Pleasant Rice (1803 - 1892)

Born 7 Mar 1803 in Tennessee

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 9 May 1892 at age 89 in Johnson County, Missouri

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Biography

Pleasant Rice arrived with his family in the spring of 1828 and settled on Honey Creek Section 10, Township 47, Range 27. This made him the first settler to the county.

Rice was followed by Nicholas Houx and several negros in the fall of 1829.

He was the first slave holder in the county. His house was built on the west half southwest quarter section 22, township 47, range 27. Rice died in 1834 and was the first buried in the old cemetery at Columbus.

Pleasant Rice first visited this locality on a hunting expedition in 1818 and in the fall of 1819, returned on a hunting expedition in company with Dangerfield Rice, Capt. Hugh Brown, Hugh Brown, Jr., Cicero Brown and John Wallace.

They got on this expedition, besides various game and fur, two hundred and sixty gallons of wild honey. Mr. Rice stated that he found twelve bee trees in one day, from which he took an average of sixteen gallons of honey each. Henceforth the little creek along which he hunted bees on that occasion was given the name of Honey creek.

At that time hundreds of Indians had their wigwams along the creeks near suitable hunting grounds. Mr. Rice estimated that he saw as manv as two thousand Indians within a radius of four miles of his log cabin. He settled with his family on Honey creek in section 10, town- ship 47 on a place which is now owned by Mrs. Kelly, grandmother of Charles L. Gillilan, ex-county assessor. Part of the old building which he first erected is still standing. It is fourteen feet square and was covered with clapboards and weight poles. The logs were chinked with mud and the door swung on wooden hinges and was fastened by a wooden latch, the string of which was always said to hang on the outside.

The chimney was built of mud and sticks. This old hut was built by Pleasant Rice with the assistance of a negro, and the logs used in its construction were of white oak. Since then the old clapboards have been dispensed with. It has a new roof, and the log walls have been covered by siding, and it is now used as a kitchen.

Pleasant Rice was born near Nashville, Tennessee, March 7, 1803. He was of Dutch and English descent. His wife, to whom he was married August 26, 1826, bore the maiden name of Virlinda G. Ray.

She was a daughter of Senator Ray and came from a prominent Kentucky family. She was born in Warren county Kentucky, May 13, 1809. Mr. and Mrs. Rice were the parents of thirteen children, ten of whom grew to maturity, four sons and six daughters and many of their descendants are now living in Johnson county.

He arrived with his family in the spring of 1828 and settled on Honey Creek Section 10, Township 47, Range 27. This made him the first settler to the county.

Rice was followed by Nicholas Houx and several negros in the fall of 1829.

He was the first slave holder in the county. His house was built on the west half southwest quarter section 22, township 47, range 27. Rice died in 1834 and was the first buried in the old cemetery at Columbus.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ History of Johnson County, Missouri Ewing Cockreil (1918)