This collection focuses on the family of Robert Nelson Trice (1815 or 16-1864)
and
Lucy Jane Minor Trice (1822-1876), which included five
children who survived infancy. These were Mary Jane Trice (1850-1864),
Margaret Thurston Trice (1853-1880),
Martha Jefferson Trice (1855-1880), Lucy Lee Trice (1857-1897),
and Dabney Minor Trice (1860-1915). This family
lived in Albemarle County, Virginia and in Charlottesville, where they enjoyed the society of a very large
number of friends, most of whom were relatives. The writings presented here were almost entirely gleaned
from the collected papers of those friends and relatives as most of the Trice family documents were probably
lost when Gale Hill burned in 1930.
The families most often cited in written records of the Trice family were the Minors,Davises, and Cockes.
The first two families were closely related to the Trices, the last were close friends and eventually married
into the family.
A thumbnail sketch of the MINOR FAMILY history and connections goes
like this: Dabney Minor (1774-1824)
of Gale Hill,
Albemarle County, was twice married, first to Sarah Eliza Johnston, who died in 1818. His second wife was
Martha Jefferson Terrell (1793-1860), the great niece of Thomas Jefferson.
Dabney Minor's first marriage produced five children, including William W. Minor of Gale Hill,
who married Mary Waters Terrell.
The second marriage produced two children, including Lucy Jane Minor,
who married Robert Nelson Trice. This explains the closeness of the Trices and Gale Hill Minors.
This closeness was greatly increased when Lucy Lee Trice married John Minor,
her half first cousin. Their only child was Margaret Lee
Minor Caskie.
The COCKE FAMILY lived at "Red Hills" in Fluvanna County, Virginia,
not far from the Trice family home at "Machunk". The Cockes attended for many years Grace Episcopal Church
in Cismont, Virginia, which was also attended by the Trices during the 1870's and 1880's.
The eleven children born at "Red Hills" between
1851 and 1873 were close friends of the Trices, and two of them, Rowena Glowina and
Anne Waller ("Aunt Waller")
would marry Dabney Minor Trice. Aunt Waller died in 1968 and is still fondly remembered.
Another family that was intimately connected to the Trices was the
DAVIS FAMILY of
Albemarle County. Dabney Minor's second wife, Martha Jefferson Terrell, had a sister named Mary Jane Terrell
(1803-1879). She married John A.G. Davis and had seven children before her husband was murdered on the Lawn at
the University of Virginia in 1840. These
Davis children would play a vital role in the lives of the Trices.
After the deaths of Lucy and Robert N.
Trice, the Trice children were looked after by their older Davis cousins, and Lucy Lee Trice toured Europe
in 1884 with the youngest of them, Lucy Minor Davis. Most of our knowledge of the Trices comes from letters
preserved by the Davises and donated to the Alderman Library at the University.
