Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-07-18
Allen Thorndike Rice.
George Ticknor Curtis RecOllectiOns
Of Sensation of Nearly Forty
Years Ago.
When q Noted Man Dies His History
Becomes Public Property.

To the Editor of the New York Sun
Sir: It is great pity that the propen-
/ sity to work up sensational stories of
| family histories should have led to such
an unfounded rigamarole as that in the
New York Times concerning the late
Thorndike Rice and his parents. His
story IS one that cannot be revived with
oct giving pain to living persons, how
ever truthfully it may be told; and when
it is told Unfaithfully, we cannot restrain
righteous indig nation. I knew Mr..
1horndike Rice's father and mother be-
fore they were married. | was their
| neighbor in Boston when their child was
born. l knew the families on both sides,
| and knew at the time the circumstances
attending Mrs. Rice's departure from
| Boston with her child, then an infant. I
shall say but little concerning Mrs. Rice:
but as the account in the Times repre-
sents her husband as a sort of a brute,
and represents her as forced to leave him,
I shall take it upon me to contradict so
much of the story as relates to one of the
most amiable, worthy, and innocent young
| men [ ever knew.
| Henry Rice was the son of a Boston
y
moderate property. He was ABOUT or
and 20 when be married Miss Tnorndike.
She was granddaughter of Israel Thorn
dixie, very wealthy merchant in Boston.
The marriage took place in the spring of
| 1850, thirty-nlne years ago. The new-|
ly married couple went to Europe on a
wedding tour. I was in London when
they arrived there, and met them at din
ner at the house of Mr.. Russell Sturgis,
| in Portland place They travelled for
some months on the continent. It was
we'll understood at the time that Mr.. Rice
was very much in love with his wife, and
this was apparent to all who saw them to-
gether. 1t was equally we'll understood
that before their marriage Mrs. Rice was
not much in love with the young man
whom she did accept, but che was per-
fectly free to choose, and she chose to
marry him. The child was born after
they returned to Boston. Not long after
ward, when. the child was not more than
2, or at the most 8 years old, Mrs.
Rice suddenly left Boston, taking her
child with her, and her husband was en-
gagged for several years in frultless eff
forts to find her, and to induce her to re-
turn to her proper home.
/ think am qualified to speak with
his wife. Soon after their engagement
1 dined one day at his fathers house, with
other young people who were in the same
society, and she and her accepted lover
we're present. 1t Vas evident TO US all
that he was deeply in love with her, and
at the same time we all understood that
she was not much attached to him.
Young people at suoh times are pretty
apt to know good deal about each
| other. Miss Thorndike was handsome
girl, and very fasciD ating.
After the lapse of the period required
by the law of Massachusetts, Mr.. Rice
obtained divorce on account of his
wife's desertion of him. He never mar
ried again. He died early, and every one
In the society in which they both be-
longed was aware that the loss of his wife
and child made him broken hearted
man. He was entirely blameless in the
whole matter. After the divorce Mrs.
Rice lived without any conceaiment some
where ID Germany, and eventually she
married a German, who had been her
sons tutor for some time. He was said
to have been man of much force of
character, and to have had much more in
fuencs over the lady than any one else
who had ever been connected with her.
She died very painful death in conse-
quence of her clothes accidentally taking
fire.
There is long and circlmstantial ac-
count IN the Times narrative about Mr..
Kelley, of Vermont, who is said to have
aided Mrs. Rice in concealing herself
and her child from the detectives" who
were employed by her husband, and her
escape is represented to have been from
a cruelty worse than DEATH" This dark
insinuation it would puzzle the writer in
the Times to explain. l never heard that
Henry Rice employed detectives"
Such persons were not known at that
/. time. He did, what his duty as hus-
band and father required of him, endeav
or by all proper means to find his wife
and child. There may have been Mr..
Kelley or Mr.. Somebody Else, who
helped Mrs Rice to conceal herself and
her child, and to get away to Europe, for
she must have had some assistance at the
time.
The Times article represents the search
| to have been made when the boy was 8 II
years old. But the fact is she left Boston
and took away her child when he was at
most not more than or years old. The
boy was never in this country again until
after he had grown Rp and taken a de-
gree al Oxford.
All that part of the story in the Times
about letters from Mr.. Rice's mother
acknowledging Mr.. Kelley's services. and
years afterward sent to Thorndike Rice,
who suppressed them, and the nonsense
about the danger of poison incurred by
Mrs. Rice in her husbands house is bosh.
1t will be received with horror and in
dignation by every living member of
both faa1illaS for thew all know. as do
the persons of my age in Boston who are
acquainted with the facts, that Henry
Rice was a most excellent young man, and
| that his wife's desertion of him was en-
tirely due TO q certain waywardness in
her disposition. 1t was never suspected
or infatuated that she had been led astray
hv some one else The ornsser kind of