William Henry Rice Sr. (1857 - 1930)

Born 12 Aug 1857 in Hazel Hill Township, Johnson, Missouri, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Laura Catherine (Pittman) Rice — married 1884 in Gainesville, Cooke Co., TX

Husband of Sarah Elizabeth (LaPrade) Rice — married 23 Apr 1893 in Cooke Co., TX

Husband of Dolous (Bellah) Rice — married 1905 in Archer, Texas, United States

Descendants

Died 13 Mar 1930 at age 72 in Duke, Jackson, Oklahoma, United States

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Biography

Will Rice was a cowboy preacher, politician, rancher, land speculator, story teller, Texas State Senator, and 32nd Degree Mason and Grand Master of the Texas Lodge. The son of a Confederate captain, Will Rice was born in Missouri in 1857 or 1858, and moved with his family to Texas as a war refugee in the last years of the Civil War (when much of Missouri was turned into a depopulated and demilitarized zone by the Union Army).

He was a Texas Legislator and lived in Cooke County, TX. He had three sons who became Baptist preachers.

Among his three wives, he fathered 12 children, three of whom died in infancy.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXGT-RCR : 12 April 2016), Jas P Rice, Texas, United States; citing p. 15, family 87, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 553,083.
• </b>/ Oaklawn Cemetery

Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery Decatur Wise County Texas, USA