William Marsh Rice (March 14, 1816 – September 23, 1900) was an American businessman and entrepreneur who made his fortune in Texas. He is best known for leaving his fortune to fund the establishment of Rice University in Houston, Texas. His death in 1900 captured national attention, drawing widespread media coverage of the complex events surrounding it. Rice was murdered by his valet, Charles F. Jones, as part of a conspiracy orchestrated by attorney Albert T. Patrick. The goal of the conspiracy was to forge Rice's will and claim his fortune. Patrick was sentenced to death for his role in the plot.
Early life William Marsh Rice was born on March 14, 1816, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the third of ten children of David and Patty (née Hall) Rice. Rice left school at the age of fifteen to begin working as a general store clerk in Springfield. By the time he was twenty-one, Rice was operating his own store. Following the economic downturn caused by the Panic of 1837, Rice relocated to Houston, Texas, in search of new business opportunities in the new Republic of Texas. Upon arriving in Houston, Rice’s first business venture was at the Milam Hotel, where he provided and served liquor at the hotel’s bar in exchange for three dollars a day plus room and board. Rice’s plan to open a mercantile business in Houston was met with setbacks when his merchandise was lost at sea. He worked as a clerk to earn the necessary funds to continue his business ambitions. Rice received a license for his mercantile business in 1840 and took on Ebenezer Nichols as a business partner. They opened the Rice and Nichols general store in Houston, which was the foundation for what would later become William M. Rice and Company.
Later life Rice made his fortune by investing in land, real estate, lumber, railroads, cotton, and other prospects in Texas and Louisiana. In 1860, his total property, which included fifteen enslaved persons, was worth $750,000. According to the 1860 census, Rice was then the richest man in Houston. He invested in business firms in Houston; in 1895, he was listed in the city directories as "Capitalist. Owner of Capitol Hotel and Capitol Hotel Annex Building, President of Houston Brick Works Company." Rice was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Rice married Margaret Bremond, daughter of Paul Bremond (Houston and Texas Central Railway) and Harriet Martha Sprouls, in 1850 in Houston. The 1860 census places William and Margaret Rice in Houston's 2nd Ward. Clerks are also identified in the same census report; thus the location is most likely Rice's merchant business. Margaret was 16 years Rice's junior. She died, at age 31, in 1863 in Houston. Rice is also reported to have lived in Matamoros, Mexico, in 1863. Whether there is a connection to the timing of Margaret's death to his living in Matamoros is not clear. By 1865, he was reported as living back in Houston. While living in Houston, Rice served on the Harris County Slave Patrol. Rice lived in Houston until around 1865, when he moved to New York (but did not own a home there). He built a house on a 160-acre (0.65 km2) estate in Dunellen, New Jersey, and moved there in 1872. He became a resident of New York again in 1882. Rice married Julia E. Brown (nee Elizabeth Baldwin) on June 26, 1867. Baldwin was the sister of Charlotte Rice, the wife of William Rice's brother Frederick. In the early 1870s, his company built a railroad through the area of what is now the city of Rice, Texas (between Corsicana and Ennis, Texas). He donated land to the city for a church and a cemetery. On January 28, 1882, William Rice drafted a will, instructing the executors to pay over to the trustees, the Governor and the Judge, funds from his estate for the establishment of "The William M. Rice Orphans Institute." The next year, he began spending more time in Houston, reuniting with old acquaintances. After an 1886 or 1887 meeting with a C. Lombardi, Rice decided that the benefits of his wealth should be enjoyed by the children of the city where he made his fortune. In 1891, Rice decided that he would not establish an Orphans Institute at the Dunellen estate, but would instead found the William M. Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art in Houston, Texas. The Institute's charter was signed by all the original trustees, except for Rice, on May 18, 1891, and certified by the State of Texas the following day. Rice donated land to the now incorporated city of Rice located between Corsicana and Ennis, Texas. Rice's marriage to Elizabeth was "stormy", and during the 1890s, she consulted an attorney regarding the possibility of a divorce. She died "hopelessly insane" in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on July 24, 1896. Rice was an eccentric. In his later years, he ate no meat and rarely any vegetables. His diet consisted of bouillon and eggs.
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