Biographical Sketch of Pleasant Rice, Johnson County, Missouri, Columbus Township >From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell, Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918. ********************************************************************** Pleasant Rice, the most honored pioneer of Johnson county and the first settler in this section of Missouri, was a native of Tennessee. He was born March 7, 1803 near Nashville, a son of a veteran of the Revolution- ary War, one of the twenty courageous men who defended Buchanan's Sta- tion so nobly and well that the event assumed much historical signifi- cance and became widely known throughout the country. In 1818, Pleasant Rice first visited this part of the United States and adjoining terri- tories and the following autumn he with five others, Dangerfield Rice, Hugh Brown, Sr., Hugh Brown, Jr., Cicero Brown, and John Wallace, made a second visit to Johnson county, Missouri. These men explored the wilderness of the county and took back home with them two hundred sixty gallons of wild honey. Mr. Rice often stated that he found twelve bee trees in one day and from them obtained from four to sixteen gallons of honey each. In the spring of 1828, Pleasant Rice came to Johnson cou- nty with his family to make the new home on Honey creek, on land now section 10, township 47. August 26, 1826, Pleasant Rice and Virlinda G. Ray, daughter of Senator Ray, of English descent, were united in marriage, in Tennessee. Virlinda G. (Ray) Rice was born May 13, 1809, a member of one of the best and most prominent families of Tennessee. Pleasant Rice was of Dutch and English lineage. As soon as the family came here, Pleasant Rice built a log cabin, 14 x 14 feet in dimensions, covered with clapboards and the space between the logs filled with mud and blocks of wood. The one door swung on wooden hinges and was fast- ened by a wooden latch. The logs were of white oak. The United States patents for land, which were issued to Pleasant Rice on March 6, 1829 show that in the spring of 1828 he entered eighty acres of land in Johnson county for which he paid the government one dollar and twenty- five cents an acre. In the small, rude, log cabin home on this farm entered by Pleasant Rice, was born April 7, 1829, the first white child in the county, Margaret Ann Rice, who died October 6, 1870. "Pleasant Rice was the first, To build on Johnson soil, In poverty, hunger, and thirst, A home by patient toil." - Johnson County History of 1882. At the age of ninety years, at Columbus, Missouri, Johnson county's first pioneer departed this life, in 1893. The oldest house still standing in this section of the state is on the Kelly farm and was built by Mr. Rice, although the original log cabin has been since weatherboarded and changed much from the structure he erected. But were there no material reminders of this brave, early settler, the name Pleasant Rice and its historical significance will never be forgotten in Johnson county. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: <> Penny (Eisenbarger) Harrell ====================================================================