Rice - Sam A.
Source: Waveland Independent Waveland, Montgomery County, Indiana Feb 10, 1899
The relatives of Sam A. Rice, formerly of this place, are taking steps, says the Crawfordsville Journal, to have him declared legally dead, thus to enable them to come into his property. An aunt of his died some years ago at Boonville, Mo. and Sam was left considerable property. Rice disappeared from here about 9 years ago and nobody knows where he is. He was seen in Chicago a time or two afterward by Waveland people, and it was reported that he was in the Joliet penitentiary, but it is not known whether the report was correct. As the law allows that a man may be declared legally dead after an absence of 7 years, Sam will have to show up soon or lose his inheritance. - kbz
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 10 February 1899
The relatives of Sam Rice, formerly of this county, are taking steps to have him declared legally dead, thus to enable them to come into his property. An aunt of Sam’s died several years ago out of Booneville, Mo., and Sam, as well as her other nieces and nephews, was left quite a snug little wad. It so happened that Sam had disappeared from his old haunts in Brown Township shortly before and he has not since shown up. He will have to come to light now in short order or he will be out of pocket considerably.
Sam Rice led a checkered career. Some years ago he was a high flyer down about Waveland and married a sister of Perry Garland. His wife had quite a large property, but this was dissipated in short order. Then Sam had a quarrel with Perry and was charged with forging Perry’s name to some papers. He claimed that he did this with Perry’s sanction but he left here, deserting his wife and going to parts unknown. The next heard of him was about four years later, in 1894, when Gee Grimes came to Crawfordsville and stated that he had seen Rice as a prisoner in the penitentiary at Joliet, Ill. This was published in The Journal at the time and gave his wife her first clue as to his whereabouts. She instituted divorce proceedings at once and was soon free. Rice has not since been heard from, and if he is still alive no one here knows it. A cousin of his claims that he visited the Joliet prison shortly after Grimes told his story and that Sam was not there then. Grimes stated that he was in prison under a false name; he had forgotten what, so the searching cousin had no means of ascertaining what had become of Sam if he had been liberated.
Rice has not shown up here for nearly nine years and the law allows that a man be declared legally dead after an absence of seven years, so it is likely that his relatives will shortly be in full possession of his property. -s