Frederick William Rice
Frederick William Rice, who is one of Wooster’s earliest patriots, was born to Barnhart and Anna Elizabeth (Eberhart) Rice near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on September 29th, 1753. Bethlehem was founded in 1741 by the Moravians who came from Germany to share the gospel with the Lenape (“Leh-NAH-pay”) Indians as well as those German-speaking Americans who had no church. His grandparents, Frederick and Elizabeth Reis, were from Wittenberg Germany and came to America in 1732. Frederick was the first in the family line to be born in the American colonies.
In 1769, when Frederick was 13, his parents moved him and his two younger sisters, Anna Maria and Christina, to Hannastown, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania which was still a wooded frontier.
As a boy, Frederick was a natural pioneer. He is said to have been a natural hunter with a good aim. In the family history, it is said he actually shot and killed a bear on his first hunt. We don’t know his age at the time, but he is said to have been a young boy. Separated from his father, Frederick started for home. On the way, he was startled by a deep grunting sound above him. In the fork of a hollowed out tree, a bear was collecting honey from a beehive.
Our young hunter was alone but undaunted he took his first aim at a prey of the forest wilds, and fired at the bear but didn’t stay to see what affect his shot had taken, fearing the brute might attack him in case he was just wounded, and ran as hard as he could for home. Not a great while
Frederick Rice Family Historyafterwards his father came in dragging the dead bear which his son had killed by his first aim at a beast of the forest.
Throughout his life, Frederick continued hunting, “often being absent from home for weeks at a time, spending his nights on a bed of bushes, and building a fire about for protection from the wild beasts of the forest. The deer was his particular aim in hunting in which he was most successful, always returning home with an abundance of venison.”
Revolutionary War
Within 6 years of the Rice family’s move to Hannastown, the Revolutionary War had begun. Barnhart Rice had taken an oath of allegiance to England, but that didn’t stop him from handing a gun to his
Frederick was mustered into the Pennsylvania Militia, and marched to Morristown, New Jersey where he was placed under Gen. George Washington’s command. There, Capt. John Berry used him as a spy. As such, he assisted in the capture of 1000 Hessians in the attack on Trenton on Christmas day, 1776, the day after Washington’s heroic night crossing of the icy Delaware River. One wonders if Frederick’s German heritage was an asset to his reconnaissance. He would have been able to understand the Hessians if not speak German fluently himself. We may not ever know for sure, but such ideas are plausible. One thing we do know for sure is that he was close enough to the action to have seen George Washington on several occasions. In his pension deposition, he stated, “I also remember of having frequently seen Gen. Washington while in New Jersey.” After Trenton, he stayed on with Washington’s army at Valley Forge. He was involved in several skirmishes including Staten Island on August 22, 1777.
After several months under Gen. Washington’s command, his German r
After about four months, their detachment lacked provisions so they returned to Westmorland County where Frederick remained as a frontier spy under Capt. Marshall for about 3 more years. He was involved in several skirmishes with Indians. One expedition that was mentioned was the recovery of two white children who had been kidnapped by the Indians. No details are given about the identities of the children, but they are said to have been recovered successfully. We know things were different back then, and when one reads these stories about clashes with Indians, one may wonder what type of man Frederick was. Another account shows him in a more defining light. On one occasion, his expedition reached an abandoned Indian camp where one Indian woman was left behind, be it due to age or ailment, we are not told. Some in the party were going to shoot her, but Frederick prevented it. “With a bound, the Indian woman was clinging to his knees, for instinct told her she had found a friend in him.”
Progressing to the rank of Captain, Rice led his men through the Pennsylvania wilderness, searching out hostile forces and aiding those pioneers who were in danger. At his rank, he would have probably been involved in deciphering whether certain Native Americans were peaceful or threatening. Some groups of Indians were being encouraged by loyalists, or Tories, to attack the homes of those who were sympathetic to a new, sovereign nation. Three devious white men in the area became known as leaders of many of these Indian attacks. Their names were Simon Girty, Alexander McKee, and Matthew Elliott, and by far the most ruthless of these was Girty. Often times, the hostile Indians under the influence of one of these men would kill women and children and burn homes to the ground. When they took inventory of their booty, the Indians took interest in clothing and any bright colored beads, blankets, and rum. They had little interest in the silver and gold, which the white outlaws were happy to take. Much of the problems in Westmoreland County during this time stemmed from Girty, McKee, and Elliot.
At all
History of Westmorland County Pennsylvania – John Newton Boucherevents they were more dangerous to the white settlers than theIndians, because they knew the weak points of the settlement, knew theterritory, and knew more about the individual bravery or weakness of the settler, than the Indians did. When, therefore, a band of Indians under theleader ship of one of these infuriated wretches actuated by their inborn hatred of the American pioneer, came down upon a settlement, it was indeed a most formidable and blood-thirsty onslaught.
In time, Simon Girty would be present at the brutal torture and murder of Frederick Rice’s commander, Col. William Crawford. Girty was avenging the massacre of a peaceful group of Lenape (Delaware) Indians in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, even though it had been carried out by another colonial militia. These Indians were peaceful Christians, converted by the Moravians. This massacre would happen in 1782, shortly after Rice was discharged from duty, but because of the Indians’ anger over the slaughter of the Lenape, Frederick Rice would have to face Simon Girty again.
Fort Rice
One home that was burned in the summer of 1779 was that of farmer John Montgomery in Northumberland County, PA, who had fled when nearby Fort Freeland was attacked and burned. Montgomery loaded his family into the wagon, and with what provisions he could, he proceeded to Fort Augusta. Finding the Montgomery house abandoned, the Indians burned it down. Since nearby Fort Freeland was also destroyed, Col. Weltner’s German Regiment (with our Frederick Rice) hurriedly erected a fort on the ruins of the Montgomery home that winter. They wisely enclosed the natural spring and built a stockade out of surface limestone. The building had a footprint of 26 feet by 23 feet, was two stories with an attic of 4 feet at the peak, and was a total of 22 feet high. The spring house was used for keeping meats, milk, cream, and butter and was a constant source of cool water to drink. The walls were about 2 feet thick with portholes for firing upon invaders. The second floor had an external stairway leading to its door and was used for “the purpose of storing away there for safe keeping such things as Capt. Rice and his men needed for their use and comfort.” The History of Northumberland County states that twenty-four men were stationed at Fort Rice during this period.
In the late 1890s, a visitor to the fort noted “that a smooth-faced stone in the central part of the southern end wall and about eighty [probably meant eight] feet above the ground, contained on its face the letters W. R. that were so thinly cut into the stone…. As W. and R. are the initials of Capt. William Rice, I now found the evidence strong enough to satisfy me that Fort Rice… actually stood here and nowhere else.” The visitor later states that Capt. Rice’s full name was “Frederick William Rice”.
There were two battles at Fort Rice that we know about, one in Sep 1780 and the other in Sep 1782.
From a letter
The second attack came upon Fort Rice in 1782. Men from the German Regiment were involved, including two Germans named Abraham Rice and Daniel Rice. I cannot say whether these men are related to our Frederick Rice, but I believe Frederick was not involved. Based upon his testimony he would have left the army around 1780. You can read an account of the second attack here.
After the fighting was over, the owner of the original house which was now Fort Rice returned. “John Montgomery returned with his family on the return of peace. Finding the buildings of his farm destroyed and a good strong stone house supplying its place; he at once occupied the fort, which, with additions, made him a comfortable home for years. Capt. Rice leaving the country, Montgomery remained and it soon became known as Montgomery’s fort.”
Marriage
After he received an honorable discharge from the army in 1780, Frederick married Catharine Lauffer, a daughter of frontier pioneers, Christian Lauffer and Susannah Best. They settled near Greensburg, PA, where Frederick operated his father-in-law’s grist mill located on the Sewickley River. It was not far from Frederick’s boyhood home of Hannastown.
The Hannastown War
Our white antagonist Simon Girty, who had just one month prior participated in the murder of Col. William Crawford, moved his treachery to Westmoreland County, PA. On July 17th, 1782, Hannastown was attacked and torched by Girty and his Indians. When word reached Frederick and Catherine that the attackers were coming their way they began to secure their home. Frederick nailed clapboards over the windows while Catherine, to make the cabin appear uninhabited, poured her wash, clothes and all, into a hole in which Frederick had been preparing mortar for patching the cabin walls. Musket in hand, Frederick set off to help the villagers while Catherine gathered their three children. With infant Elizabeth in her arms, one-year-old Barnhart on her back, and three-year-old Christina at her side, Catherine set off to alert the neighbors. To avoid being spotted by any Indians, Catherine kept low along the underbrush and wheat fields along the way to the neighbors, who lived a mile away. Upon finding the neighbors’ house already abandoned, Catherine went on with the children to the next neighbor, another mile away. There, she found about 20 women and children and one elderly man with a musket. After he boarded up the windows, they huddled inside, never talking above a whisper and muffling the cries of the young children.
On his way to the village, Frederick saw Indians at one cabin “torturing a mother whom they had tied to a tree and were impaling her baby in front of her on the picket fence, but as the Indians were a dozen to him only one, he had to steal past them unobserved on his way to the village which he found in flames when he got there but joined the settlers in pursuing and attacking Indians and killing many of them.”
After this, Frederick and Catherine moved west to Meadville, PA, buying two lots of land where Frederick established another grist mill where they remained for over 30 years. They added to their family several more children. The full list of their children according to the Rice Family History is: Christina, Barnhart, Elizabeth, Frederick, Christian, John, Peter, Catherine, Simon, Susan, and Henry.
Wooster
In consideration of his service during the Revolutionary War, Frederick was given an option between two lots of land in newly founded Wooster, OH. One lot was located north, where the College of Wooster now stands, and the other lot on the south side where the OARDC is now located. After some months of inspection and survey, Frederick chose the southern lot as the springs on the northern lot dried up in the summer while the southern springs were plentiful throughout the year. He divided his land and conveyed it to two of his sons. From the Congressional Library record we read,
“U. S., James Monroe President, to Frederick Rice, May 12, 1821. Assignee, Joseph Dorsey
and Wells. Then Frederick Rice to Simon Rice, west half offarm , Mar. 1, 1822. Frederick Rice to Barnhardt Rice, east half offarm , Mar. 7, 1822.”
Simon and Barnhart both built houses on their land in 1822. Simon built a brick farmhouse and Frederick and Catherine lived here with Simon and his family. Catherine died in the summer of 1823. Simon’s house still stands to this day on the campus of the OARDC and houses the offices of the campus police.
Barnhart’s farmhouse was built in 1822 as well. He chose to build it from native sandstone that he had quarried from his own land. The finished house looks much like the style of stone house construction that was used in Pennsylvania at that time. Today, the house is available to rent for special events.
Over the years, many people came to visit Frederick Rice and his family at their Wooster farms. Some were relatives from the old home place in Pennsylvania and others were friends who came from “Rice Hollow”, where Fort Rice had been built. Today, a historical marker tells of the origins of the house.
He is said to have been an active member of the German Lutheran Church, and that his last request was the administration of the Lord ’s Supper by his pastor, the Rev. S.S. Cline, in the presence of three of his sons and their wives. When Frederick Rice died on 23 Jan 1848 he was buried in the cemetery at the Wooster German Evangelical Church but was later moved to the Oak Hill Cemetery, now called the Wooster Cemetery. His epitaph reads,
FREDERICK RICE
A SOLDIER OF THE
REVOLUTION
DIED
JAN. 23, 1848,
AGED 94 Y. 3 M. 23 D.
A flag marker denoting his service was also placed at his headstone by the Wayne Chapter D. A. R.
Housekeeping: Frederick Rice is a direct ancestor of mine. For my relatives’ sake of clarity, the line goes as such: Frederick William Rice b. 1753, had Christian Rice b. 1787, had Frederick Rice b. 1815, had Elizabeth Rice b. 1842, who married Adam Spade b. 1839, had Celestia Spade b. 1857, who married John Walter Green b. 1849, had Lewis Green b. 1880, who married Mabel Swinehart b. 1879, all their children: Clarence, Mildred, Glenn, Lois, Leta, Louis (Junior).
Sources:
The History Frederick Rice Family (WCPL Genealogy Dept. Wooster)
Copy of pension of Frederick Rice, State of Ohio, Wayne County, his deposition (WCPL Genealogy Dept. Wooster)
The Rice family archives (WCPL Genealogy Dept. Wooster)
Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War 1775-1785. (Ancestry.com)
Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. (Ancestry.com)
North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 (Ancestry.com)
History of the Henry Rice Sr. family : March 1, 1921 (Ancestry.com)
History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – John Newton Boucher
Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania – Sherman Day
Simon Girty, “The White Savage”; A Romance of the Border – Charles McKnight
History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania – Herbert Charles Bell
Wayne County Herald, published in Wooster, Ohio on Saturday, September 5th, 1885, p. 8