Biography - CYRUS RICE
Cyrus
Rice was a lineal descendant from Edmund Rice, who came from Barkhamstead,
Hertfordshire, England, and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1638. From
records it appears that he was a selectman in 1644, and made a deacon in the
church in 1648. Of his wife, Tamazine, nothing is known save the fact of her
death, in Sudbury, June 13, 1654. He was a man of some means for those early
days of colonial history, an inventory of his property, made out at the time
of his death showing L566 personal, and L170 real property. A son, Edward,
was the father of John, who was the father of Moses, who was killed by the
Indians, at the age of sixty-one years, when engaged in plowing corn. A
nephew, Asa, eight years of age, who accompanied him, was taken by the
Indians to Canada. His son, Sylvanus, was a Revolutionary soldier, who died
in March, 1819, in the ninety-first year of his age, and was the father of
Sylvanus, who was the first to leave the old Massachusetts home, which he
did in 1819, finding one in Virginia whence he came to Illinois in 1832.
Here he died May 29, 1847. The subject of this sketch, Cyrus, his son, was
born February 28, 1798. He was married to Martha Gould, a lineal descendant
of John Alden, who came to this country in the May Flower in 1620, January
27, 1824. By her he had thirteen children, five of whom are now living.
Cyrus Rice was an excellent citizen. He was an active member of the
Presbyterian church. For ten years, from 1851 to 1861, he was a school
commissioner for Edwards county, and for more than forty years he was
township treasurer. He died October 11, 1882.
Extracted 12 Aug 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 A Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence, and Wabash Counties, Illinois, page 220.
