Oak Hill Cemetery at Siloam Springs

Oak Hill Cemetery

Julia Martha Rice was born on July 11, 1826 in Mayville, New York, a picturesque, comfortable village on the shores of Lake Chautauqua, not too far from Lake Erie.  Julia was a devout Baptist, values and beliefs which she passed on to her only surviving son.

One can easily surmise Julia’s life as being characterized by difficulties and challenges above and beyond what most of us experience today. As a young girl, she experienced the difficulties of a psychologically disturbed father. As a young anticipatory mother, she married and then later divorced an apparently dominant, and in her mind, unbearable Gilbert Rice.  Taking her two boys in the middle of the night, first to Ohio, then Canada, and at last to frontier Kansas, Julia arrived at Oskaloosa, Kansas in 1860 only to experience the death of her oldest son Edward in October of that same year.

In a short autobiography, Julia writes:
“I was born July 11, 1826 in Mayville, Chautauqua Co. N.Y. I attended school most of my life in my native village, except the summer of 1839 when I attended the Academy in Fredonia.  The winter of ’39 – ’40 I spent with my parents at my sister’s in Logansport, Ind. Where I attended a select school.  The following fall I went with my parents on a visit to my father’s parents residing at Plymouth Hollow, Conn.  They died soon after. In the summer of 1840 my father had an attack of insanity, caused by a fall from a horse when he was (9) nine years of age.  The attack lasted six weeks.  The following year it came on earlier and lasted longer, and the same way each succeeding year till it became permanent.  He died in Utica Insane Asylum Feb. 25, 1848.

…..

In Nov. 1840 I was baptized in Chautauqua Lake by Rev. Orrion (?) Dodge and united with the Baptist church of which Mr. Dodge was pastor.

…..

On Oct 5, 1845 I was married in Mayville to Gilbert J. Rice of Logansport where I went to reside.  My marriage was an unhappy one.  I left my home March 5, 1854.  Edward Potter Rice, my oldest child was born Sept 2, 1851.  Francis Jay was born Nov. 27, 1853.

(Julia, her mother and the two boys lived in Belleville, Canada for 16 months before traveling on to her uncle’s pioneer home in Jefferson County, Kansas.)

In the spring of 1857 she with myself and two children went to Belleville Canada, and spent sixteen months with Aunt Pamela Jones (mother’s sister) and family, Uncles Gideon and Benjamin Turner’s families.  I taught school six months during our stay there.  In Oct. 1858 we came to Jefferson Co. Kansas, where my Uncle Harry was then living. In the spring of 1859, I commenced a select school in Oskaloosa.  I boarded one term in Mr Macomber’s family. Then with Mr. Benton’s family, till Jan. 1860 when I rented rooms where I kept house and taught, my mother and little boys coming from uncle’s to live with me.  I purchased lots and contracted with Mr. Benton to build a house.  We moved into it in May, 1860, where I continued teaching.

Oct. 28^th 1860 my beloved Eddie died of typhoid fever after an illness of ten days.

In 1865 I bought property in Topeka with money from my father’s estate.  We moved there Aug. 1^st.  I taught a select school four months, then in the public school a few weeks;  I was taken ill and resigned.  In the spring of 1866 I commenced keeping boarders.  I lived in Topeka Twelve years, moved to Valley Falls with Frank in 1877 Dec. 6^th. My mother died on Jan 17, 1875 and was buried in Oskaloosa by the side of Eddie.”

In a letter to be opened only upon her death, Julia wrote on her birthdays (the underlining and quotation marks are Julia’s):

On July 11, 1896
My Dear Frank,
     Today completes my threescore years and ten of life!  God has been very good to me.  He has not dealt with me in according to my sins!  “The mistakes of my life have been many, the sins of my heart have been more!”  I cannot now expect to tarry long on earth.  I hope I may not be wait with patience my appointed time to go and dwell with loved ones on the other shore.”

On July 11, 1897
Another year of my life has Gone!  I wish I may grow wiser and better as life wears away!

On July 11, 1899
Two more years of my life have passed.  May I fulfill the purpose for which my life is spent.

On July 11, 1900
Another year has passed.  I would wait patiently the days of my appointed time.  I realize my strength is growing weaker.

On July 11, 1901
Seventy five years of my life completed.  How long O LORD, terriest thou?

Julia Martha Potter Rice died at Fernbrook Farm on October 15, 1906. “Sometime we’ll understand”. 

She is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Siloam Springs.

Francis Jay Rice died at Fernbrook Farm on March 27, 1936.  He was 82 years old.

Francis was buried beside his mother in the Oak Hill Cemetery of Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

According to his death certificate, Francis died of cerebral arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) leading to a hemorrhagic stroke. There was no autopsy.

Francis Jay Rice was born in Logansport, Indiana on November 27, 1853. (One of the reasons for the picture of Logansport at the beginning of this blog.)

Rose Heiz Hefty Rice died at Fernbrook Farm on March 23, 1945. She died of coronary arrest.

A view of Oak Hill Cemetery. The stones of the Rice family are side by side in the foreground. The stone for Francis Jay Rice and Rose Rice is on the left. Julia M. Rice is on the right.

The entrance to the cemetery is at the upper left-hand corner.

Sources:
Photographs by Norman W. Mills. July 2007
Obituaries are from local newspapers at Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Letter written by Julia M. Rice in regards to her death. Copies in my possession. Location of originals unknown.
Autobiography by Julia M. Rice from Autobiography by Francis J. Rice written probably in 1905.

Photographs from Fernbrook Farm

The following photographs are scanned from an album owned by Leslie F. Rice:

Rose Rice and her sister Kate

Kate or Katherine Heiz was born in Glarus (or Ruti), Switzerland on April 28, 1850. She immigrated with her father Schneider Balthasar Heiz and her mother Anne Maria Vogeli Heiz to New Glarus, Wisconsin in May of 1852.

Other members of the family were:
Balthasar. Born in Ruti, Switzerland in 1847.
Maria. Born in New Glarus, Wisconsin in 1855. She died in 1929 at Monroe, Wisconsin.
And, of course, Rose, born in New Glarus in 1857.

Zelda Magdalina Rice.  Zelda was the second of three children born to Leslie and Grace [Rich] Rice. She was born in Augusta, Kansas on June 7, 1885.  

Zelda was in poor health most of her life, asthma, and thus lived in Phoenix, Arizona for many years. She never married, and her heart and soul were always a part of Fernbrook Farm.

Zelda died in Phoenix of pneumonia at the age of 60 on October 8, 1945. 

Rose [Heiz, Hefty] Rice

Zelda Rice

Katherine Heiz

Francis J. Rice together with his son Leslie holding the first grandchild, Dorothy.  Picture probably taken in 1916.

Rose and Francis at Fernbrook Farm

In August 1903 Francis and Rose purchased a small farm in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, about eight miles north of Siloam Springs. 

The dairy farm was hidden in a fertile mountain landscape, surrounded by an impenetrable barrier of brushes and trees. Quietly making its way through this tangle of nature flowed an insistent, but insignificant stream, Little Flint Creek, shallow and small enough to cross, but rocky enough to require caution. From the fern covered sides by the water, Francis and Rose took the name of their new home, Fernbrook Farm.

By this time, Francis had retired from the ministry, although on occasion he continued to preach from the pulpit. Living with their parents were the three children: Edna, Zelda, and Leslie.

Lake Flint Creek

This picture virtually describes the beautiful Ozark area north of Siloam Springs. The lake shown here is from a manmade dam blocking the flows of the Little Flint Creek. It was constructed years after Francis and Rose settled in the area and possibly covers some of what was once Fernbrook Farm.

Early in life Francis was diagnosed as having glaucoma and in around 1877 he lost the sight of one eye.  While serving in Marysville, Kansas he began to have trouble with the other eye and by January 1910, after having retired, Francis was entirely blind.

Of their time on the farm Rose wrote in her autobiography of June 30, 1937:

“We celebrated fifty-five wedding anniversaries at twenty-six of which he was entirely blind.  But do not think of him as a decrepit old blind man. He adapted himself wonderfully well to his condition.  With the help that the family could give him, he learned to read the embossed type.  He had two magazines a month and lots of books.  He had his typewriter and could write to his friends, he frequently preached at neighboring churches and school-houses, he was interested in the farm, he purchased some registered Jerseys and he could find them anywhere.  He could tell a pedigreed animal from the grades.  Not until the spring of 1935 when his hands became palsied, did he become a care in the family.  He was then in his 82^nd year and on March 27, 1936 he passed away.  We laid him beside his mother in beautiful Oak Hill Cemetery.”

In March of 1904, Julia Martha Rice moved to Fernbrook Farm to live in the care of her son and daughter-in-law. It was during the autumn of 1902 that her eyes also began to fail and within the year she too was blind. Julia died on the farm on October 15, 1906.

Francis and Rose had three children (from left to right): 

Zelda Magdalina, born June 7, 1885 at Augusta, Kansas,


Leslie Francis, born March 7, 1889 at Salem, Kansas.

Edna Julia, born June 3, 1883 at Augusta, Kansas.  

The picture was taken a few years before moving to Fernbrook Farm.

The small dairy farm was a struggle, but was able to help their three children to collegiate educations. All three followed professionally in their Grandmother Julia’s footsteps. They were all teachers.

It was while living on the farm that Leslie Rice met Grace Rich from neighboring Gentry, a beautiful dark hair girl who was to be his future wife and mother to the first generation Rice Kids.

Fernbrook Farm

These pictures are scanned from a photo album owned by Leslie F. Rice. This particular page in his handwriting shows Fernbrook at different stages.

The pictures on the left hand side of the page are of the farm when it was first purchased in 1904. The picture at the right hand corner are from after a new house was built.

Northwest corner of Arkansas

A) Springtown, Arkansas.  This tiny community of 87 individuals (2010), four miles east of Gentry, Arkansas, was the hometown of Grace Lora Rich.  Grace married Leslie F. Rice on August 24, 1912.
B) Gentry, Arkansas. About 5 miles west of Fernbrook Farm. Population was over 3000 in 2010.  Here Edna, Zelda, and Leslie obtained their grade school and high school educations.
C) Fernbrook Farm. The placement on the map is only approximate.
D) Siloam Springs.  In the Oak Hill cememtery in this community of 15 000 are buried Julia, Francis, and Rose Rice.  Siloam Springs is about 12 miles south of Fernbrook, or about 8 miles as the crow flies or by road which existed in 1910.

Sources:
Map of Arkansas. Retrieved from Google. August 2012
Population figures: Retrieved from Wikipedia. August 2012
Photographs: Personal collection

Francis to Rose, Dec. 25, 1880

The following letter was written by Francis J. Rice to his future wife three days before they were married on December 28, 1880 at Valley Falls, Kansas.

Previously, we have been made aware of the conflicts between Rose and her family concerning her marriage to Francis, a minister of Baptist convictions which were in direct conflict with the Swiss Evangelical Reform beliefs of the family Hefty.  In this letter, this conflict really comes to life as Francis tries to both comfort Rose, encourage her, and at the same time attempt to avoid open conflict at the wedding.

Throughout history, conflicts caused by religious beliefs and practices are quite evident at all levels, be it international, national, local, familiar, or between loved ones. Strange, when one assumes that the essential postulates of most religions, at least those of Christian faith, are love, and tolerance, with a focus on the Savior Christ, as opposed to theological details and practices.  If not all of us, most of us, have experienced such conflicts on a personal level. As a kid and adult, such things were a part of my life in regards to conflicts between Protestants and Catholics, as well as nonbelievers and Catholics.  Unbelievable!

Frank’s words truly describe the immense hurt Rose was feeling at the time and on an occasion which should have been one of elation with a joyous view of the future.

The following is a transcript of the above letter:

Dec. 25, 1880

Dear Rose
   Accept my Christmas compliments.
   I regret to say than(t) any change in the arrangements for the ceremony proves to be impracticable at so late an hour.  I should be glad to yield to your father’s wish if it were possible.  I think, however, if he thinks over it, he will see the impropriety of our leaving town to me married.  Such a procedure would reflect upon you and still more upon me, the more so because of my position as a minister.  I certainly could not consent to that.  I think it would be far better for your father and mother to remain at home from the church than that we should be married out of town.  I chose the church, not because I personally preferred it, but because it seemed to my judgment the most suitable place in view of all the circumstances.
   There are no invitations properly so-called, being given.
   No one but the members of the church are spoken to about it.
   Of course, the absence of your father and mother would create some comment.  Should they be present, there will be no comment on them nor on us.  And just this is the point in which suitableness of the church appears.  It will be a place where we can all meet and thus avoid all remark.  It is as just to one side as to the other, to us as to them.
   Personally I should much prefer the absence of your parents to their presence under protest.  But we must defer to public opinion.  And I hope and believe that one day this matter will right itself.
   I called last night at about 6 o’clock but found no one at home.
   If you wish, you may read or show this to your father as I shall not have time to call today.

                     Yours Ever
                     F. Rice
(over)

I visited Dr Bishop in St. Joseph yesterday morning.  He said my eyes looked and felt very well.  He claimed that a thorough examination would take several hours.  The interview was somewhat unsatisfactory as he left the room abruptly in the midst of it, without return.  I was compelled to leave during his absence in order to catch the train.

F.

(on a separate page is found the following)

Dear Rose
   Allow me a word or two privately.  The inclosed (sic.) letter is for your father to read, if you think best.
   Please prepare a list of names to whom you wish the printed announcements to be sent, also a list of those whom you wish spoken to and given the opportunity of being present on Tuesday at the church.  So far as possible I will see that they are notified.
   Do not be too much depressed.  There are some sad things about such a step as you and I are taking, but there are some – nay – many joyous things about it too.  There is some risk. But there are also possibilities of good.
   You know that “the course of true love does not run smooth”.  I feel deeply the expense at which you accept me, at which you turn from all others in life and cleave to me. May God help me to be true to you and to repay a little joy into your disturbed heart!

   Yours only and ever,
          Frank

If convenient, come down tomorrow prepared to stay over with us until evening.  My mother would like to talk with you.
        Fr.

In his letter, Francis states that: “There are no invitations properly so-called, being given.” Later, in his note to Rose he writes: “Please prepare a list of names to whom you wish the printed announcements to be sent...”  Distinguishing between invitations and announcements, below is a copy of the mentioned announcement sent to selected individuals in 1880-1881 announcing the wedding.

The placement of documents

In working with the Rice family history, I realize more and more that original documents in my possession should be made available to others with interest or connections to the family. I’m thinking both in terms of people with current Rice interests, but also of coming generations.

In my possession are letters, diaries, pictures, and over 15 volumes of research done by mother and myself. These do not actually belong to me, but belong to the Rice family.  Should any of our children, or grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, and so on, desire access to these documents in the future, the fact that they are in private possession, and in Norway, would make this difficult.

I am considering, therefore, of having these documents placed at a library which would both secure them properly, but also make them available to others, especially through the internet.  Possible locations for this are 1) the New England Historical and Genealogical Society library in Boston, 2) the North Dakota State Library at Bismarck or, 3) the Minnesota State Library at St. Paul.

The NEHGS library is one of the nation’s leading research centers for genealogist, housing millions of materials such as those in my possession.  I have spent numerous hours at the library and know well the professionalism of the staff, as well as their care of the materials. In addition, the library on a regular basis makes their material available through the internet.

On the other hand, the Rice family materials possibly belong better to the North Dakota library. However, I do not know the library, nor its ability to care for or digitalize the materials.  The library seems to focus on the history of North Dakota. I’m not sure how well  they do on the genealogical aspects.

Of course, another possibility is the Minnesota Historical Society at St. Paul, also an organization of competent people and practices.

Following are links to these libraries.

http://www.americanancestors.org

http://www.mnhs.org/

http://history.nd.gov/

Should any of the Rice Kids (or any of our readers) have an opinion in regard to this matter, I can be contacted at norman.mills@ist.com or a comment can be registered on The Rice Kids blog.

Francis to Rose, July 22, 1880

Oh, how many men have written letters like this, if not with the exact same words, but with similar thoughts.  Romantic, playing with words, expressing feelings, having fun with a sweetheart.

Francis met Rose in December of 1876. At the time, Rose and Francis were both living in Valley Falls, Kansas. Seven months after their experience with Cupid and his arrows, Francis wrote this letter.  On June 18, 1880 they were engaged to be married, and the blessed event occurred at the Baptist church in Valley Falls on Tuesday Dec 28, 1880. 

Francis was truly a romantic who dearly loved his fiancé and, as can be seen from his letters through the years, he loved and respected Rose to the very end.

Notes:

Francis refers to a visit made by Rose to Wisconsin. This was a trip made by Rose and members of her foster family to New Glarus, Wisconsin.  This visit is mentioned in the local newspaper, the Valley Falls New Era of July 17, 1880:  “Mrs Henry Legler and child, Mrs Mel Legler and child, and Miss Rosa Hefty left last Thursday for a visit to relatives and friends in Wisconsin.”  Rosa’s foster-mother Magdalena Hefty’s maiden name was Legler.

At her mother’s death, Rose at the age of four was adopted by the Heftys. Her three other siblings, all older, remained with their father, Balthasar Heiz, at New Glarus.  New Glarus, Wisconsin was settled by immigrants from Glarus, Switzerland, the families Heiz and Hefty among them. Rose and the Heftys moved from New Glarus in 1866 to settle in Valley Falls. 

Francis mentions in his letter Julia, and Rock Creek. This is Julia Potter Turner.  Rock Creek is Julia’s hometown and in 1880 the current living place of her father Thomas Turner.

Julia was born in 1862, probably at Rock Creek which is some 10 miles southwest of Valley Falls. Julia’s father was Thomas Turner and her mother was Elizabeth King.  Elizabeth was the first teacher at the first school district of Rock Creek in 1859.

In his autobiography Frank writes: "In March 1875 Mother took Julia, cousin Thos Turner’s oldest daughter, whose mother had just died, to our home and she has been since a member of our family.  Mother kept house for me in Valley Falls until my marriage in Dec. 1880. She then made her home with various friends, but chiefly with Julia, at Everest, Holton and Centralia."  While at Valley Falls, Julia was employed as a teacher.

Francis quotes Shakespeare in “Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered".  “Orisons” are prayers and Francis is quoting from the last line of Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy which begins with “To be or Not to Be”.

Source in regard to Elizabeth King Turner:
Cutler, William G. “History of the State of Kansas”. A.T.Andreas. Chicago. 1883

The living personality of Rose Hefty Rice

Comments from her husband Francis Jay Rice:

A very prolific writer, Francis Jay Rice on numerous occasions wrote about himself, his wife, his mother, and occasionally the Rice family history.  Among his writings is a small, leather-bound notebook in which he wrote an autobiography, on 143 numbered pages. The exact date of this writing is unknown, although the last date given in this autobiography is 1904 in which he records the death of his father, Gilbert Jay Rice. He does not mention the death of his mother in 1906 and thus we can assume that the autobiography was written sometime between 1904 and 1906.

In his autobiography Francis Rice wrote the following about his wife in a chapter he entitled:

Marriage

Among the first persons I met on my first visit to Valley Falls was my future wife.  I saw her on Saturday night at a Christmas bazaar and festival which the women of the church were holding. The next morning she was the first person to enter the church after myself, and tho alone for some little time yet we contented ourselves with looking at each other from opposite ends of the room.  She was one of the first three candidates whom I baptized soon after my ordination.  She had been led to become a Christian some months before I met her and was only awaiting a convenient time for church union and baptism.  She was at the time and continued thruout my pastorate to be church and S. S. organist and was also a teacher in the Sunday School.  In both positions she was faithful and efficient.  Her foster-parents were German Evangelicals and prejudiced against the Baptists, and were much displeased to have her join there.  In later years however, they laid aside this displeasure together with the prejudice which caused it.

 I was attracted to this young lady by her strong character and intellectual traits, by her religious earnestness and efficiency in S. S. work, and by her high ideals and courageous loyalty to her convictions.  After an acquaintance of three years at Christmas 1879, I wrote her a letter broaching the subject of marriage and received to my great satisfaction a favorable answer.  On the following June 18, 1880, we became engaged , and on Tuesday Dec. 28, 1880 we were married in the little stone church around the corner.  Rev E. Nisbet D.D. then pastor of the Baptist church of Leavenworth, officiated and a number of the church members and friends were present.  The day was very cold and a deep snow lay upon the ground.  We rode to the church in a sleigh.  We were married at 10 A.M. and immediately took the train for St. Louis and Chicago where I was to have my eyes examined.  After spending nearly two weeks we returned, arriving home on Saturday night  Jan. 8^th.

In this same autobiography Francis continues:

Rose attended the public school of Valley Falls and in the spring of 1878 began teaching school in the country near town, a vocation which she pursued four winters or until marriage, finishing her last school term in the spring after marriage.  She took several terms of lessons on the organ and gave special attention to the study of Church Music.  She attended both Methodist and Congregational Church and Sunday School until about 1875 when she began attending Baptist services.  The members of the church showed an interest in her and as a result---

On November 20, 1934 Francis wrote a “LIFE SKETCH OF ROSE HEITZ RICE” which included the following paragraphs:

Under the earnest and genial ministry of Rev. Granville Gates who was at that time the missionary pastor of the Church, she came to accept the Baptist ideas of religion and the Bible and to experience a gradual spiritual awakening.  In the Spring of 1877, after I became pastor, she was received by the church as a candidate for baptism.  On the Sunday immediately following my ordination to the ministry, or about June 20 of that year, I baptized her with two others.

I became interested in her because of her earnest Christian life and her sterling qualities of mind and heart.  We were married on December 28, 1880, in the little stone “church around the corner” as one of our young men fitly called it. Rev. Dr. E Nebit, pastor of the Leavenworth Baptist church, performing the ceremony.

With cordial admiration I bear testimony to her faithfulness as wife, Mother, and Christian worker.  Her ability as organist and choir director was always recognized.  As Mission Circle worker at Augusta and elsewhere, as W.C.T.U. worker, especially at Asherville, and as Sunday School work in all my pastorates but especially at Marysville, she developed and displayed talents which would have fitted her for much wider activities had the fortunes of life opened them to her.

From Virginia Rice Bohn:

In her notes which are a part of her Rice family research my mother, Virginia Rice Bohn, wrote the following about Rose:

I met my grandmother once in 1936 and found her a very sweet person and who delighted in listening to her radio --- an old one with head phones!

She was of small statue but seemed to be quite lively person.  I delighted in the fact that she and her daughters got along just fine—saying that they all agreed to disagree!

She was brought up in the Swiss Reform Church but joined the Southern Baptist Church just before her marriage to F. J. Rice.

Notes:

At the beginning of these writings, Francis refers to “Valley Falls”.  This is Valley Falls, Kansas and the location of his first ministerial position. He began his work in the spring of 1877 and was ordained at the church on May 18, 1877.

Francis also refers to the trip he and Rose made to Chicago immediately after the wedding. In Chicago he had his eyes examined.  This was a follow up in connection with Glaucoma in his left eye. Three year previous, in 1877, he had surgery on the left eye, but after a few weeks “the sight of the eye entirely failed”.    Some years later he lost sight in the other eye, becoming completely blind and yet he continued to serve as a minister.

The WCTU mentioned by Francis is the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1874. The purpose of the WCTU is to create a "sober and pure world" by abstinence, purity and evangelical Christianity. The WCTU is now considered the oldest voluntary, non-sectarian women's organization in continuous existence in the world. It was among the first organizations to keep a professional lobbyist in Washington, D. C. to promote its agenda.

My observations

Rose Heiz Rice must truly have been an impressive lady. She apparently was true to the values she cherished and which she carried with her from her childhood.  At the same time she made new, and at the time, daring choices. She seems to have been a highly motivated, goal orientated, and determined young woman.

A valid indicator of the personality of Rose Rice, although lacking in objectivity, is found through the written expressions of her husband, Francis. Time and time again he wears his feelings on his sleeve, describing his love for his wife, his pride, his respect.  “I was attracted to this young lady by her strong character and intellectual traits, by her religious earnestness and efficiency in S. S. work, and by her high ideals and courageous loyalty to her convictions.”

Francis describes a Sunday morning immediately after their first meeting. They both arrived at the church, separately, but obvious of each other.  They were alone, but that, of course, was the intention. Their presence in the church was undoubtedly related to arrangements for the religious service, but Francis hints at ulterior motives.  Did each involve themselves in preparation activities, glancing at each other from afar? Or were they bold enough to sit at each end of the room and dream.  Whatever the case this was a bold move made by a young nineteen year old girl as she followed her feminine instincts toward which were her goals for the future.  She obviously knew what she wanted and how to get it.  (Francis never really had a choice).

An article from the Valley Falls New Era of Dec. 28, 1878 reads:
“At the literary society last Saturday night we were particularly entertained by the speeches made by Miss Kate Ritter and Miss Rosa Hefty on the question that woman is more courageous then man. They both did remarkably well and exhibited more courage than many of the younger men.”

Another from the same newspaper written March 1880:
“A towship Sabbath School Convention will be held March 24, 1880 at the Baptist church. Progarmme for March 24^th… Essay, Miss Rosa Hefty”

The enormous personal strength and convictions of Rose Rice are most powerfully evident through her choice of Church membership, a choice which she made independently of Francis and in direct opposition to her foster parents. On several occasions both Rose and Francis refer to this religious conflict between Rose and her foster parents, Marcus and Magdalena Hefty. But when one becomes aware of the background for this conflict, one realizes that the opposition Rose experienced must have been painful, and probably came not only from her parents, but from the entire Swiss immigrant community.  On occasion the hostility must have been nearly unbearable.

The young girl’s leanings towards the Baptist Church were the essence of the conflict she had with her foster parents.  The causes were undoubtedly differences in religious beliefs and practice, but also were from remembered experiences which the Swiss Evangelical Reformists brought with them from their home country.  In Switzerland the Evangelical Reformists were in direct conflict with the Baptist movement which openly, actively, and heatedly criticized the Reformists and their beliefs.

Among the many differences was that of baptism. The Swiss Reform Church practiced child baptism, whereas the Baptists practiced adult baptism, this to the extent that child baptism was not only not recognized, but considered directly wrong. Balthasar Hubmaier of the newly formed Baptist movement wrote “I teach, and say that infant baptism is a robbery of the right baptism of Christ”.  One can only imagine the hurt, despair, and possible anger experienced by the Heftys when Rose chose to become a part of and later be baptized for a second time by a faith which truly struck at the very heart of their beliefs.

At the time Rose was no more than 18 and 19 years of age. One could understand her choices if they were made by an infatuated young mistress under the influence of a handsome Baptist pastor, but her choices were initiated before Francis became a part of her life. At the time of their first meeting, Rose was already active in the Sunday school as the organist and teacher.

The occasion of her second baptism, supposedly nullifying the first, and then later marriage to the Baptist minister must have been a true heart breaking experience for these devout Swiss Reform immigrants, but also a demonstration of the internal personal strength of Rose Rice.

On this subject Francis wrote:

Her foster-parents were German Evangelicals and prejudiced against the Baptists, and were much displeased to have her join there.  

In her own autobiography Rose writes:

In 1880 I was married to Francis J. Rice, Pastor of the Baptist church. There were no joy bells ringing at that wedding, my foster father and mother were bitterly opposed to my marriage and there were some in the congregation who were not exactly pleased with his choice.  But we were satisfied and life went merrily on.  We celebrated fifty-five wedding anniversaries….

However, in reading through the histories of the Swiss Reform Evangelists, one becomes easily impressed by their humanitarian beliefs and even more so by their practice of compassion, forgiveness, concern, and love.

Francis writes of this: “In later years however, they laid aside this displeasure together with the prejudice which caused it.”

When the Coal Creek Church, near Valley Falls, was destroyed by a tornado in 1905, Magdalena Hefty contributed money to help rebuild the facility.  Later, a relative, Melchior Hefty, took care of her husband’s brother who suffered from mental problems, thus she remember him in her will.

One reads of the financial contribution made by the Swiss immigrants in 1861 to their home community of Glarus, Switzerland when a terrible fire destroyed much of the community. The fire, which started in a shed and was fanned by high winds, destroyed 593 buildings; over 3000 people lost their roofs and everything they owned.

In closing, I would also mention the personal writings of Rose. Her letters and descriptions are both grammatically and expressively correct, and flow through her command of the written language.

Sources:
The autobiography written by Francis Jay Rice is currently in my possession

The “Life Sketch of Rose Heitz Rice” is from a transcript made from the original by Virginia Rice Bohn. The location of the original manuscript is unknown to me.

Articles from the Valley Falls New Era are from the Jefferson County Historical Society at Oskaloosa, Kansas