author
Franklin P. (Franklin Pierce) Rice
1852–1919
A self-taught printer, publisher, and local historian, he helped preserve Massachusetts history by turning fragile town records into books people could actually use. His work, especially on Worcester and other Massachusetts vital records, made him an important figure for genealogists and anyone curious about early New England life.
1 Audiobook
Vital Records of the Town of Auburn, (Formerly Ward), Massachusetts, To the end of the year 1850 With the Inscriptions from the Old Burial Grounds
by Franklin P. (Franklin Pierce) Rice
About the author
Born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1852, and raised in Worcester, Franklin P. Rice built an impressive career without the benefit of college. He became known as a printer and publisher with a deep interest in local history, and he devoted much of his life to collecting, editing, and printing old public records that might otherwise have been lost.
Rice is especially remembered for transcribing and publishing Massachusetts vital records and Worcester town records, work that made early births, marriages, deaths, and civic documents far more accessible to later researchers. He also helped found the Worcester Society of Antiquity, showing how closely he was tied to the preservation of his city’s history.
Contemporaries described him as quiet and deeply committed to scholarly work. He died on January 4, 1919, but his books and edited records continued to serve historians, genealogists, and local readers long afterward.