The history of our Rice’s is under development. It will include interesting DNA information (thanks to Mike Rice) and will follow this lineage from Virginia through SC to TN and then to AL.:
Henry Rice, 1717 Hanover Co., VA – 1818 Union County, TN
THE RICES
European Rices
Most of the Rice families in America have not been traced to their European sources. Family tradition points to Wales, but other Rice families indicate English, Irish, and German roots. Our Rices are most likely descendants of either the English, Welsh or both.
The Rice family coat of arms from the UK was described as a “shield divided quarterly; 1st per pale indented; 2nd and 3rd lion rampant and 4 mutilated”. The Crest: Crown surmounting a leopard’s face Motto: FIDES NON TIMET.
Earliest Rice Ancestors in America
Our familial history in Colonial America begins in the 1600’s or very early 1700’s as our first known direct-line Rice ancestor is Henry Rice born in 1717 in Virginia. We don’t know if his father was born in the colonies of an earlier Rice immigrant or was the first Rice of our line to come to America. We do know, however, about life in Virginia when Henry was born.
Old records document the arrival of many Rices to colonial Virginia from the Port of Bristol, England. I suspect that one of these men was Henry’s father/grandfather. (Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623‑ 1800. Nell Marion Nugent).
Port of Bristol:
Ships destined for Virginia from Europe commonly docked along riverside plantations on the Elizabeth River, James River, Potomac River, Rappahannock River, and York River.
From The 17th-Century English Who Settled in the Southern U.S. Had Very Little to be Thankful For, Joanna Brooks, smithsonian.com, November 25, 2014:
“In the 17th century, a good voyage would get you from England to the northeastern states in two to three months, depending on the type of ship and winds and tides. Longer if you were heading further down the coast to Virginia. Such a trip to Virginia cost an immigrant six months salary. Many emigrants probably did not look back on their ship voyage with fond memories. The trip contained a variety of trials including seasickness, inadequate food, lack of privacy, cramped living quarters, and spreading illnesses.
One quarter to one half of new arrivals to Virginia and the Carolinas died within one-year due to diseases like dysentery, typhoid, and malaria. Others succumbed to the strain of hard labor in a new climate and a strange place—an adjustment process the English described as ‘seasoning’.
The largest portion of Virginia’s early immigration came from the humblest section of the English population. About three-quarters of the new arrivals in Virginia during the middle to late seventeenth century came as indentured servants. These were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia and upon arrival, food, clothing, and shelter. Adults usually served for four to seven years and children sometimes for much longer with most working in the colony’s tobacco fields.
The Chesapeake area of Virginia offered immigrants upward mobility despite the dangers of disease, hunger, and hostilities. Indentured servants moved to working as tenant farmers who paid rent or a share of the crop, and most who survived eventually owned small or ‘middling’ plantations.”
We don’t know if our earliest direct-line Rice ancestor came to the colonies as a free man or as an indentured servant. If as an indentured servant, that Great Grandfather Rice would have had few rights. He could not have voted; he was not allowed to marry; he would not have been allowed to leave his home and travel without permission.
A description of England parishes in colonial Virginia also provides rich context for our Rice ancestors who lived in the 1700’s. Henry and his family would have been parishioners of St. Peter’s and/or St. Paul’s. According to the Encyclopedia Virginia (a publication of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities found online), a parish “was a disciplined unit of both civil and religious authority that covered a set geographical territory. Each parish in the colony was served by a single minister and governed by a ‘vestry’ usually composed of local elites. As a religious institution, a parish contained a central church and frequently two or more so-called chapels of ease in outlying areas that the minister served on successive Sundays. As a civil institution, the parish vestry was charged with overseeing a wide range of responsibilities that included social welfare. Thus, local government in early Virginia should be understood as ‘parish-county’ government, the two joint institutions sharing and dividing up their interests and responsibilities.
One of the vestry’s most important duties was setting the annual parish levy, often the largest tax paid by colonists in Virginia. The levies paid the minister’s salary and provided for members of the parish poor and for other individuals who could not otherwise care for themselves. Funds spent on the parish poor often accounted for more than 25 to 30 percent of a parish’s budget.”
Our Rice ancestors would have paid these levies in pounds of tobacco. Thanks to English rule, gold and silver were scarce in the colonies and nobody had enough cash. There wasn’t enough to cover the value of all the goods and services that were available to be bought and sold. However, the Chesapeake colonies could rely on tobacco as a means of currency. After the tobacco dried, farmers filled a hogshead (tobacco barrel) with at least 1000 pounds of tobacco and took it to an official warehouse to be inspected. Upon passing inspection, the farmer got a tobacco note as a receipt showing the quantity of tobacco left at the warehouse.
Leading up to the Revolution, the price of tobacco in Virginia fluctuated between 1.5 and 2.5 cents per pound. The tobacco note was used like money to buy the things they needed from merchants. Upon receiving a farmer’s tobacco note, the merchant or company would then own the farmer’s tobacco. Merchants shipped the tobacco to Great Britain to trade for items to sell in their stores.
Parish vestries also appointed individuals to maintain local roads. Other individuals were appointed to serve as “tobacco viewers,” who ensured that the colonists were not planting too much tobacco and to serve as churchwardens who presented moral offenders to the county courts. Parish vestries took care to relieve parishioners of the expenses associated with raising bastard children.
Additionally, Vestries were charged with processioning or “going round … the bounds of every person’s land” in the parish every four years and renewing the landmarks that separated one person’s property from another’s. Lands processioned three times without complaint gained legal status as the formal boundaries of an individual’s property.
As noted, Henry Rice and his family would have been either in St. Peter’s or St. Paul’s parish. St. Peter’s was founded in 1679 and the current structure was built in 1701. The Church is believed to be the location of the marriage between George and Martha Washington on January 6, 1759. One of the oldest churches in the Commonwealth, the site was originally purchased for 146,000 pounds of tobacco.
St. Paul’s Church was spun off from St. Peter’s in 1704. The “Old Church” was not built until 1718, so perhaps St. Peter’s Church was where Henry was baptized
Henry Rice, 4th Great Grandfather
- 1717 Hanover Co., VA; d. 1818 Campbell Co. TN
There is no sole document that verifies Henry Rice as our 4th great grandfather. Rather, a combination of DNA, land documents, and descendants’ records signal a relationship.
The strongest evidence is a Y-DNA test taken in 2016 by Michael Rice, son of Harry Rice and Catherine Hefinger. This test was submitted through the Rice Y-DNA Project, a national, surname/genetic genealogy project which uses the Y chromosome-DNA test to trace male lineage. Because patrilineal surnames are passed down from father to son and Y-chromosomes are passed from father to son with a predictable rate of mutation, males with the same surname can use genealogical DNA testing to determine if they share a common ancestor within recent history. [Note: women don’t inherit the Y sex chromosome and, thus, cannot take this test to prove paternal lineage.]
Michael’s test results placed our Rice ancestors in Group 7 of this project, the “Mid-South Rice’s”. Most members of this group match each other 23/25 to 25/25. The oldest known relative reported by the men whose test results fall in this group is Henry Rice 1717 – 1818, our 4th great grandfather. Without Michael’s Y-DNA test, proving our relationship to Henry would be more difficult.
Additionally, through the Rice YDNA project, several current, distant cousins have been identified and have shared their family recollections with us. Stan Rice of Oklahoma is the third great grandson of Henry Rice through Henry’s son, John (our 3rd great grandfather, Stan’s 2nd gg). Jerri Sellers Paynter of Arizona is the third great granddaughter of Henry Rice, also through his son, John. Both have provided information from their families suggesting that Henry is our direct ancestor.
Finally, land documents trace Henry’s path from Virginia to South Carolina to Tennessee where he died. As will be seen, his son John moved from Washington Co., Tennessee to Madison County AL and strong documentation tracks John’s line forward.
Henry Rice, Patriot, Pioneer/Adventurer, Gristmiller
Based on land documents, it’s clear that Henry Rice was an adventurer, ever on the move. After leaving Virginia, Henry lived briefly in North Carolina; then went down into the 96 District, South Carolina near Greenville. Circa 1775, he settled in the Watauga Settlement of what is now Tennessee.
Henry was married to Margaret (last name unknown). Based on the length of his life, he may have had other wives. It is known that he had six sons and six daughters (birthdates not certain):
- William
- John 1760 (m. Edy Brown)
- Charles
- James (m. Rebecca Miller)
- Daniel (Anny Ray)
- Levi (m. Jane Simmons)
- Martha (m. David Bailey)
- Molly (m. Nathan Watson
- Anna (m. Augustus Wilson
- Rosa (m. James Spence/Alex Morrow
- Lavina @1770 (m. Lewis Brim)
- Elizabeth, @1775 (m. David Smith)
Sometime before 1760 Henry was on the move. It appears that Henry was in extreme western North Carolina in 1760, as his son, John (our 3rd great grandfather) was reportedly born in Buncombe County (Rowan County at the time) near today’s Ashville.
Henry would have taken the Southern Route out of the Hanover County/Richmond area to get to the Great Wagon (Valley) Road.
Soon thereafter, Henry and his family moved to the 96 District of South Carolina.
Land records for Henry’s property do not show up until after the Revolutionary War when settlers were granted titles to the rural/backcountry lands they had possessed earlier. In the 1750’s – 1760’s most backcountry settlers had acquired their property by what scholar Stephen Aron terms the “rights of the woods.” Squatting on a desirable parcel of land, these settlers claimed ownership largely by improvements they made to the property. Such improvements could range from construction of an actual homestead to simply “blazing” trees with a hatchet or tomahawk as an indication of ownership. (Aron, Stephen. How the West was Lost: The Transformation of Kentucky from Daniel Boone to Henry Clay. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1996.)
Henry had 468 acres of land on the branches of the Wolf and Rice Creeks of Twelve Mile River. This was about 20 miles WSW from current day Greenville, SC. The land was formally surveyed and granted to him in 1787, but he had moved in the 1770’s. In 1800 Henry gave power-of-attorney to his son Charles to sell his South Carolina property.
It appears that Henry did not live in South Carolina very long. Discord was strongly growing among the state’s under-represented backcountry farmers and the British government. It is quite possible Henry was one of the unhappy land owners who wanted to leave English control behind. After several years in South Carolina, Henry traveled with some of his older children over the Appalachian Mountains, through narrow buffalo and game trails, to the Watauga Settlement.
Henry’s pattern of frequent moving mirrored that of most backcountry settlers in colonial America’s history. Haphazard settlements came from what has been termed by scholar George Franz as “high geographic mobility”. This astonishing movement of settlers undermined the establishment of a localized community. Thus, public institutions which assisted in the maintenance of society, such as churches and local courts, were not able to assume the same prominence within the backcountry communities that they enjoyed in the eastern areas of the colonies. This will certainly be seen in Henry’s experiences in North Carolina/Tennessee.
(For a very interesting review of current scholarship on the colonial “backcountry” of America, go to: https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/early-america-review/volume-3/colonial-backcountry-scholarship.)
The Watauga Settlement
The Watauga Settlement was the first free government in America – independent of any other state or colony. It was established in 1772 and administered by settlers considered “Overmountain” men. They set up their own judicial and civil body fashioned after Virginia laws. They thought they had built their cabins within the boundaries of Virginia, but learned they had settled on land in North Carolina claimed by the family of England’s Lord Granville.
Because the Granville land office had closed in 1763, the North Carolina government had no authority to issue grants on the Granville tract, so the settlers faced a fundamental problem regarding title to the lands they had settled. The British viewed this area as Cherokee land and ordered the settlers to leave. Rather than comply with the Crown’s order, the illegal settlers —mostly concentrated at the Watauga settlement, the Nolichucky settlement, and Carter’s Valley —decided to lease their land from the Cherokee and in 1772 established the Watauga Association. The leaders of the association devised an 8-year lease plan with the Indians, which the area Chiefs approved.
In March,1775, land speculator Richard Henderson and his investors purchased a vast track of Cherokee land between the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers. The deal, known as the “Sycamore Shoals Treaty”, included the lands leased by the Wataugans. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Watauga Association immediately bought all the lands they had formerly leased, and more, from Henderson’s Company. The Watauga Association opened a land office on April 1, 1775 to handle the patents on the lands along the Watauga and Holston Rivers.
Henry Rice got 200 acres in the Watauga Purchase, north of the Holstein River on what he named Rice Creek and Rice Island. He proceeded to build one of the first gristmills in the Carters Valley settlement. Some historians think he was in the area as early as 1772, but I have no documentation on this.
Map of the Watauga Settlements:
Location of original 1775 mill
(In 1813 William Hord bought the land and mill from Henry’s son, Daniel. The creek and island are now known as Hord’s.)
Henry Rice’s Mill circa 1900:
The remains of Henry Rice’s Mill 2017
Wheel Side Right side
Back side – away from creek Front/creekside
An Aside: How the Mill Worked
Grist mills grind a variety of grains, such as wheat, rye and corn. In the Watauga area, corn and wheat would have been grown. The corn was husked, then dried for 6 to 8 months. It was then shelled and bagged for milling.
The dried, shelled corn was then poured out of the bag and into the hopper. The hopper was the receptacle above the grinding stone. A vertical rod, called the “damsel,” was used to shake the kernels downward, through the “shoe” and into the millstone. The hopper could have released an average of three bushels of corn an hour for grinding.
The two millstones 15 inches thick and weighing @ 1 1/2 tons each were used for corn. The runner stone sits atop another “bed stone” or “nether stone”.
The millstones were rotated by waterpower. A sluice gate was probably used to start and stop the flow of water from the creek. The sluice gate was opened by a turning the sluice wheel, which started the flow of water, causing the water wheel to turn, thus providing power to grind the grain.
As the ground corn fell from the grain spout, it was filtered through a mesh screen that sifted out the courser pieces of the corn’s bran, or outer layers. Freshly ground sacks of corn were then hauled into the bagging room, where it was weighed on a scale and hand-bagged. Watch:
Although most of the Cherokee Chiefs were pleased with the Sycamore Shoals Treaty and the resulting Watauga Purchase, several adamantly opposed it, including the very aggressive Dragging Canoe.
Wildly disgruntled, Dragging Canoe immediately began beating the war drum throughout the Cherokee nation. He was aided and abetted by two English agents, Henry Stuart and James Cameron.
At this time, new arrivals to the Watauga settlement were bringing word of the revolution that was starting in the colonies. The Overmountain people supported the revolutionary movement due to their desire to be rid of British interference and to obtain clear titles to their lands. Additionally, they were being harassed by those Indians who resented their very presence. So, the Watauga Settlement petitioned the colonial Virginia Assembly to be made part of that Colony. But the Assembly, conscious of the North Carolina claim, turned them down. On July 6, 1776, 100 heads of families in the Watauga district then, individually, petitioned North Carolina. Here’s a copy of a petition:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0415
Henry being in the Carters Valley Settlement of the Watauga Association did not submit a petition, though he was certainly a resident of the area and impacted by all that was occurring.
The petitions led the North Carolina General Assembly to classify the settlement as the “Washington District” and to provide minimal local government services. Protection was least among the services offered.
Cherokee War of 1776 and the Wataugans
The Cherokee War of 1776, or Second Cherokee War, was a series of conflicts between Cherokee Indians and American settlers who encroached on their land in the southern Appalachian highlands, in what is now eastern Tennessee. It was part of a larger series of battles and conflicts known informally as the Cherokee–American wars. The war began in May 1776, concurrent with the American Revolutionary War.
At that time, England’s plans were well underway to subdue the growingly unruly colonists in America. The plans included the Cherokee who were English allies and well situated at the back door of the colonies. This letter from John Stuart, Britain’s Superintendent of Indian Affairs in America demonstrates the plans:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0258
In the spring of 1776 more than sixty horse loads of lead and powder had been delivered by English agents, Henry Stuart and James Cameron, to the Cherokee whose lands adjoined the Washington District. Stuart and Cameron were also trying to force the settlers in the area to move back into the colonies. Stuart, being completely duplicitous, attempted to persuade the settlers to join the British cause in exchange for protection from the Cherokee:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0257
The reality of the situation was that the Wataugans had constructed their homes amid a perpetual combat zone. Being in unprotected backcountry, the settlers were forced to assume the duties of both the civilian and military realms.
The Wataugans (including the Watauga, Nolichucky and Carters Valley settlers) were determined to protect their possessions and immediately began to strengthen their “forts” (generally a group of cabins arranged in a rectangle with stockade walls in between). There were three forts in the area: Fort Watauga /Fort Caswell, Eaton’s Station, and Fort Patrick Henry. Fort Lee was under construction. Additionally, considered forts due to their security were Patterson’s Mill and Rice’s Mill.
Fort Watauga
From The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the Watauga Association, from 1769 to 1777 – James Gettys McGready Ramsey; and, History of Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786, Washington County, 1777-1870 – Lewis Preston Summers:
In May of 1776, Indian representatives from northern tribes came to the Cherokee to draw them into the overall British campaign against the Americans. England would attack the colonies from the sea and the Indians from north to south would fight from the rear. This “call to arms” inflamed the already disgruntled Cherokee Chiefs to action. They made immediate plans to run the settlers from the Watauga, Nolichucky and Carter’s Valley settlements. Various chiefs were to lead the raids into these areas. As they prepared for war, a female Cherokee, Nancy Ward of the Cherokee Council, who felt war would bring tragedy to her people, secretly warned the white traders residing in the Cherokee capital, Chota. The traders fled the night of July 8, 1776 to warn officials in the settlements. Here is the deposition from Colonel Charles Robertson and James Smith regarding the information provided to them by traders Isaac Thomas, Jarret Williams and William Falling:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0287
Riders were sent out to all the settlements with this intelligence. Nothing could have solidified the settlers’ rebellious leanings more than the information that the British were stirring the Cherokee for war. In preparation for the impending invasions, the settlers gathered in the forts closest to their homes. Many settlers hurried to Rice’s Mill in Carter’s Valley.
When the Indians struck, they found the first two southernmost settlements deserted. At Easton’s Station five companies of militia met Dragging Canoe and his 300-man contingent on Island Flats (now part of the City of Kingsport). The battle was fought in close quarter/hand-to-hand combat that lasted about an hour. The Indians were defeated. Numerous died, those remaining fled with their wounded. This was the first battle of the American Revolution west of the mountains.
Another party under Old Abram attacked Fort Watauga and laid siege for about two weeks. There were about 75 men in the fort. They were able to hold off the Indians, who having heard of Dragging Canoe’s defeat, finally withdrew.
Raven Warrior was sent to Carter’s Valley.
After finding the settlers, including Henry Rice and his family, well protected in Rice’s Mill and having learned of the Indian loses at Island Flat and Ft. Watauga, Raven and his warriors ravaged much of the settlers’ surrounding, unprotected property. Dragging Canoe, Old Abram and Raven continued attacks north of the settlement into Virginia. These actions forced the new colonial governments in Virginia and NC to form militias and retaliate by invading the Cherokee lands.
In the summer, 1776 President Rutherford of North Carolina, wrote to the Virginia Assembly regarding plans from the colonial governments of the Carolinas and Georgia to act against the Cherokee for their belligerent action against southern settlers. In response, the Virginia Assembly assigned Colonel William Christian to take similar action against the more northern Cherokee. William Christian:
Letters exchanged between General Rutherford and Colonial Christian regarding their military directives:
http://www.docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0274
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0340
In September 1776 colonial militia, including Henry Rice; his sons, John and Charles; and other Wataugans, joined Colonel Christian at Fort Patrick Henry. From there they marched on the Cherokee Nation. Any Indian groups hostile to the military were destroyed. Those who were peaceful were promised and received treaties of peace. Colonel Christian’s expedition was successful as the Cherokee nation was seriously reduced. Lewis Preston Summers provides detail on Col. Christian’s actions and identifies our ancestors as privates in Christian’s militia:
Militant Cherokee, however, continued to threaten settlers well into 1777. While most of the militia under Christian mustered out of service following the Cherokee war, a garrison of soldiers remained at Fort Henry under Col. James Robertson. Colonel Robertson was ordered to keep the Watauga people assembled together in two places for mutual protection and safety. Patterson’s and Rice’s Mills were designated as the two most suitable points.
On April 10, 1777, a James Calvatt was attacked and scalped at Henry Rice’s Mill. The next day Col. Robertson and nine of the settlers pursued the guilty Indians, killing one and securing 10 horses. The Colonel and his contingent of settlers were attacked that night as they returned to the mill. It was reported that two of the group were wounded. It is possible that John Rice was one of the wounded as research notes by George Devine (husband of our Aunt Mayme Rice Devine) and memories of Albert James Rice (our great uncle and John’s grandson) talk of John being injured in the Revolutionary War (per George: “with a hip wound that never healed”).
A treaty between Virginia, North Carolina and the Cherokee was signed in July 1777. establishing a new boundary line between the settlers and the Indians. This treaty was signed by all the Indian chiefs except Dragging Canoe, who was wounded at the battle of Island Flats. He said that “he would hold fast to the talks of James Cameron the British agent and continue the war as before.” (Unfortunately, hostilities did continue past the time of the treaty. Americans invaded Cherokee territory several more times during the Revolutionary War. Even after most of the Cherokee Nation had made a lasting peace with the United States, the Chickamauga Cherokee band, led by Dragging Canoe, continued fighting until 1794.)
North Carolina Exerts More Control of Washington County
While the Henderson Company and the Watauga Association owned much of the land in western North Carolina, in 1777 the colonial government took control of these lands from the Crown, renamed the area Washington County and established land entry offices in each of its counties. The boundaries were roughly equivalent to those of the present-day State of Tennessee. For forty shillings per hundred acres, each head of a family could buy six hundred and forty acres for himself and one hundred acres for his wife and each child to develop the area. In 1778 Henry purchased 300 acres in what is now Sullivan County. This may have been for three of his sons: John, William and Charles. Henry was also granted 640 acres on the north side of the Clinch River. (See Melvin Little’s Henry Rice: The Pioneer Gristmiller.1983)
In 1779, he was granted another 640 acres by North Carolina along the north side of the Holston River.
Revolutionary War
While considered an American Patriot, Henry did not participate in the war in the 13 colonies; his service was rendered in the Cherokee War of 1776. Additionally, he served as a juror and overseer of certain roads for Washington County’s colonial government in 1778. Greater discussion of the Overmountain men in the Revolutionary War is discussed in John Rice’s story.
The State of Franklin – Disposing of Western Lands
At the close of the Revolution the United States found herself burdened by an enormous debt and some of the creditors were not easily induced to ease their demands based on promises or to suffer delays. The U.S. also owned vast assets, the largest of which were the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. To hasten debt relief, Congress passed a recommendation asking those states with outlying or unused Western lands to cede them to the Federal government for purposes of selling the lands and generating capital.
North Carolina was very generous in her surrender in April 1784 ceding practically all of what afterward became Tennessee, reserving control pending Federal acceptance. Congress was allowed two years in which to accept this offer. The congressional representatives of the only established counties in the territory ceded (Sullivan – where Henry lived, Washington, and Greene: all formerly Washington County) voted for the bill because North Carolina had basically ignored them when distributing services and funds. How could the situation get worse?
However, the settlers in these counties were concerned that Congress would sell the territory to Spain or France as a means of paying off some of the government’s war debt. Further, North Carolina government and the settlers were in continual discord- the settlers feeling neglected by those in power, threatened all the time by Indian invasions, and overrun by criminal refugees seeking the freedom of a poorly governed area.
It was therefore determined that some better means of defense and governance was necessary, so a convention was called to decide further steps. The resulting action was a bit extreme. On August 23, 1784, a majority of representatives from Washington, Sullivan and Greene counties declared their independence from North Carolina and voted to establish a new state! A strong minority, however, opposed it.
In May 1785, the counties petitioned the United States Congress for statehood as “Franklin”. Henry Rice signed the petition. A simple majority of states favored the petition, but approval fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass. In the meantime, North Carolina withdrew its offer to cede these lands to the Federal government.
By the summer of 1785, even without federal approval, the government of Franklin ruled as a “parallel government” running alongside (but not harmoniously with) a re-established North Carolina bureaucracy.
Courts were set up for both the State of Franklin and the NC government. During 1786, both parties tried to collect taxes, but when the people declined to pay, professing they did not know which side to recognize, enforcement was not attempted, so then as now, taxes were dodged.
The North Carolina assembly met in 1786 and passed an act of pardon and oblivion affecting all offenders under the new government who returned and avowed their allegiance to the old state. On all sides, the adherents of the new state were leaving it. Here is the petition presented by Sullivan County (where our Rices lived) to the North Carolina Assembly for continued governance by North Carolina. Henry, John and William Rice signed the document.
http://www.anamericanfamilyhistory.com/TennesseeFamilies&Places/1786%20Petition.html
These minutes of the November 1786 session of the North Carolina Assembly document an acceptance of such petitions.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr18-0001 (see pp. 32 and 86)
Though never admitted to the Union, the extra-legal state of Franklin existed as an independent nation for four years with its own constitution, Indian treaties and legislated system of barter in lieu of currency.
Finally, Franklin’s weak economy forced its governor, John Sevier, to approach the Spanish for aid. North Carolina, terrified of having a Spanish state on its border, arrested Sevier. When the Cherokee, Chickamauga and Chickasaw tribes began to attack settlements within Franklin’s borders in 1788, it quickly rejoined North Carolina to gain its militia’s protection.
The creation of Franklin is novel, in that it resulted from both a cession (an offering of land from North Carolina to Congress) and a secession (three counties seceding from North Carolina based on the proposed cession
Henry’s Land Acquisitions and Sales 1787 – 1814
Henry continued his work as a gristmiller. He was also a very avid land purchaser. During this time span, Henry made at least six major land transactions involving about 2,480 acres in the Sullivan and Hawkins County area. In 1798 Henry helped his son, James, build a second Gristmill. It was located on Lost Creek in Union County, TN.
The mill was operated by James and his descendants until 1935, when TVA’s construction of Norris Dam on the Tennessee River required the mill to be moved. It stands fully restored at Norris Dam State Park in Anderson and Campbell Counties, TN.
Toward the end of his life, Henry deeded out his lands instead of making a last will and testament. He was living with his youngest daughter, Elizabeth Rice Smith, when he died in 1818. He is buried at the Lost Creek Cemetery.
NOTE: Histories of Henry’s son, John Rice; John’s son, Daniel Rice; and Daniel’s son, Joseph, are still to be written.
John Rice, 1760 Rowan/Washington District, NC/TN – 1834, Madison Co., AL
Daniel Rice, 1793 Washington Co., TN – 1836 Lacey Springs, AL
Joseph Rice, 1827 Morgan Co., AL – 1886 Lacey Springs, AL
Hugh Rice, 1855 Lacey Springs, AL – 1934 Lacey Springs, AL
Harry Rice, 1915 Swancott, Limestone Co., AL – 1979 Decatur, AL