A.L. Rice Interview

Rice, A.L.                Interview         9740
Field Worker’s name: Robert H. Boatman
This report made on (date) January 18, 1938

1. Name A.L. Rice
2. Post Office Address- Route # 1, Lindsey, 7 miles
3. Residence address (or location) N.W. Lindsey, 7 miles
4. Date of Birth: Month-April     Day-28        Year-1872
5. Place of birth-Missouri
6. Name of Father-G. W. Rice     Place of birth-Missouri
7. Other information about father: Farmer Stockman
8. Name of Mother-Isema Terry   Place of birth-Missouri
9. Number of sheets attached-3

Rice A.L.           Interview      9740
Robert H. Boatman,
Investigator,
January 18, 1938

                                    Biographic Sketches from A.L. Rice,
                                    Rt. # 1 Lindsay, Oklahoma

     I was born in the state of Missouri, near the town of Darksville, an old Indian village, April 28, 1878, though I left Missouri at the age of seventeen.  I came to the Indian Territory in 1889.
     I am a direct descendant of General Sam Houston.  The move from Missouri was by wagon and teams, a group of several families forming the emigrant group, and we were 26 days on the road, for travel was a very slow progress and especially so after entering the Territory. There were no roads or trails at all, only a few cattle trails. All creeks and rivers were forted and many times with great difficulty and danger. People just traveled in a general direction.
     After some wandering around we finally settled at Goodland in the Choctaw Nation. Goodland was an old Indian trading post and stage line station and was established first when the Choctaw tribe was removed her from Mississippi in 1831.
     I had a high school education and had earned one year in college and seeing so bad the need of  education among the Choctaw Indians, I began my early career as a school teacher among the full blood of the Choctaw tribe, following this profession for a period of three years. My Salary was $75.00 per month. A great thrill it was teaching Indian children the English language and rules of discipline.
     In 1892 I became assistant postmaster at Goodland, about which time I was married to Miss Anna Spring.
     I operated a store, blacksmith shop and a small cotton gin at the Spring Ranch till 1897 when I lost my wife.
     In 1899 I was married to Miss Isabelle Brashears, another Choctaw girl. At this time I was serving as a peace officer-deputy U.S Marshal.
     The county was full of wild game, such as turkey, deer, black bear, prairie chickens, and wolves. There were black, gray, lobo wolves and coyotes. The Lobo wolves have in several instances been known to attack a man. I was once attacked by some 20-30 of them in the Red River bottom, and only by being swift runner and swimming the river did I escape the clutches of this pack.
     In 1900 I removed to the Chickasaw Nation and settled at what is now known as Griner. I there established a ranch, which still bears the name of the Rice Ranch Place, and I also put in a store and laid out a townsite and called it Rice City. However upon notice form the department of a Post office in the western part of the Territory named Rice, I was given a office known as Griner, this being the name of some Indians of the Chickasaw tribe. Rice City then was changed to the above name.
     The old Goodland post office has long discontinued though there still remains the school for Indians, which is known as the Goodland Institution.
     I live some seven miles northwest of Lindsey in McClain County.[i]