Oscar North Rice was born on October 19, 1835, in a frost-bitten, rattlesnake-infested country called Washtenaw in the wild territory of Michigan, where Indians lived, wolves prowled and bears were known to snooze beside the schoolhouse on hot spring days. It was a land without roads or bridges, and transportation was by foot, horseback, or waterways. The Rice family hunted bear and deer, and other wild game in the normal course of events in order to feed themselves. In 1842, the family made the long trip from Ypsilanti, Michigan to Nauvoo, Illinois because they had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Oscar knew nothing of ease or comforts in his day-to-day life, but he did know a lot about the Prophets and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ and would have followed them to the ends of the earth, as well as to the end of time. He was seven years old when the Prophet Joseph and brother Hyrum Smith were killed. His father left a large family, the last one a baby brother, and crossed the Mississippi in February 1846 in a raging blizzard to satisfy the persecuting mobs.
In the spring of 1848, Brigham Young brought a message back from far-off Deseret (Utah), in which his father Ira Rice had said for them to come with the large companies crossing the Plains to their new home. Oscar was then
thirteen years old. His mother’s health had been destroyed by hardships of the flight from Nauvoo, Illinois and she could not follow the family to Utah. Consequently, Oscar left her, three sisters and baby brother Ephraim
to face 1,100 miles of wilderness without the support of his parents. What he found upon his arrival in Utah was of little comfort—the emptiness of a cabin shelter at the end of the journey with no mother to greet or care for
them. Soon after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Oscar North was called to be a scout to help with the Indian troubles in the Lemhi Valley of Idaho. During that time, Indians killed one of his best friends.
He with his father and brothers were the first to try to make a settlement in North Ogden, Utah. He had little formal schooling, but he learned how late frosts, bad winds, crickets, and Indians could dash the hopes of any person. From there he labored in Smithfield, Utah (1861-62), but trouble with Indians convinced him to return to Providence.
To supplement his income, he began freighting from Utah to Salmon, Idaho, after gold was discovered there. He loved to teach the Gospel to all who would listen and many times he preached to miners and others when away from home. Goods brought back on these trips he and his brother Dell sold in the first store in Providence, known as the Rice Brothers Store. On one of these trips, he had an accident, from which he suffered the rest of his life.
By 1870, he had taken up a homestead along the south side of the Logan River where tall willows grew far from the banks. Once when he was grubbing them, he met a bear. Later when cutting hay with a scythe, he came face to face with a mother bear. He wanted to cut her in half, but he succeeded only in snagging a bit of her hair on his scythe blade. One of his great desires was for his children have more schooling than he had. He helped build more than one public building, roads, bridges and canals. He also helped pay teachers to teach in Providence and Logan, Utah.
Oscar North married Jane Clarissa Miller in the spring of 1859. They were listed as being among the first families to go to Providence, Cache, Utah, to establish a new settlement. No Latter-day Saint group was ever without a place of worship and hold school. He helped to supply logs in 1859, and they had a flagpole from which flew the stars and stripes for the flag they loved. He hated to think about how he had taken sweet Jane from a good home in Farmington and asked her to live in a wagon box all summer while he helped in the plowing and planting and the gathering of logs needed to build shelters for everyone. That fall they went to father Daniel Miller’s place for the winter, where their daughter Alice was born in February 1860. Undaunted, they drove back to the log cabin with willows and sod for a leaky roof, rough floorboards, and no glass windows. Like all the rest of the pioneers, a fireplace provided the heat in their log cabin.
Oscar married a second wife—Margaret Mathews—which marriage was solemnized in the Endowment House by the authority of God in 1869. She was a faithful daughter in Zion who took an active part in the church in Providence, Utah. Oscar North Rice died on 17 September 1880 in his forty-fifth year. He was followed in death by Jane Clarissa on February 15, 1896, and Margaret on 18 February 1926.
The Oscar Rice family knew all about going hungry and sacrificing for others. He could never tell of leisure or having plenty of anything, but dangers. His chief satisfaction was in doing the best he knew how and living up to the Priesthood he held and honored. He firmly believed in all of the teachings and commandments made by God through his authorized leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a faithful tithe payer, he gave freely to the Church. Like Abraham of old, who would have sacrificed his son if God required it of him. Oscar was willing to obey every requirement of God—even the law of plural marriage. It was not an easy law to obey and only a few entered into that covenant.
