Mary Abigail Rice
Mother of Dr. Finley Ellingwood, born in Maine, and probably a daughter of Rufus Rice of Dearborn County, Indiana, whose heirs included her and her husband, Elijah Ellingwood. She married Elijah in Dearborn County in 1841 and went with him to Momence and then Kankakee, Illinois. An invalid by 1871, she died at Watseka, Illinois, as the Ancestry tree has it.
Life
- 1822Born2 Jan 1822, Pownal, Cumberland County, Maine
Mary A., 28, born Maine, in the 1850 census.
- 1841Married Elijah Ellingwood25 Jul 1841, Dearborn County, Indiana
By R. Hargrave; the index names the bride "Abigail Rice".
documentedproven - 1850Lived24 Oct 1850, Manchester Township, Dearborn County, Indiana
In her husband's household, as "Mary A."
documentedproven - 1860Lived
- 1870Lived
- 1874Died7 Oct 1874, Watseka, Iroquois County, Illinois
As the Ancestry tree has it. Dead by 27 Jan 1875, when Ellsworth was "an orphan minor" (Kankakee County Court); Finley's biography says his mother died in 1875.
compiledprobable
Family
- Father
- Rufus Rice
Mary Abigail and Elijah Ellingwood were among the heirs of Rufus Rice of Dearborn County, whose estate was administered from 1846 (Lyons).
compiledprobableSources
- Tina Lyons, Dearborn County, Indiana Probate Order Book Abstracts (2017)
- Ellingwood Family Tree (Ancestry), GEDCOM export of 4 October 2026
- Reasoning:
research/ellingwood/Ellingwood_Master_Research.md
- Mother
- Mary Sylvester
Mary Sylvester, who married Rufus Rice at Durham in 1819, three years before Mary Abigail was born; WikiTree (Rice-1694) lists Mary Abigail first among their children, with George Washington (1824), Nancy M. (1828), James H. (1831), John Wesley (1833), Lucy Plummer (1835) and Sarah Sylvester (1840). The Sylvesters were among the first settlers of Manchester in 1818.
compiledprobableSources
- Ellingwood Family Tree (Ancestry), GEDCOM export of 4 October 2026
- WikiTree profiles for the Ellingwood line's ancestors (Woodbury, Cheever, Pattullo, Short, Jeffrey, Elliott, Adams, Deyoe, Rice, Warren, Holdershaw)
- FamilySearch record indexes for the families of the Ellingwood wives, as cited on WikiTree
- Spouse
Pedigree
Notes
Mother of Dr. Finley Ellingwood, named in his own Who’s Who entry: “s. Elijah and Mary Abigail (Rice) E.” (source). Married Elijah Ellingwood in Dearborn County in 1841 (record); with him at Manchester in 1850, at Momence in 1860, and at Kankakee in 1870 (record). An invalid by 1871, as Finley’s biography says, she died at Watseka, Illinois, where her daughter Adeline Kay lived. Her maiden name is “Mary A. Rice” on her son Ellsworth’s marriage return of 1885 (record) and “Mary Rice” on Finley’s death certificate of 1920, which wrongly has her born in Connecticut (record).
Pictures
Connections
- In her ancestry
- 1 notable connection →
Every notable ancestor and famous relative that Mary's own ancestors lead to, with the lines drawn down to her.