Original Site of the Joseph R. Rice Log Cabin

Joseph Redmond Rice (1805-1866) and his wife, Willie Masters Rice (1809-1881), natives of Tennessee and Kentucky, built a one-room log cabin on this site in 1828. Rice's brothers and his father-in-law, Jacob Masters, probably helped with the building. The men cut logs in the woods, and Willie Rice drove a team that snaked them to the clearing for the house raising. Menaced by hostile Indians, the Rices fled to Louisiana, but returned in the 1830s. Over ensuing years, they enlarged the cabin and increased their family to eleven children. Their dwelling became known in the Republic of Texas as a place to lodge or take meals on the San Antonio Road, between the towns of Nacogdoches and Crockett. After Joseph and Willie Rice died, descendants lived in the log house until 1919, when a grandson shifted it some 300 feet and built a new frame house on the original site. The historic house was then used to store grain and shelter farm implements and the family automobile. The Rice Homesite was commemorated in 1936 by the Texas Centennial Commission, and in 1973 the old log house was given to the State. Relocated in Tejas Mission Park (16 mi. NE.), it has been restored and is on exhibition as a relic of frontier days. (1976)

Original Site of the Joseph R. Rice Log Cabin is a historical marker in Houston County, Texas, dedicated in 1976. It is one of 185 historical markers documented in Houston County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 361 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 31.3580, -95.3978. The nearest cataloged historic site is Stage Coach Inn (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Rice, Rice Cemetery, and Joseph Redmond Rice and Willie Masters Rice.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5225007039. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.