Joseph Redmond Rice and Willie Masters Rice
Houston County, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Joseph Redmond Rice (May 24, 1805 - Aug. 11, 1866) and Willie Masters Rice (Aug. 17, 1809 - Sept. 6, 1881) Tennessean Joseph R. Rice married Willie, daughter of Jacob Masters, about 1825. By 1828 they lived in a log cabin near this spot. Their children were Sarah (b. 1826), Jacob (b. 1828), twins deceased in infancy, Amanda Elizabeth (1832-1910), John (1838-62), Francis (1841-61), Joseph R., Jr. (1843-1927), George R. (1847-79), Henry (1853-1929), and Willie Louise (1856-1915). Many members of the family rest in this plot. Recorded - 1976
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Joseph and Willie Rice came from Tennessee to the Texas wilderness, settling into a log cabin near this spot by 1828—well before Texas won its independence. Together they raised a large family whose births and deaths, carefully recorded on the marker, span the hard decades of frontier life. Many of the Rices rest in the family plot here, rooted to the ground they helped settle.
Why it matters
The family's arrival in the 1820s places them among the earliest Anglo settlers of East Texas, part of the migration that reshaped the region a decade before statehood.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Joseph and Willie Rice settled here by 1828, East Texas was part of Mexico. The Mexican government had opened its northern frontier to settlers from the United States, hoping they would develop the land and act as a buffer on the frontier. Families from Tennessee and other Southern states came in growing numbers, drawn by fertile land and the chance of a fresh start.
This was forested country of pine and hardwood, rivers and creeks, very different from the open plains of West Texas. Early settlers built log cabins, cleared fields and lived in small, widely scattered communities. Life was hard and isolated, and families depended heavily on one another.
In the decade after the Rices arrived, everything changed. The Texas Revolution of 1835–36 made Texas an independent republic, and Houston County was among the first counties the new Republic created. Statehood followed in 1845, then the Civil War and Reconstruction, all within the span of Joseph and Willie's lives.
People & events
Joseph Redmond Rice was born in 1805 and came from Tennessee. Around 1825 he married Willie Masters, daughter of Jacob Masters, and by 1828 the young couple were living in a log cabin near this spot. They were among the early Anglo settlers in this part of East Texas, arriving while it was still Mexican territory.
The marker lists their children, and the dates tell a family story in miniature. Sarah was born in 1826 and Jacob in 1828. Twins died in infancy, a loss far too common on the frontier. Amanda Elizabeth, John, Francis, Joseph Jr., George, Henry and Willie Louise followed over three decades. Some lived long lives, into the twentieth century. Others did not: John and Francis both died in the early 1860s as young men. The marker does not say how they died, and it would be wrong to guess.
Joseph died in 1866 and Willie in 1881. Many family members rest in this plot, close to where the family's Texas story began in a log cabin more than fifty years earlier. Together, the graves record the life of one family across nearly the whole of nineteenth-century Texas history.
Its place in the American story
The Rice family belongs to one of the great migrations in American history: the movement of settlers from the United States into Mexican Texas in the 1820s and 1830s. That migration helped bring about the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas and eventually the annexation of Texas by the United States, events that reshaped the map of North America.
Family cemeteries like this one are an important record of that history. Before towns and churchyards were common, settlers buried their dead on their own land. These small plots often preserve names and dates found nowhere else, so they matter a great deal to historians and descendants alike.
The list of children on this marker shows the realities of nineteenth-century life plainly: many births, infant deaths and sons who died young, alongside children who lived into old age. It is a quiet reminder that the big events of American history were lived out, day by day, by families like this one.
If you visit
This marker stands in rural Houston County, in the piney woods of East Texas. It is a quiet, reflective place rather than a tourist attraction. Visit with the respect due to any burial ground, and be mindful that family cemeteries may sit on or near private land.
Take time to read the names and dates, and to picture a log cabin nearby in 1828, when this land was still part of Mexico. It is striking to think that the family's story here began before the Alamo and before Texas independence, and ran on through the Civil War.
This stop fits well into a wider drive through Houston County, one of the oldest counties in Texas. Look for other markers and historic sites in the area, and enjoy the forested backroads. Together they give a feel for the East Texas frontier where so much of early Texas history began.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Joseph Redmond Rice
- · Willie Masters Rice
- · Jacob Masters
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rice Cemetery
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Joseph Redmond Rice and his wife Wille built a log cabin along the old San Antonio Road in 1828, in the years when Anglo families were first putting down roots in what would soon become the Republic of Texas. Grief came early: the burial ground likely began with the deaths of their infant twins around 1830, and the high toll of childhood illness filled the plot with young graves, including four grandchildren. Deeded to trustees in 1953, the cemetery is still tended by the family's descendants.
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