Thursday, October 5, 2006

Missed the Edmund Rice Descendants meeting

I missed the meeting of the Descendants of Edmund Rice in the Sudbury MA area again.

There is a nice article about the meeting at the Wayland (MA) Town Crier site here. The article describes Edmund rice's life in some detail - read the whole thing.

The group of 50 descendants who attended had a great time - they visited:
A Rice home that is still standing as well as the foundations of three more visible in the woods - all, as fate would have it, on Rice Road.

Ponds on Rice Road that were built by the family, which dammed up Snake Brook, the small stream that runs through the area.

The Edmund Rice homestead built by the "Never-Ending Spring" on Old Connecticut Path and the plaque marking this site.

The Unitarian Church in Wayland Center, where the current affiliate minister, Rev. Debra Pope-Lane, is an Edmund Rice descendant. Rice was the first senior deacon of this church.

A marker erected by the ERA in memory of Rice in the North Cemetery. He is believed to have been buried in this graveyard, but the exact location hasn't yet been determined.

The Nathaniel Rice home on River Road.

The former home of Harry Rice on Water Row. Harry had a personal aircraft landing field on his property. He was also the Sudbury dog officer and is credited with helping establish the Buddy Dog Humane Society and its shelter, which is presently located on Route 20 at the Wayland-Sudbury line.

The remains of the Rice Tavern, which is said to pre-date the Wayside Inn and was a muster site during the War of 1812, in what is now Maynard.

The Revolutionary War Cemetery in Sudbury, where several Rices were buried, and which is the location of the first town pound, built at a cost of $20. This is a walled and fence dip in the land with a door that only swings inward so that the animals couldn't force it open.

Whew - it sounds like they had a lot of fun. I wish I had been there. This is not far from the homesteads of my Joseph Seaver and Isaac Read families in Sudbury, which were on Nobscot Hill and in Lanham, respectively.

Anybody reading this that is a descendant of Edmund Rice?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I was doing some searches on the web and your site popped up. I was the one that put together the bus trip you missed. Hope you can make a future one. George Rice

Melissa Nathan said...

I grew up spending weekends at Broadmeadow Stables under the tutelage of Harry in the 1970's. He was a cranky but lovely old man with a heart of gold who had his 4 or so dogs that followed him all around the property. Cinnamon, Snippet, Pup, and his favorite, a boxer named Bootsie. His stallions, Beau, Big Red Romper and Nevada Dandy were his Pride and Joy and his biggest thrill was watching his niece Cheryl get on a horse only to see it buck wildly and he would hoot and hollar "RIDE EM" SHERRY!!" I am almost 50 and I still miss Harry as he would travel west and bring back bags of turqouise and let us barn rats pick a pretty ring from the bag upon his return. When he "retired" he gave me a filly from one of his mares who I broke myself. I had the time of my life out there and Harry taught me so much. Little dod I know he was from such an important family, as I was only 10-15 yrs old at the time. But he left a lasting impression on me. When he died and left his land to the state for the benefit of wildlife, that really struck a chord in me and maade me appreciate him and what he stood for even more. I am still learning from him to this day.

Unknown said...

My mother is Harry Rice's Neice if anyone has pics of the farm I would love to see them I have a few of my mom and my aunt's and uncles in the parades with the horses