By Evelyn Howell Sapp
My mother, Lucille Rice Howell, told me that when her grandfather, Monroe Rice, and his wife, Sarah, along with their family, left Tennessee, their aim was to go west and settle. However, when they got to Blount County, Alabama, one of the wagons broke down. Jake, LaFayette, was trying to repair the wagon and fell on his leg, and he was crippled to some degree for the rest of his life. They decided to stay there and settle after some people told them there was much good land along the Mulberry River. The land could be entered and settled. They all settled in what we know now as the Ricetown community.
In those days, communities were named after families who first settled there, such as Gambletown, now called New Union. They built homes of logs. In time, they also built a church and used it as a school. On the farm, there was a spring which they called the Spout Spring, with an unusually strong stream. The spring is still there, although the area is very overgrown and would be difficult to access. The spring is probably artesian. The spring lies on or near the property line of two different plots of acreage, and over the years there has sometimes been some dispute over who owned the Spout Spring property.
John Rice and his wife, Margaret, did not have any children. He became blind before he died.
Preston and LaFayette married sisters. Their brides’ maiden names were Willoughby. Thus, their children were double first cousins. Preston built a pretty house that sat upon a hill. It still stands today, but no one lives in it now, and it has become very run down. Sam Frye’s grandson, Sam Gibbs, inherited the property. The Ricetown Cemetery is located behind this house. Sam Frye and his wife, Sallie Fannie, raised their family in this house. Sallie Fannie was LaFayette’s daughter. I do not know about Jennie Haun.
I remember Mother taking us to see Rebecca Whaley, Mother’s aunt, in Birmingham. Mother called her Aunt Beck. She also took us to see Aunt Mary, who lived in Cullman. She married a person with the last name of James. Mother loved her relatives and wanted to know them.
My grandfather was William Rice. He had been a Civil War soldier. He married Elizabeth Sanders. Elizabeth was a quiet woman who taught her daughters how to do beautiful needlework. She was a wonderful cook. She died as the result of her clothing catching fire while washing clothes on an outdoor wash pot. My mother witnessed this and tried to put the fire out, and she had scars on her hands as a result. She dreamed of her mother all her life and truly believed that her mother came to her often in her dreams. William did not have any slaves, but a colony of Black people had settled across the river, and he hired some of the men to work in the fields at gathering time. Mother said he would give these field hands meat from the smokehouse, for they butchered quite a few hogs and cured the meat each year.
My mother’s brother, Sam, had already married before my mother was born. She said he would come home every Sunday to see his mother. Alice Rice White, Sam’s daughter, and Mother were about the same age. She stayed with them almost more than she did at home. Alice and Mother said they had a playhouse in the root cellar of the old home. They would sew doll dresses.
In Grandfather William’s house, they had a long table in the kitchen. My grandmother and her daughters would bake numbers of potato pies during gathering time, and the boys would run in and get whole pies and eat them on the way back to the field. Sometimes they did not take time to eat. In the fall, Grandfather would go to town and stock up on barrels of staples, such as flour, sugar, and other things, to tide them through the winter. They also made homemade soap.
My mother’s family was a large one. They grew up on a farm, but they did not all make farmers.
Three of the children moved to Texas and lived out most of their lives:
- Edward became a dentist.
- Luther farmed.
- Mary married twice.
My mother made one trip to see Luther. When she got off the train, she at first did not recognize her brother Luther because it had been so many years since they had seen each other. Rice men usually became bald at an early age. They planned a reunion here in Alabama, and it was the only time they ever got together, but they had a wonderful time. It was the only time I ever saw Uncle Luther. When Luther was a young man, he was a real marksman with a gun and kept the family supplied with wild game to cook. They ate squirrel dumplings often. I have a picture of him and his bird dogs.
When Mary’s first husband died, she came back here and lived with our family for several years. She did not have any children.
When Ed retired from dentistry, he also came and lived with us. He had lost quite a lot of money in the stock market. When he died, his daughter, Kathryn, brought his body back to Ricetown Cemetery. He and his wife had been divorced for some time. Our mother took care of the burial arrangements.
I look back and remember all the Rices who came and stayed with us at times, and I wonder how my mom and dad were so liberal toward all of them. Mother’s cousin, who called her “Little Mary,” never did marry. She would stay with us for weeks at a time. She was a typical “old maid,” and I am sorry, but we laughed at her behind her back.