John Rice came to the Mukewater to visit Samuel See and decided to move to the area.  He bought land southeast of Trickham in 1894.  He organized a school on his own land in a vacant two-room dwelling, with Mrs. Betty Singleton, who lived in McCulloch County, as first teacher.  Later teachers were George Savage and a man named Skinner, well-named, as he whipped the boys too hard, they thought.  The building had been lived in by M. R. Cheatham and his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Gray.

(Editor’s Note: It appears that this school was in Brown County, as I have never seen any Coleman County records about it.  Located quite close to the line, probably near Rice Cemetery.)