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Note: FROM EDWARD RYCE:
Isaac Robert sold his share in a family farm in Tennessee in 1841, when he became of age, and moved to James County, Arkansas, where he went to work for a William Gardner, a millwright. The Gardner family, who had known the Rice family in Eastern Tennessee, was restlessly moving westward in these years.
Isaac Robert Rice married Martha Elizabeth Gardner there in Arkansas in 1848. A son, John Culberson was born in Honey Creek on April 27, 1849. A daughter, Laura Palestine, was born in Beatie's Prairie, in extreme northwestern Arkansas, on April 20, 1852. The movements of Isaac Robet and Martha in the years 1853-1854 are not clearly defined. We know that Isaac Robert's younger sister, Sarah, married George Gardner on March 31, 1853. Melissa Jane Rice, their third child, was born in Beatie's Prairie, Benton County, Arkansas, on February 25, 1855. We have no record of their movements during 1856.
FROM HISTORY OF TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES and Edward Ryce:
John Culberson Rice was born in Benton County, Arkansas, April 27, 1849, son of Isaac and Martha E. (Gardner) Rice, natives of Tennessee. In 1857, Isaac Rice, with his wife and children, crossed the plains with ox-yeams to California, their journey consuming six months. They passed the winter of 1857-58 in Napa County and in the following spring went to Clear Lake, Lake County, where the elder Rice went into the raising of cattle, horses, and hogs. Isaac Thomas was born there on April 27, 1860. Maria Elizabeth was born in Big Valley on August 26, 1862. Late in 1862 the family returned to Wooden Valley and bought one hundred and sixty acres, on which he raised stock. Maria Elizabeth died there on June 23, 1864; a penciled notation in the family records states that the cause of death was "diphtheria". Mary Louise was born in Wooden Valley on March 18, 1865. In 1857 he and the Gardners moved to Vacaville, Solano County, in order to obtain better educational facilities for his children. Buying town property there, he also rented land outside which he farmed with succes. On September 1, 1873, the family left Vacaville for what is now Antioch, Contra Costa County, California, remaining there for approximately one year.
On September 10, 1874 (when title to the original Spanish grants were cleared for US Citizens) Isaac Robert again moved his family to what is now Dinuba, Tulare County, California. There Frank Edward, their youngest child, was born on September 1, 1875.
About 1880, when California lawmakers enacted a law requiring all land, particularly grazing land, to be fenced, Laura and her husband, E. J. Edwards, left the Tulare County area, driving stock into Arizona. Isaac Thomas, a younger brother of Laura and then only 17, also drove the cattle into Arizona.
Laura and my (Edward Ryce) mother Jessie, her sister, were very close. When my mother became seriously ill of tuberculosis about 1910, there was a serious consideration between the two families to bring my mother to Arizona; however, this was given up because of the expense entailed and also because Laura would be burdened with the care of little tow-headed Eddie (me!) My mother passed away in 1917.
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