Source: Rice Pioneers: Family Groups and Stories, compiled by David Eldon Rice. Pocatello, Idaho. 1976. No copyright information listed.

An admirable attempt has been made in recent years to establish verification for the incidents and circumstances that surround the life and works of Ira Rice. Some details have been rather ellusive and what has been written concerning him has not always been accurate. The following is written according to that which has been given in several accounts and include such statements that seem to have common agreement.

Ira was born on October 28, 1793 at New Ashford, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the son of Titus Rice. His mother's name is recorded as Lois, but her maiden name is yet unknown. Ira was the youngest child in his family and became an orphan early in life. We find him living with relatives in Western New York State where he grew to manhood. A state of unrest existed in his home area following the boundary dispute that had been settled after the Revolutionary War. The British, in that particular area, held territories to the West of the thirty-mile distance of the Niagara River, between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Ira became familiar with the fertile land that bordered both sides of the river and he, no doubt, had heard much about the importance of waterways to American shipping. The British, holding the opposite bank of the river, were well fortified. For some time prior to the War of 1812, both British and Americans engaged in preparation for a coming conflict.

It is noted that Ira enlisted in the War of 1812 when he was 19 years of age. His enlistment papers describe him as a farmer, five feet eight inches tall, light hair, blue eyes, having come from New Ashford, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

The American recruits were poorly equipped and wretchedly disciplined. Their weapons were personally owned and they were without uniforms, but their cause was real. During Ira’s eighteen months of service, and while at Fort Erie, the near defeated British put the American Independence to one more of its many tests. They set fire to a powder magazine, resulting in an explosion that scattered a small force of two hundred or more men in every direction. Nearly all of the American boys were either drowned trying to escape across the river or were shot at the bank. Ira slid over the bank and saved himself by swimming downstream four miles to safety. He liked to tell how he leaped over the steep bank into a small hemlock tree, broke off a limb, and with it slid into the dancing waters below the falls of the Niagara River to escape with his life. It was January 1, 1813, the end of his last enlistment period.

A year later Ira married Minerva Saxton, and to them was born five children: Ira, Jr., Asaph, Maryette, Juliette and William Kelsey. They lived in Farmington, Palmyra, and other near areas of Ontario County, New York.

Details grow dim, but the Rices, who were living so near the place where the Prophet Joseph Smith received his first vision, must surely have heard of this sensational event. It was in this area that Ira's wife, Minerva, died in 1824, and it seems evident that, shortly following, Ira accepted a Government payment to veterans of the War of 1812 in the form of a land grant in Michigan. Though the land was considered unfit for habitation, it must have given Ira one of his greatest challenges.

It has been said that Ira married his second wife, Sarah Ann Harrington, before leaving for Michigan. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Ruth Harrington. Census records of Wayne County, Michigan list Ira and Sara with five sons and three daughters which, no doubt, included the three living children of Minerva, showing that Sarah Ann had added five children to Ira's family. By 1831, the Rice family had moved to Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County, Michigan, and six or seven more children were born to them while there.

In spite of the unfavorable account given concerning the wilds of Michigan, men such as Ira tackled the task of cutting down trees, building log cabins and planting crops. Ira and his sons shot bears and their pelts were used as bed coverings and rugs. Fish, wild game and wild fruit were plentiful and, at times, their only food supply. His land holdings, as well as his personal property and livestock gains prove that Ira's move to Michigan was a successful venture.