She was known for her direct and energetic comedy writing, her nature poems, and her vivid descriptions of folklore figure John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman.

[1] Her writings appeared in Cleveland and Columbus newspapers, Godey's Lady's Book, Indiana Farmer, Arthur's Home Magazine, Interior, Watchman, Journal and Messenger, Presbyterian Banner, Household, Housekeeper, Little Corporal, The Children's Hour, Toledo Blade, Western Rural and Woman's Journal.

These included Pipsissiway Potts,[4] who provided tutorials and recipes; Aunt Chatty Brooks, who ran a boarding house for young women;[5][6][7][8] and Mrs. Sam Starkey, an elderly gossip with a sense of humor.

[3] She wrote columns from these points of view for Arthur's,[9][3] "creating fictional characters who inhabited her magazine's stories, and became 'real' to hundreds of readers".

[10] Rice is perhaps best known for writing prose and poetry about her encounters with John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman, who often visited Perrysville in his later years.

[3] Her paternal first cousin Americus V. Rice, also from Perryville, was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and served as a U.S.

It begins:Oh, I do so weary of these long drawn down faces with the hideous spirit of misanthropy, peering out of the many pairs of blue and gray and blear eyes that one meets with every day abroad in this lovely world of ours.

and precise old maids blush, but to wear about home on washing days and muddy weather when their work is not all in doors, and on dewy mornings to milk in, (unless their Pas and brothers are Yankees, bless 'em!)

Historian Peggy Mershon claims it "pokes fun at the old folks who ... weren't quite prepared for how fast and noisy [trains] were".

[28] The poem, titled "The First Whistle Among Our Hills", was published on May 17, 1854; some stanzas included:Pat Wiggs sat eating when he heard a strange humming, "Lord Biddy!"

[29] In 1859, Rice published her novel Mabel: Or, Heart Histories: A Tale of Truth under Follett, Foster & Company of Columbus, Ohio.

[32] In 1863, Rice contributed to nonfiction book A History of the Pioneer and Modern Times of Ashland County: From the Earliest to the Present Date by describing her encounters with John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman, possibly helping to mythologize him with her fantastical descriptions.

[35] In 1880, she contributed to Albert Adam Graham's History of Richland County, Ohio, which included a biography of Chapman and descriptions of his appearance.

[11][36] She eulogizes him, writing, "His bruised and bleeding feet now walk the gold-paved streets of the New Jerusalem ... [His was] a life full of labor and pain and unselfishness; humble unto self-abnegation; his memory glowing in our hearts, while his deeds live anew every springtime in the fragrance of the apple-blossoms he loved so well.

Meeting with but few associates who could appreciate the depth of her passion for such communings, her spirit was wont to retire within herself, except when it was called forth by the presence of the sylvan gods among whom she worshiped.

[25] From 1871 to 1872, she published a series of articles titled "Other People's Windows" to Arthur's under her pen-name, Pipsissiway Potts, which attracted devoted readers.

These included a comedy story, "Millwood Leaves", an essay about "Spending-Money for Women", and an advice article about appearance titled "Home Topics" in which she comedically makes reference to herself in third person as Aunt Chatty.

Well, it was a good discipline, and helped to make tough, cheery, heartsome women of us, though it was somewhat like the reason our dear mother user to give for whipping us: "I do it because I love you.

[45] In 1901, Richland County historian Abraham J. Baughman described Rice as,a born poet, a child of nature, and loved to roam over the hills and among the forest trees of her native heath and listen to the revels of the winds and commune with the spirits of the wildwood.

[25]In 1997, Richland County historian Mary Jane Armstrong Henney published a book compiling Rice's work, biography, and genealogy titled Rosella's Reader: A Collection of Her Stories.

In a 2012 article, Lee Cavin attested,[Rice] should be bristling with statues, or at least the bronze plaques done so well by the [Ohio] historical association ...

I will continue to picture Rice in a cabin full of chattering children, writing with a dip pen, possibly from a bottle of home-made ink, making up names to take the credit for her work.

[47] In 2020, the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District unveiled 10 vacation log cabins with optional supplemental packages containing homemade soft drinks.