Josiah Rice, son of William Rice Sr. and Roxanna Smith, was born in 1804 in Amherst, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. He married Betsy Bennett on February 17, 1831 in Sodus, Wayne County, New York. To their union were born eight children.
On December 4, 1833, Josiah signed the “Testimony of 51 Neighbors,” later printed in Mormonism Unvailed.[1] He was a deacon in the Free Congregational Church of Sodus, New York.[2] He died on February 22, 1899 in Attica, Wyoming County, New York.
[1] Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, pp. 366–367.
[2] Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:51.