Rice Cemetery
Crockett, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Joseph Redmond Rice (1805-1866) and his wife Wille Masters Rice (1809-1881) erected a log cabin across the San Antonio Road from this site in 1828. They probably established this family burial ground after the deaths of their infant twins about 1830. The high rate of infant mortality accounts for numerous burials, including four children of the Rices' daughter Sarah (Mrs. Robert) Dickerson (1826-1860). The oldest stone in the plot marks the grave of Joseph Redmond Rice. Deeded to trustees in 1953 by John (1875-1960) and Nannie Fowler Rice, the cemetery is maintained by descendants. (1978)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Family burial grounds like this one are quiet records of the hardships and staying power of the pioneer families who settled early Texas.
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Related people
- · Joseph Redmond Rice
- · Wille Masters Rice
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Joseph Redmond Rice and Willie Masters Rice
Houston County, TX
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.
Stage Coach Inn
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Joseph D. Rice, Sr., who came to Texas in 1828 during the last years of Mexican rule, built this house in the piney woods of East Texas. By 1838, under the Republic of Texas, it had become a designated stopping place on the stage road running from old Nacogdoches down to Crockett. The State of Texas marked the site in 1936, its centennial year.
Original Site of the Joseph R. Rice Log Cabin
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In 1828, when this stretch of East Texas was still raw frontier on the eve of the Republic, Joseph and Willie Rice raised a one-room log cabin here—she reportedly drove the team that snaked the logs to the clearing. Standing on the old San Antonio Road between Nacogdoches and Crockett, the cabin grew alongside a family of eleven children into a well-known place where travelers could find a meal and a bed. Later generations preserved it, and in the 1970s the log house was restored and moved to Tejas Mission Park as a relic of pioneer days.
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