Rice, Biedler, and House family papers

Content Description

This collection contains mounted photographs, tintypes, daguerreotypes, carte de visite, letters, ledgers, account books, diaries, autograph books, clippings, journals, family bibles, hymnals, genealogy reports, secondary research, and handmade nails documenting the Rice, House, and Beidler families of Virginia. The Rice family has roots in Virginia, dating to 1736, and most of the collection reflects the Rice family; however, several families intermarried and appear in the collection, including Zirkle, Robinson, Rosenberger, Beidler, House, Price, and Moore. Many of the Rice and auxiliary families in the collection lived in or near New Market or Slate Mills, Virginia, especially in the early twentieth century. The collection contains biographical information primarily about the Rice family and some of their properties in Virginia. There are also folders of information about the Beidler, Zirkle, Robinson, and Rosenberger families. In addition to biographical information, there is a significant amount of secondary research related to the Oregon trails, correspondence between Eugene M. Rice (1868-1944), the son of Dr. F.E Rice and Lucinda Robinson Rice, and his second wife, Lily House Rice (1878-1948). There is also a smaller number of letters from Dr. Francis E. Rice (1833-1908) to his wife Lucinda Robinson Rice while in Richmond serving as a member of the state legislature and two letters from 1849 from Ohio River boat captain and fellow passenger to his family reporting death from cholera of Ephraim House of Slate Mills, Virginia. There are also autograph books, a Senate Journal cover containing twenty-three undated E.M. Rice handwritten speeches to the Lee Literacy Society of Harrisonburg, account books, and scrapbooks with recipes and clippings. Of note are two diaries: Zirkle D. Robinson's Gold Rush diary, which documents his journey from Virginia, Illinois, to the gold fields in California. Included is his original diary, along with a transcription of the diary made by his daughter Lucinda E. Rice with additional notes, and a published book titled The Robison-Rosenberger Journey to the Gold Fields of California 1849-1850 by Francis Coleman Rosenberger. The other diary is that of Rebecca Jane Biedler House and documents the years 1870 to 1872, with short daily entries on life, weather, and work.  The original manuscript and a diary transcription by Sylvia S. Moore, the great-granddaughter of House, are included. There are also many photographs, including tintypes, cased photographs, carte de visite, and mounted photographs, primarily of the Rice family, which include Confederate soldiers, the Todd and Robinson family, and a photo of a gun club in New Market, Virginia with the men identified. Also included are several books, including family bibles, the "Kentuck Harmony" by Ananias Davisson (Harrisonburg Va, 1826) - signed by Ephraim House, July 4, 1830; Aaron House's German songbook with clasp - Marburger Gesang Buch (1796) that included some penciled genealogical info; House Family Bible - New York: American Bible Society, 1860; contains some family records between Old and New Testaments and in back pages and The Modern Practice of Physic, 1815, owned by J.W. Rice. Many of these items in the collections have notes identifying people and places made by the family and familial connections.

Acquisition Type

Gift

Provenance

Gift of Joseph P. Moore III of Marshfield, Vermont. 5 October 2022.

Language of Description

English

Script of Description

Latin

Restrictions Apply

No