Portrait of William Marsh Rice, undated, unknown artist.	Engraving of William Marsh Rice, by by E.G. Williams & Bro., New York, undated.

The Life of William Marsh Rice

William Marsh Rice was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 14, 1816. He was the third of ten children born to David and Patty Hall Rice. Little is known about Rice's childhood but records indicate that he worked for a while as a shopkeeper in Springfield before deciding to move to Texas in 1838.

Rice started out in business as a merchant in Houston, Texas. His first business partnership with a Barnabas Haskill was formed in 1840 but dissolved by 1842. In 1844 Rice became a commission and forwarding merchant in partnership with Ebenezer B. Nichols, a successful Houston businessman. By 1850 Rice's siblings began to follow him to Houston and assisted in his ventures. On June 29, 1850 Rice married Margaret Bremond whose father Paul was one of Rice's many business partners. In the census of 1860, Rice is listed as having $750,000 in real and personal property, making him one of the wealthiest men in Texas at the time.

On August 13, 1863 Margaret Rice died, possibly from cholera or yellow fever. Shortly after his wife's death, Rice went to Monterrey, Mexico and stayed there until August of 1865 when he returned to Houston. Later in that summer, he went to Massachusetts for business and did not return to Houston until 1866. On June 26, 1867 Rice married for a second time. His second wife was Julia Elizabeth Baldwin Brown, a widow and a daughter of Horace Baldwin, one of the early mayors of Houston. Elizabeth's sister Charlotte was the wife of William's younger brother Frederic.

Rice and his second wife moved to New Jersey to live with Rice's sister Charlotte and her family. Rice and his wife divided their time between New York City and New Jersey with occasional trips to Houston to oversee business.

During one of the Rices' visits to Houston, he was approached by Cesar Maurice Lombardi, who was interested in building a high school in Houston. Rice had been interested in endowing an educational institute of some kind, having revised his will twice previously to include a school for needy boys, first in New Jersey, then in New York City. After the meeting with Lombardi, Rice decided to fund an institute of higher learning in Houston. On May 19, 1891 the charter for the William M. Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art was incorporated in Austin, Texas. Captain James Addison Baker, William's brother Frederic, Houston businessmen Emanuel Raphael, Cesar Lombardi, James E. McAshan and Alfred S. Richardson were named as the first board of trustees.

Board of Trustees of the Rice Institute, 1911. (Back row, left to right: Benjamin Botts Rice, Edgar O. Lovett, Emanuel Raphael, William Marsh Rice, Jr. Front row: James Everett McAshan, Cesar Maurice Lombardi, James Addison Baker, Jr.)

In article two of the charter:

Elizabeth Rice's health began to fail in the early months of 1896. The Rices moved to Houston in April 1896, hoping the warm weather would improve Elizabeth's condition. On June 1, 1896 Mrs. Rice drew up a new will without her husband's knowledge naming Orren Holt, a Houston lawyer, as her executor. The will claimed that the Rices were residents of Texas (a community property state) and Elizabeth could bequeath half of the Rice estate as she saw fit. Rice moved Elizabeth to a hotel in Waukesha, Wisconsin shortly after the new will was signed. Elizabeth died on July 24, 1896 in Waukesha. Rice returned to New York City. In September 1896 Orren Holt, Elizabeth's executor, filed to probate Elizabeth's last will. Captain Baker, Rice's lawyer, informed Rice of the situation and a court battle began over the will. Rice disputed his wife's claim that she had been a Texas resident since this division of their estate would decrease what was available for the institute.

During the battle over the estate two lawyers became involved with the proceedings and would end up greatly influencing the final results. Captain Baker, a trustee of the Rice Institute, served as William Rice's lawyer. Albert Patrick, the other lawyer, was hired by Orren Holt in 1898 to investigate the residency question in New York City. There Patrick met Charlie Jones, Rice's valet. The two spent a great deal of time together and slowly a plan was formed. At first it seemed that Patrick was only interested in the settlement of the contested will and was looking for any way to win. He convinced Jones, in the spring of 1900, to start poisoning Rice with mecury pills as a way to avoid a court battle. By the summer of 1900 Patrick came up with the idea to forge a will that left the majority of Rice's estate to himself and small sums to relatives and friends. The forged will was dated June 30, 1900.

On September 8, 1900 a hurricane struck the Gulf Coast and one of Rice's businesses, the Merchants and Planters Oil Company, suffered severe damage. The business manager telegraphed that they needed money for repairs and the sum was most of what Rice had available in his bank account. Patrick was worried at the loss of such a large sum of ready cash and he convinced Jones to use chloroform to kill Rice. On September 23, 1900 Rice was murdered by Jones. Patrick, in his haste to get hold of Rice's cash, tried to withdraw money from Rice's bank using a check forged by Jones right after Rice's death. The bank refused to honor the check since Patrick's name was spelled incorrectly. When calling to verify the check with Rice, the bank learned that he was dead. Since the circumstances were suspicious, the bank contacted Rice's Houston lawyer, Captain Baker.

When Baker arrived in New York City, he learned there had been a new will written up by Patrick. Baker was suspicious of the will since Rice had never notified him of any changes to the one Baker had drawn up on September 26, 1896. This suspicion led to a long and sensational trial where Patrick's version of the will was exposed as a forgery and the scheme to kill Rice was discovered. Patrick was found guility of murder and forgery on March 26, 1902 and was sentenced to die in the electric chair. Jones, who confessed to his part of the events, ended up being released despite being the one who had actually committed the murder. Patrick's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the governor of New York, but eventually won a full pardon in 1912.

On February 6, 1902 Orren Holt settled the suit over Elizabeth's will for $200,000. After the trials and settlement, Captain Baker and the original Board of Trustees set about fulfilling Rice's dream to have an institute for higher learning in Houston, Texas.

Edgar Odell Lovett was hired as the first president of the institute in 1907.

Original plan of the campus as designed by Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, 1910.

On October 12, 1912, the William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Art and Science held its inaugural festival.

Photographs from this exhibit form part of the Rice University Archives, Photograph Files.