are, of course, answering from within the context of today’s culture and attitudes.  I myself, would think it rather odd, and maybe somewhat “scarey”, should I have been given the name of a dead brother.  It feels as if I might be challenging fate in such a way that it might repeat itself.  Besides, I believe that it is important for each child to have its old identity, and not take upon himself the memories and comparisons of a deceased sibling.  But that’s how it is for me, not how it was in the 18^th century.

Julia Turner was born in 1792 to Asa and Isabel Turner, but died three years later in 1795.  Julia was born and died in Franklin, New York, however, the cause of her death and the place of her burial are unknown.

Julia Geraldine Turner, the next female child born in the family, was born in 1796, also in Franklin, and according to what was common in New England at the time, she was named after her sister.  If a child died, the next child of the same sex would often be given the same name.

The loss of a child in the settling years of the frontier was a frequent occurrence. Diseases which stole away these infants included measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, mumps, and chicken pox. Accidents claimed children too. Frontier households were busting, cluttered places that were not always child-safe.  Open fires, kettles of hot water, privy holes, unfenced ponds, and open wells were daily dangers to a toddler. It was easy to lose sight of a small child in a crowed household.

In those days, children were often given the name for deceased siblings.  Historically one of the most quoted examples of this is that of Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell of Concord, Massachusetts. They lost five children, Ephraim, Samuel, John, Elizabeth, and Isaac to “throat distemper” in a single month in 1740. The parents survived and had nine more children, named Elizabeth, Samuel, Abigail, Ephraim, John, Mary, Sarah, Isaac, and Jonas.

Due to the unpredictability of a child’s stay on this earth, it was common for children to be compared to items of a frail and fleeting nature.  Portraits of children often depicted them with a single blossom as a reminder of how transient their time on earth might be. The miniature painted by Isaac Oliver in 1590 is possibly an example of this. 

"Girl Aged Five, Holding a Carnation"
Isaac Oliver 1590

  

A poem written by Anne Bradstreet (c.1612-1672), considered to be the first poet and first published female writer of British North America, demonstrates this very thing.  Anne experienced losing her namesake grandchild who died at the age of three years and seven months. On this occasion she wrote:

“I knew she was but as a withering flour,
That’s here to day, perhaps gone in an hour;
Or like a shadow turning as it was.
More fool then I to look on that was lent,
As if mine own, when thus impermanent.”

Julia Geraldine herself experienced the loss of two of her three children.  Her first born, Sarah Maria died at the age of 14 on April 12, 1831 at Mayville, New York. Then again, her next eldest child, Minerva Hart, died at the age of 24, at Logansport, Indiana on July 30, 1846.  Her third and youngest, Julia Martha, Leslie’s grandmother, lived until she was 80 years old.

Not only did Julia Geraldine experience the loss of two of her three children, but also the oldest of her two grandchildren.  Edward Potter Rice, died of typhoid fever at the age of nine years.  This at Oskaloosa, Kansas. The remaining child was Francis Jay Rice, Leslie’s father.

As an answer to my introductory question:  “How would it be to carry the name of one’s own dead sister?”  Julia Geraldine, gives an answer.  She obviously cherished her sister’s name, and when given the opportunity she named her own child Julia.

Julia Geraldine [Turner] Potter’s youngest daughter was Julia Martha [Potter] Rice

Notes:
Julia: the name originated from Latin and its meaning is youthful, soft haired, gentle. It is the feminine counterpart for the male name of Julius.  Julia has continually been one of the most admired female names used in the United States.  In 2011, it ranked 57 out of the top 1000 most popular U.S. girl’s names

- Julia Turner: March 31, 1792 – March 6, 1795, was a sister to…
- Julia Geraldine [Turner] Potter: August 28, 1796 – January 17, 1875, was the mother to…
- Sarah Maria Potter: October 31, 1816 – April 12, 1831. Buried in Mayville, New York, was a sister to …
- Julia Martha [Potter] Rice: July 7, 1826 – October 15, 1906

Anne Bradstreet: (c.1612-1672),

Credits:
- Ellis, John Harvard, ed. “The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse”. A. E. Cutter. Charlestown. 1867.
- Fischer, David Hackett. “Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America”. Oxford University Press. 1989
- Oliver, Isaac.  (1558 – 1617). English, “Girl aged five, holding a carnation”.
- Ourbabyname.com
- Volo, James M. and Dorothy Denneen Volo. “Daily life on the old Colonial Frontier”. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. 2002