Asaph Rice, born January 3, 1817, was the second son of Ira Rice and Minerva Saxton. His parents lived in Farmington and Palmyra, New York—not far from where Joseph Smith and his family lived. Asaph had two sisters and two brothers when his mother died. He was seven years old at the time and oldest living child in his father’s motherless home. After the sadness of losing his mother, his father brought a new mother into their home. She was Sarah Harrington—a young woman about 25 or 26 years old.
After his father married Sarah Harrington, the U.S. government offered land located in the wilds of Michigan to the veterans of the War of 1812. Ira Rice took his family there to take advantage of the offer. The country was wild; it was wooded and suffered cold winters. The wolves and Indians were constant terrors. Ira and his sons learned to be great bear hunters. Asaph slept under the heavy warm hide of many a bear, which he or his father had killed.
Some time in the year of 1840, the Latter-day Saint missionaries found the Rice family, and all that were old enough to become members of the church were baptized. No record was kept of it, so Asaph was rebaptized in 1848, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The census records of Washtenaw County, Michigan, 1829, shows the Ira Rice family in Plymouth, Washtenaw County, Michigan. They were next found in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1842. Asaph, his brother Bill, and his father were among the first to cross the Mississippi River in the winter of 1846. He arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, September 1847. The Rices were sent to North Cottonwood (Farmington), which extended to North Ogden at that time.
Few men of the Church experienced more trials and setbacks than this Asaph Rice. He was left motherless at seven years of age; but he was a dutiful and kind son to his foster mother. At 23 he joined the Latter-Day-Saints [sic]. In Nauvoo in 1844 he suffered the sorrow of all good men at the death of his good friend and leader, Joseph Smith, and his esteemed friend, Hyrum Smith. He was respected and trusted constantly by his great friend and spiritual leader, Brigham Young. He was well acquainted with all the great men who were the church leaders of that trying day.
Asaph had his patriarchal blessing under the hands of John Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois, a month before he and his father, and brother Bill crossed the river in the dead of winter to satisfy the mobs. He was a seventy in the 13th Quorum. He did not marry until he was 42 years of age, as he had been so constant in his efforts to help his family and friends.
After Asaph married Louisa Busenbark Calkins, the widow of Edwin Calkins, they moved to what is now North Ogden. This family moved south at the time of the Johnston Army troubles and then back to North Ogden. Then they moved to Providence, Cache County, Utah in 1857. Ten years later they were again on the move to the land of Utah’s Dixie.
In each settlement where Asaph lived, one finds lasting evidence of Asaph’s having lived there. In North Ogden, there is a creek called Rice Creek; and he is credited with helping to build the first house and the first meetinghouse there. The first school in Providence notes Asaph and his father as being those donating to its construction and helping to hire the first teachers in the school.
He knew no other mode of travel than horseback, mule, walking, or by ox team. If he saw his few remaining grandchildren swiftly going over oil-surfaced highways in a few minutes, distances which he took days to cover, he would marvel. But his heart would ache to find so many of his great-grandchildren disinterested and many disdainful of the church for which he was willing to give all just to be counted a member. He died in Panaca, Nevada on February 3, 1872. The ward records said Brother Asaph Rice died in full fellowship in the Church in good standing.
