Alexander H. Rice
Alexander Hamilton Rice | |
---|---|
Boston Common Council from Ward 11 | |
In office 1853–1854 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Newton, Massachusetts | August 30, 1818
Died | July 22, 1895 Melrose, Massachusetts | (aged 76)
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Augusta E. McKim (d. 1868) Angle Erickson Powell |
Signature | |
Alexander Hamilton Rice (August 30, 1818 – July 22, 1895) was an American politician and businessman from
from 1876 to 1879. He was part owner and president of Rice-Kendall, one of the nation's largest paper products distributors.Educated at
Early years
Alexander Hamilton Rice was born in
Rice was first educated in the Newton public schools, and then at private schools in Needham and Newton.[1][6] He first clerked at a Boston dry goods store, and then apprenticed in the Boston paper distributor Wilkins, Carter, and Company in Boston.[6] In 1840 he entered Union College in Schenectady, New York, graduating as class valedictorian in 1844.[7] He was injured in a fall from a horse in 1844,[1] which disfigured his face and gave him a speech impediment.[8] This prompted him to give up thoughts of pursuing a career in law, and he instead focused on business.[7] He was eventually able to overcome his speech problems, and later became well known as a commanding speaker.[9]
Business interests
After his graduation, Rice entered into partnership with the proprietors of Wilkins, Carter, forming what eventually became known as the Rice-Kendall Company.[6] The firm owned a large warehouse in Boston and was one of the leading paper distributors in the city. The warehouse was destroyed in the Great Boston Fire of 1872, but this did not significantly damage the business.[10] The company owned several paper mills in New England and distributed paper products to newspaper and book publishers nationwide.[11] Rice also invested in paper manufacturing operations, serving as president of both the Keith Paper Company in Turners Falls, Massachusetts and the American Sulphite Pulp Company.[1]
Early political career
In 1853, Rice entered local politics, winning election to the
Rice participated in the founding of the
Governor of Massachusetts
Rice refused to stand for reelection,
Legislation enacted during Rice's tenure included a child labor law mandating a minimum age of fourteen for factory work.[14] He generally supported legislation improving social conditions, but was unsuccessful in enacting a proposed reorganization of the state's major charities.[8] He also let stand the state's "local option" alcohol law, for which he was criticized by temperance activists.[24] He also chaired a committee formed in 1876 to oversee the rescue from demolition of the historic Old South Meeting House. As a result of the committee's work, ownership of the building was passed to a nonprofit dedicated to its preservation.[25][26]
One issue that had dominated Rice's race against Gaston in 1875 concerned the juvenile murderer Jesse Pomeroy. Pomeroy, then fourteen years old, had been convicted in December 1874 of first degree murder for killing a girl earlier that year, and had been sentenced to death. There was public clamor favoring his execution, especially after he attempted to escape from prison. Gaston, despite two rulings by the Governor's Council that clemency be denied, refused to sign the execution order, an unpopular move that probably cost him votes. Rice also refused to sign the execution order, but his Council eventually recommended commutation of Pomeroy's sentence to life in solitary confinement.[27]
Rice died at the Langwood Hotel in Melrose, Massachusetts, on July 22, 1895,[28] after a lengthy illness.[24] He was buried at Newton Cemetery.[29]
Family relations and legacy
Rice was married twice. In 1845, he married Augusta McKim, with whom he had three children before her death in 1868. He had one son by his second wife, Angie Erickson Powell of Rochester, New York.[6][30] His grandson Alexander Hamilton Rice Jr. was a physician and explorer in South America.[2][31]
The city of Boston named a school in Rice's honor in 1868. Later renamed the Rice-Bancroft School, the building, located at Dartmouth and Appleton Streets in Boston's South End, now houses residential condominiums.[32]
See also
- Timeline of Boston, 1850s
References
- ^ a b c d Carnegie, p. 43
- ^ a b Edmund Rice (1638) Association, 2011. Descendants of Edmund Rice: The First Nine Generations.
- ^ Fiske, Joseph E (1917). History of the Town of Wellesley. Boston: Pilgrim Press. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
- ^ Clarke, George Kuhn (1900). Epitaphs from graveyards in Wellesley (formerly West Needham.). p. 190. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
- ISBN 0-7884-1559-X. p. 440.
- ^ a b c d The American Stationer, p. 157
- ^ a b c d e Fullerton, p. 273
- ^ a b c d Moody, p. 534
- ^ Moody, pp. 534–535
- ^ Conwell, p. 31
- ^ Sweetser, p. 391
- ^ "A Catalogue of the City Councils of Boston, 1822–1908, Roxbury, 1846–1867, Charlestown, 1847–1873 and of the Selectmen of Boston, 1634–1822: Also of Various Other Town and Municipal Officers". City of Boston Printing Department. 1909. pp. 48 and 93. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
- ^ Koren, pp. 119–120
- ^ a b c Roe, p. 661
- ^ Toomey and Quinn, p. 38
- ^ Koren, p 140
- ^ Mallam, p. 37
- ^ a b Montgomery, p. 269
- ^ McClintock, p. 155
- ^ "Original Companions of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States – R". Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Archived from the original on 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
- ^ Conwell, p. 162
- ^ Abrams, pp. 158–161
- ^ Ware, pp. 387–389
- ^ a b Moody, p. 535
- ^ Halloran, p. 100
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Old South Meeting House". National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
- ^ Schechter, p. 257
- ^ Fullerton, p. 272
- ^ United States Congress. "Alexander H. Rice (id: R000193)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- ^ Bradford, p. 274
- ^ "ALEXANDER RICE, EXPLORER, WAS 80". New York Times. 24 July 1956. Archived from the original on July 26, 2013.
- ^ Sammarco, p. 56
Sources
- The American Stationer. New York: Redman & Kenny. 1895. OCLC 9834610.
- Carnegie, Andrew (1994) [1895]. Success And How To Attain It. New York: Cosimo Classics. OCLC 74942959.
- Conwell, Russell (1873). History of the Great Fire of Boston, November 9 and 10, 1872. Boston: RDS Tyler. OCLC 899768.
- Fullerton, Bradford (1908). "Alexander Hamilton Rice". Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society: 1890–1897. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. OCLC 13918119.
- Halloran, Michael (2001) [1998]. Boston's "changeful times" : origins of preservation & planning in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. OCLC 298104996.
- Koren, John (1922). Boston, 1822 to 1922: The Story of Its Government and Principal Activities During One Hundred Years. Boston: City of Boston. OCLC 4423132.
- Mallam, William (February 1962). "Lincoln and the Conservatives". The Journal of Southern History. 28 (1): 31–45. JSTOR 2205531.
- McClintock, Russell (2008). Lincoln and the Decision for War: The Northern Response to Secession. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. OCLC 233572740.
- Montgomery, David (1981). Beyond Equality: labor and the radical republicans 1862-1872; with a bibliographical afterword. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. OCLC 256374336.
- Moody, Robert E (1928). "Rice, Alexander". Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. 15. New York: Scribners. pp. 534–535. OCLC 37255176.
- Roe, Alfred (January 1902). "The Governors of Massachusetts". The New England Magazine. 25 (6). OCLC 1644447.
- Sammarco, Anthony (2005). Boston's South End. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press. OCLC 67511287.
- Schechter, Harold (2012) [2000]. Fiend: The Schocking True Story of America's Youngest Serial Killer. New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 46847410.
- Sweetser, Moses (1891). King's Handbook of the United States. Buffalo, NY: Moses King Corp. OCLC 484912.
- Toomey, Daniel; Quinn, Charles Thomas (1892). Massachusetts of Today: A Memorial of the State, Historical and Biographical, Issued for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. Boston: Columbia Publishing Company. OCLC 3251791.
- Ware, Edith (1916). Political opinion in Massachusetts during Civil War and Reconstruction. New York: Columbia University Press. OCLC 2502677.
Further reading
- Stimson, A. Lovett (November–December 1895). "Recollections of Ex Gov. Rice". The Bostonian. 3: 260–274.