[Page 258]

1820

KIRKE

[Page 259]

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1820

HAND

[Page 260]

     The Hubbard children were Heman H., John Titus, and Esther Hubbard.

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1820

DUNLAP

[Page 261]

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1821

TOWNSEND

[Page 262]

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1821

HULBERT

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1821

CHAMPION

[Page 263]

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1821

SAMUEL BIDWELL

[Page 264]

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1822

JOHNSON

[Page 265]

[Page 266]

1822

WILLEY

[Page 267]

[Page 268]

[Page 269]

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1822

BELDEN

[Page 270]

1823

BRADSTREET

[Page 271]

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1823

DUNHAM

[Page 272]

[Page 273]

1824

RICE

     "There is no aim more laudable than a desire to live to some purpose."
     This sentiment written by Harvey Rice, one of Cleveland's most eminent citizens, was the key-note of his life, and it was that which made him honored and respected beyond what most men obtain in any community.   He was born in the first year of the last century, at Conway, Mass.  His father, Stephen Rice, was a lineal descendant of Edward Rice of Sudbury, Mass., 1638, a man of consequence in his day and generation, both in church and state.
     His mother was Lucy Baker, and when she married Stephen Rice was the young widow of a Mr. Harvey.  Possessing unusual ability  and for those times, quite a degree of literary attainment, she, doubtless, would have proved a wise and tender mother, an inspiration for this her only surviving child, but her death when he was but four years of age completely changed his home environment.  No longer loved and cherished, and left to the cruel mercies of the world in general, Harvey Rice suffered loneliness and deprivation.  For, though his father was living, and willing to pay a reasonable price for the child’s board and clothes, he was always traveling, and for eight years the little fellow was transferred from one family to another, until he reached that of an exceedingly pious woman who fed him for months, absolutely nothing but potatoes and salt served on a corner of the kitchen-table, while the family were eating other things at an adjoining one.
     His school-lunch was hard, dry bread without any butter, and cheese unfit for any human stomach.  Through the mercy of a neighbor, less religious and more Christlike, this appetizing luncheon occasionally was exchanged on the way for something eatable.
     Although paid a stated and sufficient sum for his clothes, this enterprising woman sent him out barefooted after snow fell, and his garments were so grotesquely ill-fitting and ragged that he became the laughing stock of the village school.  These facts were given by Harvey Rice him self to his children.  It is to be regretted that the name of a woman, who could so shamefully abuse a motherless child, had not been furnished with the story.  It would be just retribution.
     Finally, Stephen Rice brought to Conway a second wife, a widow, who took charge of the boy, with ill grace, and thenceforth, from the age of 13 to 18, he lived in his father’s home, but not of it.  Then he started out to obtain an education and with rare courage and fortitude worked his way through Williams College.
     The writer once boarded in a house where there were four students, seniors of a local college, and noticed that all four dreaded the coming month of June.  Not because of the examinations and graduating themes, but they feared that so many years of academic and college life without manual training had unfitted them for anything but head labor, and if by chance, that failed them, there might be unaccustomed struggle and, perhaps, mortification to endure.
     But long before Harvey Rice’s diploma was handed to him he was sufficient unto himself.  A boy who could master a Latin grammar in one month and make maple-sugar at the same time, had no reason to worry, even if he did start out hampered by four years’ debt for college tuition.

[Page 274]

     An uncle had been living in Buffalo, N. Y., and to that city he bent his steps, hoping there to secure a school to teach, but upon reaching it, he learned that the uncle was dead, so pushed on to Cleveland.  From the time he reached here, in 1824, until his death in 1891, at the age of 91, his life is closely associated with the history of the city, especially in its educational advance, its social reforms, and in everything that tended to elevate its standards of thinking and living.
     In 1828 Mr. Rice married Fanny Rice, daughter of Truman Rice of Claredon, Vt., and sister-in-law of his law partner, Reuben Wood; although bearing the same name, they were not related.  She was amiable, beautiful, and possessed of good common-sense; contented to begin wedded life in the simplest manner, so that when settled in their plain apartments, a happier couple never graced cottage or palace.
     But in the year 1837, within a period of six weeks, Mr. Rice lost this loving wife and two children by death.

     Her remaining children were:

     Three years later, Harvey Rice married Mrs. Emma Fitch Woods, daughter of Col. James Fitch, of Putney, Vt.  She was 18 years of age, and a widow.  Had she lived one year longer, Mr. and Mrs. Rice would have celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, which the family had anticipated with much pleasure.
     She was a very lovable and exemplary woman, always had some kind word to say of every one.  Her son-in-law, Mr. Hunt, who lived next door to her for 25 years, remarked of her that if she had any faults, he had yet to discover them.

     The children by this second marriage were:

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1824

WORLEY

[Page 275]

[Page 276]

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1824

THOMAS

[Page 277]

1824

HILLARD

[Page 278]

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