My Genealogy Hound

A. T. Rice, one of the well known citizens of Novi, Oakland County, the owner of a fine farm of 80 acres in Novi township, was born in 1834 in Steuben County, New York. He is a son of Clark and Sarah Ann (Coonley) Rice, and comes of old New England ancestry, his forebears being natives of Connecticut. The early records of the family have been lost, but one fact is established, — that a grandfather on the maternal side belonged to that immortal band of patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Clark Rice was reared from the age of three years by his uncle, Noble Sperry, of Cayuga County, New York, and there he was married to Sarah Ann Coonley, who was born in Ledyard township, Cayuga County. Our subject’s mother died in 1883, and his father in 1894. Of their four children, our subject is the only survivor.

In 1840 A. T. Rice came to Michigan with his parents. When he grew up, he settled on a farm in Farmington township, Oakland County, in which township he resided from 1850 to 1880. On November 15, 1860, he was married to Clara Armstrong of Hartland, Livingston County, Michigan, a daughter of Elias and Eunice Armstrong, who were early settlers in the locality. Our subject resided one year on Mr. Armstrong’s property and then purchased a farm one mile distant, where he remained five years. He then returned to Farmington and purchased a farm two miles north and one mile east of the village of Farmington, which he operated for three years. About this time came the agitation in the Canadian oil districts, and Mr. Rice made a trip to Petrolia, Ontario, and during his year’s residence engaged mainly in oil prospecting. Returning to Farmington, he then engaged in several mill enterprises in Clinton County, Michigan, built a grist mill at Pewamo, Ionia County, at a later date, and operated it two years, and during the following two years conducted a hotel at St. John’s, Clinton County. This hotel property he traded for a farm in Gratiot County, Michigan. This farm Mr. Rice occupied for eight years and during his residence there he served for five years as supervisor of the township. His father’s serious illness recalled him to Farmington. In the following year he bought his present farm of 80 acres, located half a mile from the railroad station at Novi, and which is successfully operated by one of his sons, Mr. Rice having retired from active labor.

Mr. and Mrs. Rice have reared but a part of their family; the record is as follows: Lucy, deceased; Clark, who died in infancy; Burt and Mertha, twins, both married, — the former to Myrtle Leadley and has one son, Howard, and resides at Detroit, — the latter married E. Simmons, a farmer of Livonia township, Wayne County, Michigan, and has four children, Clara, Harry, Marlin, and Stanley; and Frank, who married Anna Huffman, a daughter of the late Charles Huffman, who was a native of Indiana, and a brave soldier of the Civil War, serving his country for three years and dying shortly after its close.

In politics Mr. Rice has always been identified with the Democratic party. Fraternally he is a Master Mason.