Dr. T. J. Rice is a physician, residing in the First District of Dyer County; was born in that part of Crockett County that was cut off from Dyer, and was Dyer County at the time of his birth, December 7, 1840. Dr. Rice is one of a family of nine children, five of whom are living; he is the son of Solomon and Sarah Rice. His father was born in 1801, in Rockingham County, N. C. He married and remained in his native State until 1837, when he removed to Tennessee, and settled in Dyer County in 1838, and engaged in farming. His mother was born in Alamance County, North Carolina, in 1802, and now lives with her son, Dr. T. J. Rice. The father of our subject died in 1878. Dr. Rice received his literary education chiefly at Friendship, Tennessee. September 1, 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Twelfth Tennessee Infantry, and held the rank of orderly, and then orderly sergeant. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Richmond (Ky.), Perryville (Ky.), Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and the battles near Atlanta, Ga.; was wounded five times during the war, and justly earned the reputation of being a brave soldier. In 1866 he read medicine under Dr. J. D. Smith and Dr. Alex Irvin, of Friendship, for a year, then took a course of lectures at Jefferson College, at Philadelphia, and graduated at the university at Nashville, in 1868. The same year he married Dora, daughter of David and Sarah Bowen; she was born in Dyer County, in 1835, and died in 1876. When he married he located on a fine farm two and a half miles from Friendship, of 198 acres, where he has since resided, combining farming and the practice of medicine. He had one child by this marriage, Thomas. In 1878 he married Peggie, a sister to his first wife. She was born in 1838, and they have two children: Porter and George. Dr. Rice has met with marked success in the practice of medicine, and is widely known as a physician. He is a Democrat, and with his wife belongs to the Methodist Church.