Passing of Rhoda Rice

William and Rhoda Rice around 1920

When asked, mom said that Rhoda Rice was looney & passed away by her own actions. I passed that off as "just another story," much like the "indian princess" and the "three brothers" stories that abound in genealogical circles. At one time, even Elizabeth Warren claimed indian descent. Well, the Rhoda story appears to be absolutely, totally, and even mostly, true. Here's the story of Rhoda:

Photos of Rhoda and her husband, William Rice may be found here. Well, the story of Rhoda's later years is involved, but we do know that she came with William in 1930 to visit their son, TR Rice and family, and also went to Detroit to visit Rhoda's older brother, Seth Ibbotson. Records of that visit show that they came over on the Duchess of Bedford, a sister ship of the one shown at the left.

Their entry at Quebec is shown below:

In the same visit, they went from Ontario to visit Rhoda's brother, Seth. Seth came to the US around 1912 and lived in Detroit, where he made his living as a machinist in the auto industry. Seth had seven children, the last of which passed away in Florida in 1982. Seth himself, passed away later in the year that Rhoda and William visited.

Anyway, the first evidence I got that Rhoda passed away in February 1938 other than by purely natural causes came from the newspaper clipping I found some time back, shown below:

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 28 February 1938

Lately, however, I've gotten better at searching old British newspapers and the 2 articles below seem pretty definitive:

First, from the Sheffield Daily Independent of 23 February 1938:

Sheffield Daily Independent
23 February 1938

Before long, an official search found Rhoda after they drained the water behind the dam.

Sheffield Daily Independent
1 March 1938

After Rhoda was found, a coroner's inquest found that she died while not in her right mind. Searching for Wood's Dam, what I was able to come up with was at a site talking about dams & weirs along River Loxley. That is here. A clue suggesting it is the Wisewood Weir states: "...Both premises at Wisewood were subsequently purchased by the Wood family, who were still there in 1958. Both water and steam power were in use in 1907. " Kath Whitworth contacted a relative in Sheffield, and he provided the item below. Barry Mawhood marks up the map! In summary, it appears that Rhoda, on leave from the South Yorkshire Mental Hospital, got confused and fell or jumped in to the Wisewood reservoir near where she grew up.

Geograph, located here, has many photos of the area, such as the one below.

Photo from "Geograph" Go here

Rice Puzzle

Rhoda Rice with Thomas Rawson Rice - the ONLY Labeled Photograph

Scanning various photographs, one has to see various similarities and differences. Such has been the case with one series of photographs, that look as if they are photos of other photos. Only the first one was labeled, that one is shown at the beginning of this page. Since Rawson was born in May of 1896, this would make the photo sometime in late 1896 or early 1897. At that time, Rhoda would have been around 30. Her Maiden name was Ibbotson, but that doesn't enter into this series of photos.

The second photo, shown below, appears to be either the same woman or someone with similar features with a man. Stretching things only a little, I'd guess this is Rhoda with her husband, William Rice. William was Thomas Rawson's father. Assuming the photo was taken only a few years after the first one, that'd make him about 35.

Is this William Rice with Rhoda?

Stretching things further, there appears to be yet another photograph of the woman in the second picture; this time with an older woman. That photo is below. I think it is unlikely that the older woman was her mother since Rhoda was born when her mother was nearly 40. That'd make her 70 when Rawson was born. Rhoda did, however, have three older sisters, who were between 3 and 15 years older. Alternately, it might have been either one of William's sisters or even his mother, who was Sarah Ringrose before she married. Sarah was ten years younger than Rhoda's mother - William was one of the older children and Rhoda was only two years ahead of the baby of the Ibbotson family. Inquiring minds want to know!

Is it Rhoda on the Right and Who is With Her?

However, the mystery isn't over yet. In the same series of photos is one that is shown below.
That photo is taken much later - note how the styles had changed. I wonder if that last photo is of Rhoda and William ten or even fifteen years later. You tell me!

For extra credit, come up with the name of the cute little dog in the last picture...

Rhoda and William Rice in Later Years?