Rice Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Rice Cemetery, out here in Houston County. Now, every family has a place where the story starts, and for the Rice family, that place was a log cabin. Joseph Redmond Rice, born in 1805, and his wife Wille Masters Rice, born in 1809, raised that cabin just across the San Antonio Road from this very site.

The year was 1828, and Texas was still young and raw. Then, about 1830, something happened that changes the whole weight of this land. The infant twins died.

Both of them. And it was probably then, the marker tells us, that Joseph and Wille established this family burial ground. There's no ceremony in that fact.

Just grief, and ground, and a decision to keep their people close. The cemetery grew. It grew the way frontier cemeteries do, mostly with the very small.

The marker notes a high rate of infant mortality accounts for numerous burials here, and among the most heartbreaking are four children belonging to Sarah Dickerson, born in 1826, who was Joseph and Wille's own daughter. Sarah, who married Robert Dickerson, died herself in 1860. She is part of this ground too.

The oldest stone in the plot marks the grave of Joseph Redmond Rice himself, who died in 1866. Wille lived on until 1881, and you have to wonder what it meant to her, all those years, knowing exactly where this ground was and what it held. The cemetery passed through time the way cherished things do, carefully.

In 1953, John Rice, born in 1875 and who would live until 1960, and his wife Nannie Fowler Rice deeded the cemetery to trustees. And today it is maintained by descendants of that same family who first broke the soil here nearly two centuries ago. Some legacies are built in courthouses or carved in stone monuments.

This one is tended in a quiet cemetery in Houston County, where the oldest marker still bears the name of the man who built the cabin across the road.

What the marker says

Joseph Redmond Rice (1805-1866) and his wife Wille Masters Rice (1809-1881) erected a log cabin across the San Antonio Road from this site in 1828. They probably established this family burial ground after the deaths of their infant twins about 1830. The high rate of infant mortality accounts for numerous burials, including four children of the Rices' daughter Sarah (Mrs. Robert) Dickerson (1826-1860). The oldest stone in the plot marks the grave of Joseph Redmond Rice. Deeded to trustees in 1953 by John (1875-1960) and Nannie Fowler Rice, the cemetery is maintained by descendants. (1978)