no FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



JOHN H. RICE. 



Groton, July 3 1, 1843 — Shocking Casualty. — 



Mr. John H. Rice, son of Mr. John Rice of Ashby, lost his life 

 on Saturday last, under the following circumstances. Mr. Rice, on 

 his return from Boston, called at the house of a brother-in-law in 

 Groton, and while baiting his horse, took a double barrelled gun, 

 which he had just repaired, and was carrying home, and went into the 

 woods near the house to amuse himself for a short time in gunning. 



Not returning, after some hours, alarm was occasioned, and search 

 was made, when he was found dead with his gun lying near him. It is 

 evident from the circumstances that he had discharged one barrel at 

 some object, and while in the act of blowing out the smoke with his 

 mouth, the other barrel was accidentally discharged, and entering his 

 mouth the whole were lodged in his head, producing instant death. 

 Mr. Rice lived in Ashby, was 37 years of age, and has left a wife and 

 three children to bewail his untimely fate. 



He was unusually kind and amiable, and greatly beloved by his 

 friends. This stroke of Providence is peculiarly severe to his aged 

 parents, who have lost in him an only son. — [Lowell Courier. 



" Boston Daily Advertiser," August 3, 1843. 



The following extract is from a letter written to me by the 

 late Dr. Edward Young White, from Littleton Common, on 

 September 5, 1903 : — 



I remember about the death of Rice. My brother David S. was 

 the one who found him after the fatal shot. This Mr. Rice, of Ashby, 

 was a brother of Mrs. George F. Farley, of Groton. Rice married a 

 Miss Kendal, of Ashby, a sister of Mrs. Oliver Pierce. Mrs. Pierce 

 was a widow Vinton when Pierce married her. The day of Rice's 

 death he had returned from Boston coming by way of the Ridges, 

 arriving in the afternoon and calling at Pierces on his sister-in-law, 

 saying he would go out with his fowling piece after woodcock or 

 other birds. Not long after leaving they heard a shot but thought 

 nothing of it until he failed to return. When search being made, 

 my brother David found the body in a little path, leading up to a 

 pigeon stand. It was lying with the gun beside it, just as it appar- 

 ently would lie if the muzzle had been placed in the mouth and a 



