Rice, Elizabeth M.

Born: 1818-XX-XX Tennessee

Flourished: Franklin County, Illinois

Alternate name: Fyke

Elizabeth M. Rice was a war widow. Born Elizabeth Fyke, she married James Rice (misidentified as Price) in Marion County, Illinois, in March 1840. They remained married until James Rice's death in September 1848 while serving with the Second Illinois Foot Volunteers during the Mexican War. In 1850, she was living in Franklin County, Illinois, along with four children under the age of ten. By 1860, she was operating a farm south of Benton and owed real property valued at $150 and a personal estate of $55.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Marion County, 28 March 1840, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-8 (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1882), 244, 265; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Franklin County, IL, 63; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Franklin County, IL, 35.