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According to oral history, Nelson Henry Rice and the Rev. Frank Wilson were walking the property when Nelson Henry Rice placed a stake in the ground on this site and declared this was where he wanted to be buried. The first burial on the Rice family burial ground was that of a daughter-in-law Margaret Leona McMahan Rice, who died in March 1870. Nelson Henry Rice deeded the site for a cemetery in Sept. of that year. He also deeded an acre of land for Wilson Chapel about a mile from the Rice home and conveyed plots of land to his children. The area became known as Rice Community. Nelson Henry Rice died in 1891. Sarah Ann Stanley Rice died in 1889 while visiting their son, Thomas Jefferson in Milam County and was interred there. Several veterans of the Civial War, WW I, WW II are interred here. The burial ground serves the Rice family decendants and other community members. It was enlarged in the 1960's and in the early 21st century held 142 graves." Texas Historical Commission |