Richard Robert French Rice

  General Notes:

Rev. Robert French Rice has paid the debt of dying at the age of 79 years. He was a soldier of the war of 1861. He was licensed to preach in the fall of 1869, and from that time to the date of his death he was in the work of the Master under the jurisdiction of the M.E. Church South. He has preached in Boyd, Carter, Lawrence and Pike counties, preached more funerals, buried more of our dead friends than any minister in the Sandy Valley. The writer has known Bro. French Rice from 60 years ago. He was around my father's dying bed on the 6th night of March 1870. Father requested him to lead his children to God. Which he promised he would do and, 20 years from that time, all of father's children were convicted under his ministry, and if we continue in the faith a few more days or years at most, we will meet uncle French on love's eternal shore. He was known by a a many of people and to know him was to love him.
He was married to Elizabeth Hewlett, oldest daughter of Jeptha Hewlett deceased in the year of 1857, and to this union were born 10 children, 8 boys and two girls, of which 8 are living - 7 boys and 1 girl. He often spoke of Tom and Bethie, his two children that had crossed the last river in full triumph of faith.
Lord have mercy on aunt Lizzie and her children. You will miss him from your home as a husband and father: the church will miss him as an able minister: the county will miss him as an honest, good citizen: the neighbors will miss him as a good kind neighbor. But the time of his demise had come: he had fought a good fight, he finished his course, he kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for him a crown of rightcousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give him.
(Obituary from "Big Sandy News," April 30, 1919.)

  Research Notes:

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Richard married Elizabeth Hewlett, daughter of Jeptha D Hewlett and Jane Crank, on 27 Aug 1857 in Carter, Kentucky, United States of America. (Elizabeth Hewlett was born on 18 Mar 1838 in Blaine, Lawrence, Kentucky, United States of America, died on 31 Mar 1921 in Louisa, Lawrence, Kentucky, United States of America and was buried in Compton Cemetery, Yatesville, Lawrence, Kentucky, United States of America.)

  Marriage Notes:

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