U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- ICE Family --------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Genealogical and Personal History of the Upper Monongahela Valley West Virginia Under the Editorial Supervision of Bernard L. Butcher by James Morton Callahan, Professor of History, WVU Volume III, Pages 1020-1024, ICE Family The original ancestor of all of the name of Ice, so far as can be learned, in the United States was Freidricke Ice, a Hollander, who came to the United States from Amsterdam, Holland, about the middle of the eighteenth century. He was in Maryland for a short period of time, but soon went into what was then known as the western wilderness. He settled at a point that is now known as Ice's Ferry on Cheat river, in Monongalia county, West Virginia. He was married at the time and soon after settling there his first son, Adam, was born, this being the first white child born west of the Alleghany mountains. Other children of Freidricke Ice were: 2. Abram, who settled on Ice's Run, between the points where Barrackville and Fairmont are now located; his descendants mostly reside in Wetzel county, a few in Doddridge, West Virginia. 3. Andrew, who remained on the old homestead for many years, where he afterwards obtained a right to establish a ferry from the English government under King George III., hence the name Ice's Ferry; at this old home he entertained George Washington over night while he was on a surveying trip up in Pennsylvania where he afterwards secured a large grant from the colonial government. 4. William. 5. A daughter, name unknown. Freidricke Ice was a great friend to the Indians and the floor of his house was frequently the sleeping place of these wild men; this good fellowship continued for many years, and was broken by the captivity of the two youngest of the Ice children, William and the daughter, aged eight and five years respectively. William was adopted and raised as an Indian, acquired all of their indolent habits, but never quite forgot his white relations and frequently would make his escape and come back to his old home, remaining until his indolence would cause some friction with his parents or some member of the family when he would leave and go back to the Indians. He never married and has no descendants. He was murdered at where Pine Grove, Wetzel county, is now located, by a band of Indians of a different tribe from the one into which he had been adopted. His sister married an Indian and was the mother of thirteen children, two of whom became famous amongst their red brethren, Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, who gave the colonial government a vast amount of trouble. This claim of the Ice family concerning the parentage of Tecumseh and his famous brother is a straight tradition in the Ice family. The grandfather of Dr. Ice has frequently told the entire history of the Ice family to him, especially this part of it, and admitted the facts as above narrated with the further fact that he had frequently seen Tecumseh, and further said that he was about his size in stature and weight, which was about five feet and nine inches high, and a weight of about two hundred pounds. (II) Adam, eldest child of Freidricke Ice, after growing to manhood, married a Miss Bails and settled at a place that is now known as Barrackville, Marion county, West Virginia, where he lived to a ripe old age, died and was buried there. He had two sons and three daughters; among them, Rawley, mentioned below. (Ill) Rawley, son of Adam Ice, was born in Barrackville, about 1796. When he grew to manhood he settled at a point a few miles west of Mannington, West Virginia, and married Rachel, daughter of Henry Hays. There were eight children born to them: 1. Perry, recently died in the west at about ninety years of age; he had several children who located in various western states. 2. Fielding R., married Louise Dragoo; he settled on Dunkard Mill Run, Lincoln district, Marion county, West Virginia, where he died about 1900, at the age of eighty-three years. He was a notable character on account of his powerful strength physically and his stubborn determination; at one time, during the most exciting period of the beginning of the war of the rebellion, he was a southern sympathizer and they attempted to arrest him in Fairmont, to make him take the oath of allegiance to the United States, but he resisted arrest and the attempt led to a riot in which he had men piled on top of each other, this being done with his naked fists alone, and during the time the rioters were fighting with each other he secured his horse and rode away. He brought up five sons and three daughters, some of whom are still living in and about his old home. 3. Henry Miner, mentioned below. (IV) Henry Miner, son of Rawley Ice, was born in 1828. He settled near his father. He became prominent in the affairs of his county (Marion) in many ways and was identified with its development. He served through the war of the rebellion, and was captain of Company H, Fourteenth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, was engaged in many of its hardest battles, being severely wounded at the battle of Fishers Hill near Strasburg, Virginia. He was elected sheriff of Marion county after the war. He died in 1894. He married Anara F., daughter of Dudley Dent, who was drowned accidentally at Elizabeth, Wirt county, West Virginia; in this family were twelve children, ten boys and two girls, all of whom lived to manhood and womanhood: 1. Pliny W., left home at seventeen years of age, joined the regular army of the United States, and after serving a short time attempted to filabuster with a lot of government arms and five hundred men in the interest of the Cubans, during the war with Spain, capturing a government vessel, and was well under way to Cuba, when they were betrayed by the pilot of the vessel who had been pressed into service, and they all were run under the guns at Fort Pulaski, South Carolina, and captured; Ice, being one of the leaders, was court-martialed, and sentenced to be shot, but succeeded in making his escape, and was never afterwards apprehended, but through the efforts of his father and Senator Waitman T. Willey he was reprieved by President Grant on account of his youth, and perhaps partly on account of a relationship with the president's wife, who was a Miss Julia Dent; he became a sailor and finally died in the city of Shanghai, China, of ship or typhus fever. 2. Ulysses B., married young and settled in Wetzel county, where he engaged in merchandising and farming and was successful; he died of appendicitis after undergoing an operation at the age of fifty-two years. 3. C. Herschel, mentioned below. 4. Alvy B., was killed in a railroad wreck at Tiffin, Ohio, in 1888. 5. D. K., was engaged all his life in the sawmill business; he died in Clarksburg, West Virginia, in January, 1912, of la grippe, aggravated by exposure. 6. Palmyra Jane, living in Elkins, West Virginia. 7. Harlin M., went into the goldfields of Alaska thirty years ago, and was never heard from afterwards. 8. Sidney A., living in the state of Oregon; he served through the war with Spain in the Philippine Islands. 9. Otis H., living in Randolph county, West Virginia, and is engaged in the lumber business. 10. Richard L., lives in Marion county, 11. James Wirt, lives in Marion county, and is engaged in farming. 12. Lena M., wife of James Cunningham, lives at Grangeville, Marion county, West Virginia. All of these have descendants except Harlin M. and Sidney A. (V) C. Herschel Ice, M. D., of Mannington, West Virginia, son of Captain Henry M. and Anara F. (Dent) Ice, was born October 24, 1854. He was educated at the public schools and at the University of Wooster, Ohio. In 1885, having passed an examination before the state board of medical examiners, he at once engaged in the practice of medicine at Mannington, continuing until he entered the medical department of the University of Maryland, from which he graduated in 1891 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, since which time he has been actively in the practice of medicine and surgery. He has long been an enthusiastic student of medicine and not less of history. He has been an extensive writer for medical journals, and has been gathering material bearing upon the pioneer days of West Virginia and Marion county. He contemplates the publication of the genealogy of the Ice family. He has traveled extensively and has a broad comprehensive knowledge of men and affairs in general. He is a member of the Mannington, Marion County and State Medical societies; served on the United States Pension Board in Fairmont in 1893-1900, and in 1900 and to the present date at Mannington; is an ex-health officer of Mannington, and was mayor of that city. He has good business ability, and is interested in oil, milling and mining operations. He married, in 1878, Cyrena, daughter of Elias and Jane Hildreth, of Marion county, West Virginia. Children: 1. E. Clark, born January 15, 1880; graduated from the law department of the University of West Virginia, with the degree of LL. B., and is now engaged in real estate business in Clarksburg, West Virginia. 2. Dr. L. G., born February 16, 1882; a graduate of the Ohio Medical and Dental College, of Columbus, and is now engaged in the practice of dentistry at Oregon City, Oregon. 3. James Emmett, born July 16, 1884; educated at the schools of his native city and at West Virginia University, and is now engaged in mercantile business at Clarksburg, West Virginia. 4. Nona B., born September 13, 1886; educated at the Mannington schools; now the wife of Ernest Macklin, formerly of Morgantown, now a member of the legal staff of the Pittsburg Oil Company, at Pittsburg; he is a graduate of the law department of the West Virginia University. ---------------------------------------------------------------------