Rufus Rice
Rufus Rice of Dearborn County, Indiana, probably the father of Mary Abigail (Rice) Ellingwood: his estate, administered there from 1846, named her and her husband, Elijah Ellingwood, among his heirs. Probably a son of James Rice and Abigail Warren, born in Maine in 1794, he married Mary Sylvester at Durham, Maine, in 1819, was at Pownal in 1820 and 1830, and was at Manchester, Dearborn County, by 1840.
Life
- 1794Born16 Jul 1794, Scarborough or Durham, Cumberland County, Maine
A Maine birth index has him born at Freeport, 16 July 1794, son of James Rice and Abigail (FamilySearch QP7S-1H44, as WikiTree cites it); Pownal, where the family lived, was set off from Freeport in 1808. To decide (research/to-decide.md).
- 1819Married Mary Sylvester10 Oct 1819, Durham, Maine
"Rufus Rice and Mary Sylvester" (Maine marriage index, FamilySearch 2HKF-3SF; FHL 1205240; as WikiTree cites it).
documentedprobable - 1840Died28 Sep 1840, Whiteside County, Illinois
The tree has "Morrison, Whiteside"; the town of Morrison was laid out in the 1850s. The research on the wives' families has him dying in 1840 (27 Sept, WikiTree) at Manchester, Dearborn County, Indiana, where he is in the 1840 census, and buried at Old Hogan Hill Cemetery there (Find a Grave 51388399), which fits his 1846 Dearborn estate. To decide (research/to-decide.md).
compiledpossible
Family
- Father
- James Rice
The Maine birth index names his father James Rice and his mother Abigail; that she was Abigail Warren follows from James Rice's marriage at Scarborough in 1786.
documentedprobableSources
- FamilySearch record indexes for the families of the Ellingwood wives, as cited on WikiTree
- Ellingwood Family Tree (Ancestry), GEDCOM export of 4 October 2026
- Reasoning:
research/ellingwood/Ellingwood_Wives_Families.md
- Mother
- Abigail Warrendocumentedprobable
Sources
- FamilySearch record indexes for the families of the Ellingwood wives, as cited on WikiTree
- Ellingwood Family Tree (Ancestry), GEDCOM export of 4 October 2026
- Reasoning:
research/ellingwood/Ellingwood_Wives_Families.md
Pedigree
Notes
Father of Mary Abigail (Rice) Ellingwood, as the Ancestry tree has it. His Dearborn County estate (1846) names her and Elijah among his heirs.
A son of James Rice and Abigail Warren, he married Mary Sylvester at Durham, Maine, in 1819, and was at Pownal in the censuses of 1820 and 1830 and at Manchester, Dearborn County, Indiana, in 1840, with a household of ten. His children, as WikiTree gives them: Mary Abigail (1822), George Washington (1824-1894), Nancy M. (1828-1895, Mrs. Dashiell), James H. (1831-1902), John Wesley (1833-1910, who died at Albion, Washington), Lucy Plummer (1835-1919, Mrs. Coon) and Sarah Sylvester (1840-1906, Mrs. Roberts, born at Manchester) (source). He is not the Rufus Rice of Marlborough and Worcester, Massachusetts (1793-1851).
Open questions
- His death. The tree has 28 Sep 1840 in Whiteside County, Illinois; but the estate of “Rufus
Rice of Dearborn County”, with Mary Abigail and Elijah Ellingwood among his heirs, was
administered in Indiana from 1846 (source). Either he died in
Indiana by 1846 or the estate was settled years after his death. The research on the wives’
families finds him in the 1840 census at Manchester, Dearborn County, and buried at Old Hogan Hill
Cemetery there, dying in 1840 (
research/ellingwood/Ellingwood_Wives_Families.md; seeresearch/to-decide.md). A Maine record gives his birth at Freeport, 16 Jul 1794, to James Rice and Abigail, and he married Mary Sylvester at Durham, Maine, on 10 Oct 1819 (FamilySearch QP7S-1H44 and 2HKF-3SF, indexes as cited on WikiTree).