William W. Rice
William Whitney Rice | |
---|---|
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts | |
In office March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1887 | |
Preceded by | George Frisbie Hoar |
Succeeded by | John E. Russell |
Constituency | 9th district (1877–83) 10th district (1883–87) |
Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
In office 1875–1876 | |
District Attorney Worcester, County, Massachusetts | |
In office 1869–1873 | |
Mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts | |
In office 1860–1861 | |
Preceded by | Alexander H. Bullock |
Succeeded by | P. Emory Aldrich |
Member Worcester, Massachusetts School Committee | |
Personal details | |
Born | March 7, 1826 Deerfield, Massachusetts |
Died | March 1, 1896 (aged 69) Worcester, Massachusetts |
Political party | Free Soil Party, Republican |
Spouse(s) | Cornelia A. Moen died June 16, 1862; m. September 28, 1876 Alice M. Miller |
Children | William Whitney Rice, Jr., Charles Moen Rice |
William Whitney Rice (March 7, 1826 – March 1, 1896) was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
Born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, Rice attended Gorham Academy, Maine, and graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1846. He served as the preceptor of Leicester Academy, Leicester, Massachusetts from 1847 to 1851 before studying law in Worcester. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 and commenced practice in Worcester. In 1858 he was appointed judge of insolvency for Worcester County.
Rice was elected mayor of the city of Worcester in December 1859.[1] He served as district attorney for the middle district of Massachusetts from 1869 to 1874 and was a member of the State house of representatives in 1875.[2]
Rice was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1885.[3]
Rice was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1887). After a failed re-election bid in 1886, he returned to Worcester and resumed the practice of law. He died there on March 1, 1896, at age 69, and was interred at Worcester Rural Cemetery.
Rice family and relations
[edit]William was a direct descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony.[4] He married Alice Miller (1840–1900), whose mother Nancy Merrick Miller was sister to Massachusetts judge Pliny T. Merrick.[5][6] Alice's sister, Ruth Ann Miller, married U.S. Senator George Frisbie Hoar, making Rice and Hoar brothers-in-law. Alice founded a children's day nursery in Worcester.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit] This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- William Whiitney Rice. New York Times obituary March 2, 1896.
- Hoar, Rockwood: William Whitney Rice A Biographical Sketch (1897).
Notes
[edit]- ^ Rice, Franklin Pierce (1899), Worcester of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Eight: Fifty Years a City, Worcester, MA: F.S. Blanchard & Company, p. 728
- ^ Hoar, Rockwood. 1897. William Whitney Rice Biographical Sketch. Press of Charles Hamilton, Worcester, MA. Library of Congress E664-R49-H6
- ^ American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
- ^ Edmund Rice (1638) Association, 2007. Descendants of Edmund Rice: The First Nine Generations.
- ^ Merrick, George B. Genealogy of the Merrick-Mirick-Myrick Family 1636-1902. Madison, WI: Tracy, Gibbs & Co.,1902, p. 283.]
- ^ a b Alice Miller Rice, privately printed commemorative pamphlet, ca. 1900.
External links
[edit]- United States Congress. "William W. Rice (id: R000205)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- William W. Rice at Find a Grave
- 1826 births
- 1896 deaths
- 19th-century mayors of places in Massachusetts
- Mayors of Worcester, Massachusetts
- Bowdoin College alumni
- Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
- District attorneys in Worcester County, Massachusetts
- Massachusetts Free Soilers
- Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
- Burials at Rural Cemetery (Worcester, Massachusetts)
- People from Deerfield, Massachusetts
- 19th-century American legislators
- Members of the American Antiquarian Society
- 19th-century Massachusetts politicians