Nelson Henry Rice Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Nelson Henry Rice and Sarah Ann Stanley got married in September of 1841, down in Alabama. Together they built a family of eleven children.

Four of those children, John Henry Nelson, Mary Ann Elizabeth, and two others whose names were never recorded, all died in Alabama, before the family ever pointed themselves west. The ones who made the journey were Cicero Napoleon Wesley, Jerymiah Josephus, Samuel Adolphus, Thomas Jefferson, and Margerette Rivers Rice. Five children, a mother and a father, and all the hope a family could carry.

They left Alabama in 1854. First they settled in Nacogdoches County. Then Newton County.

And somewhere in that stretch of moving and planting and moving again, two more children came into the world: Emery Josephine and Frank Patrick. Then came 1865, and the Rice family migrated again, this time to Polk County, where Nelson Henry Rice purchased about one thousand acres. One thousand acres.

A man with that many children and that much land was thinking about more than just the present. He was thinking about legacy. Now, here is the moment the marker wants you to sit with.

Nelson Henry Rice and the Reverend Frank Wilson were out walking the Rice property one day, just the two of them, moving through that land. And at some point, Nelson Henry Rice stopped. He bent down and placed a stake in the ground, right on that spot, and he declared, out loud, that this was where he wanted to be buried.

He already knew. The first burial on that family ground, though, wasn't Nelson Henry Rice himself. It was a daughter-in-law, Margaret Leona McMahon Rice, who died in March of 1870.

And that September, Nelson Henry Rice made it official. He deeded the site for a cemetery. He also deeded an acre of land for Wilson Chapel, about a mile from the Rice home, and he conveyed plots of land to his children.

The land, the chapel, the graves. He was putting things in order, piece by piece. The area became known as the Rice community.

Sarah Ann Stanley Rice died in 1889, not at home, but while she was visiting their son Thomas Jefferson, over in Milam County. She was interred there. Nelson Henry Rice followed in 1891, and the man who had driven that stake into the ground years before was laid to rest exactly where he said he would be.

The cemetery grew. Veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II are interred there. It was enlarged in the 1960s, and by the early twenty-first century it held a hundred and forty-two graves.

A man planted a stake, made a declaration, and an entire community grew up around that promise.

What the marker says

Nelson Henry Rice and Sarah Ann Stanley married in September 1841 in Alabama. They had 11 children. John Henry Nelson, Mary Ann Elizabeth, and an unnamed son and daughter all died in Alabama. Cicero Napoleon Wesley, Jerymiah Josephus, Samuel Adolphus, Thomas Jefferson and Margerette Rivers Rice moved to Texas with their parents in 1854. The family settled first in Nacogdoches County, then moved to Newton County. During this time two more children, Emery Josephine and Frank Patrick, were born. The family migrated to this area in 1865 and purchased about one thousand acres on which to establish a family farm and homestead. According to oral history, Nelson Henry Rice and the Reverend Frank Wilson were walking the Rice property when Nelson Henry Rice placed a stake in the ground on this site and declared that this was where he wanted to be buried. The first burial on the Rice family burial ground was that of a daughter-in-law, Margaret Leona McMahon Rice, who died in March 1870. Nelson Henry Rice deeded the site for a cemetery in September of that year. He also deeded an acre of land for Wilson Chapel about a mile from the Rice home and conveyed plots of land to his children. The area became known as Rice community. Nelson Henry Rice died in 1891. Sarah Ann Stanley Rice died in 1889 while visiting their son, Thomas Jefferson, in Milam County and was interred there. Several veterans of the Civil War, World War I and World War II are interred here. The burial ground serves Rice family descendants and other community members. It was enlarged in the 1960s and in the early 21st century held 142 graves. (2000)