William Marsh Rice

William Marsh Rice

• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 869
• William Marsh Rice Wikipedia Page
• Rice University History

RICE UNIVERSITY - The Gift That Kept On Giving!

William Marsh Rice, son of David and Patty Rice (Hall), was b. March 14, 1816 in Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts. He was the 3rd child, with seven more to follow. He dropped out of school at age 15 and went to work as a clerk in the Family Grocery Store, owned by a retired whaling captain. After four or five years he decided he knew enough to open his own store. Because he was not yet of age, his father had to co-sign the note to buy his business. Within two years he had paid his loan and made $2,700 in profit.

Because the nation was in a financial crisis, he decided to venture to the 'new nation of Texas' and therefore sold his store, invested in merchandise and goods, and headed for Galveston. He arrived in fine health, but the ship carrying the wares he had purchased was lost at sea. He was penniless.

By 1839 he was issued a conditional grant of 320 acres of land by the Harrisburg County Board of Commissioners (a common practice to disburse land to new settlers). In April 1839 he signed an agreement to furnish liquor for a bar of the Milan House. With the proceeds, he began acquiring more property. By 1844 he entered into a partnership that was known as Rice and Nichols, Importers and Wholesale Grocers; which brought in goods and merchandise from New Orleans and the East for resale to local settlers and plantation owners. Before long he expanded and started exporting cotton. In order to speed up the process, he became involved in the Houston and Brazos Plank Road Company; which began 'paving' the land routes with planks. But soon he transferred his interests to the Buffalo, Brazos and Colorado Railroad.

In 1850 he married with Margaret C. Bremond, daughter of a business associate. They barely escaped with their lives by luckily missing passage on the steamer "Oregon," which exploded and sank a few days out of port. When back in Houston, they purchased a home, moved it to San Jacinto and Congress Streets,attended Houston's cultural events and joined the Episcopal Christ Church, and William began supporting various educational endeavors. By 1856 he was an incorporator of the Houston Academy and by 1857, he was a member of the Houston Educational Society.

Continuing his business enterprises, he increased his wealth and founded the Houston and Galveston Navigation Company, was involved with a number of railroads, marine & fire insurance companies, and the City Bank of Houston.

The Civil War brought a halt to a number of enterprises, but William managed well by transporting cotton. His wife Margaret worked in the war relief effort, contributed to patriotic causes, and to the families of soldiers who died on the battlefield. But in 1863 Margaret fell ill, and died on August 13,1863; probably as a result of either yellow fever or cholera (which were a constant hazard at that time of year).

By 1867 William married for the second time at Christ Church in Houston to the 40 year-old widow of wealthy landowner John Brown. This was Julia Elizabeth Brown (Baldwin), sister of his brother Frederick Rice's wife Charlotte. Because Houston was, at that time, in the grip of one of the worst epidemics of yellow fever it had ever had, the couple moved to New York and eventually to Green Brook, New Jersey. In 1879 he purchased 50,000 acres of government land in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana; an investment that would, after his death, and with the discovery of oil and natural gas, become a boon to the school that would bear his name.

At the age of 63 he began to consider an ongoing project or institution to endow with his considerable wealth. During his frequent trips to Houston and discussions with the Houston School Board and others, decided to found Houston's first institution of higher learning. The charter for the William M. Rice Institution for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art was signed on May 13, 1891 and registered in Austin six days later.

After the death of his wife Elizabeth, and the resolution of difficulties her own will had created, he made a will which left the bulk of his estate to the Rice Institute.

That is not the end of the story...the charter for the school was vague, it did not even contain the words "college" or "university" but did specify that nothing was to be done until his death.

He died on September 23, 1900; but not of natural causes. An unscrupulous lawyer, Albert J. Patrick, had conspired with William's valet, Charles Jones, and drafted a phony will, leaving the money to himself. Then, impatient for Rice to die, they suffocated him.

They would have gotten away with their plan except that the day after Rice's death they tried to withdraw funds from his bank account with a forged check. An alert bank clerk noticed, however, that the name on the check was misspelled and called in the Bank president. The plan unfolded in quick time thereafter. Upon the discovery, members of 'The Rice Family,' called in renowned document examiner and graphologist, David Carvalho. Upon his examination, he questioned the validity of the mispelled check signature. The valet confessed, a trial ensued and Patrick was sent to Sing Sing. The Rice fortune was saved. In 1904 the funds were released to commence the formation of Rice Institute; later to become Rice University.

• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KT7X-SVR
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/869/william_marsh-rice

Businessman, Educator. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Little is known about his childhood. He moved to Texas in 1838. In 1840 he started one of many businesses of which he would become involved. Houston and Galveston Navigation Company was established in 1851 and in 1858 Rice was the owner of a brig called the William M. Rice. It carried ice from Boston to Galveston. Rice also served as a director of the Houston Insurance Company, which insured carriers and freight. He incorporated the Houston Cotton Compress Company, several railroads and a stage line from Houston to Austin. He was the alderman from the Second Ward from 1855 to 1857 and he served on the petit jury and the grand jury in Harris County. He was a member of Liberty Company No. 2, an early formation of a volunteer fire department for the City of Houston, which was organized in 1852. Rice and T. W. House purchased a Hunneman Hand Fire Engine from Boston. The price was $2000.00 and would be the first fire truck that the volunteers acquired. It arrived in Houston in 1852. Serving in many capacities such as, Odd Fellow, director of the Houston Academy, trustee of the Houston Educational Society, the Second Ward School, and the Texas Medical College, Rice was among the wealthiest men in Texas. Rice married Margaret Bremond on June 29, 1850. She passed away on August 13, 1863. For the next two years he stayed in Monterrey, Mexico. He returned to Houston in 1866. On June 26, 1867 he married Julia Elizabeth Baldwin Brown, daughter of an early mayor of Houston. They moved to New Jersey but split their time between New Jersey and New York and took occasional trips to Houston for business. On one of the business trips Cesar Maurice Lombardi who was interested in building a high school in Houston approached him. Having changed his will previously to include a fund for a school for needy boys, Rice was interested. It was decided that he would fund an institute of higher learning. The charter for the William M. Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art was incorporated in Austin, Texas on May 19, 1891. Due to his wife's health he moved to Houston in April 1896 with hope that the weather would improve her condition. After her death on July 24, 1896 a dispute ensued over her will. During the years of court proceedings, Rice's valet, Charlie Jones, to gain control of his estate, hatched a plan. He began drugging Rice with cyanide pills. Jones eventually murdered Rice with a lethal dose of chloroform. Jones was released although he did commit the murder. When the estate was settled in 1904 there was approximately three million dollars in an endowment for the university. On October 12, 1912, the William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Art and Science held its inaugural festival. At that time the endowment held a sum of about nine million dollars and all students were able to attend the university without charge. This privilege did not end until 1965.

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rice-8021
• 1850 marriage record: William M. Rice m. Margaret C. Bremond in Harris County,Texas
• 1867 marriage record: William M. Rice m Julia Elizabeth Brown at Christ Church in Houston on 6/26/1867.
• http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9505E3DC133AE633A...
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_University
• http://professor.rice.edu/professor/Rice_History.asp
• http://www.phosphenepublishing.com/subpage29.html
• http://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/university-arc...
• http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-12-05/news/27083340_1_william-......

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William Marsh Rice, merchant, financier, and philanthropist, was born at Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 14, 1816, the son of David and Patty (Hall) Rice. He was named William Marsh for the circuit rider who organized his family's church in 1815. He left school at the age of fifteen to begin business life as a general store clerk, and at twenty-one purchased an enterprise of his own. After the panic of 1837 Rice moved to Houston, Texas, where he contracted to furnish and serve liquor in the bar of the Milam Hotel in return for the cost of the liquor, three dollars a day, and board. He was issued a headright certificate to 320 acres of Houston land and soon received a first-class license for a mercantile business from the city on June 28, 1840. He was associated with a number of partners, and with Ebenezar B. Nichols was a senior partner in the mercantile firm of Rice and Nichols, a large export and import business that supplied plantations and settlers inland with goods from New Orleans and New York and acted as banker for many of its customers; by 1856 the business was known as William Rice and Company. In 1841 Rice offered a gold cup to the planter who brought in the first twenty bales of cotton and a silver cup for the first five. In 1851 he and other investors established the Houston and Galveston Navigation Company, and by 1858 he was the owner of a brig called the William M. Rice, which carried ice from Boston to Galveston during the summers. Rice also served as a director of the Houston Insurance Company, which insured carriers and freight. These enterprises, with others, enabled him to amass thousands of acres in Texas and Louisiana, along with a considerable fortune. Among his landholdings was a large farm on the outskirts of Houston, near Bellaire. In 1859, with other investors, Rice incorporated the Houston Cotton Compress Company. He was also an incorporator and director of several railroads, including the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado, the Houston Tap and Brazoria, the Washington County, and the Houston and Texas Central, as well as a stage line from Houston to Austin. Rice represented the Second Ward as an alderman from 1855 to 1857 and served on the petit jury and grand jury in Harris County. By 1860 he may have been the second richest man in Texas, with real estate and personal property valued at $750,000.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he left his home to be used as a military hospital and transferred his business to Matamoros, where he operated through the federal blockade. Though he was a slaveowner with fifteen slaves in 1860 and served on the slave patrol for a year, he identified with the Unionist cause. After the war he moved to Dunellen, New Jersey, where he was an agent for the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, which he had helped to promote. Rice retained his interest in Texas, however, for in 1885 he bought the Capitol Hotel, which became the Rice Hotel, and in 1891 he endowed and incorporated the William Marsh Rice Institute for the advancement of literature, science, and art. Rice married Margaret C. Bremond on June 29, 1850. After her death in 1863, he married Julia Elizabeth (Baldwin) Brown, on June 26, 1867. Rice had accumulated a fortune of about $3 million when he moved to New York City after the death of his second wife on July 24, 1896. There, on September 23, 1900, he was murdered by Charles F. Jones, his valet, and Albert T. Patrick, a lawyer who made a series of forgeries in order to acquire the Rice estate. Years of litigation ensued and, though Patrick was sentenced to death, he received a full pardon in 1912, when the bulk of the estate went to Rice Institute. Rice was an Odd Fellow, a Mason, and an Episcopalian. He was a director of the Houston Academy and a trustee of the Houston Educational Society, the Second Ward School, and the Texas Medical College. His ashes are buried under John Angel's statue of him on the Rice University campus in Houston.