Rev. M. V. Rice (1884)

RICE

Posted By: Kent Transier (email)
Date: 7/29/2007 at 22:34:35

Madisonian and Chronicle
Thursday, July 24, 1884
Page 4

“Our Chip Basket” column

Rev. Father Rice, pastor of the Catholic church in this city, died of congestion of the lungs last Friday evening. His home was in the northeast part of this county.

Note: Burial in St. Patrick’s Cemetery.
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Winterset Madisonian – August 7, 1884
Page 3

OBITUARY

Many of our readers will be pained to learn the death of the estimable clergyman, Father Rice, in the prime of life. Though ailing for a long time his death was not expected by any of his friends, as he always rallied from his illness. At the time of his demise he was about 40 years of age, but the insidious disease had already undermined his otherwise vigorous constitution, and his death was somewhat sudden. Father Rice was born in the county of Kilkenny, Ireland, and made his preparatory studies for the priesthood in the Diocesan seminary of that city, completing them in the celebrated college of Corlow, where he was ordained by the late Bishop of Ossory for the diocese of Dubuque, on the Pentecost of 1870.

Coming to Dubuque in the fall of that year he was assigned to the mission of Toronto, subsequently moved to Marengo, afterwards to Iowa City, and finally to the Irish settlement where he breathed his last. In all these missions Father Rice endeared himself very much to his parishioners and left after him in each of his missions a lasting regret.

The grief manifested on the occasion of his death and burial was touching and tender in the extreme.

To see strong and stalwart men shedding tears like little children was a scene not easily withstood.

Father Rice was a man of considerable culture, all the opportunities got and had with considerable industry, but being of a retiring and diffident disposition, his well stored mind was only known to his intimate acquaintances. His sermons, when his health allowed him to preach, were full of accurate knowledge and concise thought elegantly and appropriately expressed.

We tender our friends of the Irish settlement our sympathy on their great loss and hope they will soon have a pastor who will prove a worthy successor to the late, lamented M. V. Rice.

Gravestone Photo
 

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