William Marsh Rice
b. 14 March 1816
William Marsh Rice, 1816-1900
- Father: David Rice
- Mother: Patty Hall
- William Marsh Rice was born on 14 March 1816 in Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts.
- In 1844, he became a commission and forwarding merchant in partnership with Ebenezer B. Nichols, a successful Houston businessman.
- William Marsh Rice and Margaret C. Bremond appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1850 in Houston, Harris County, Texas, enumerated next to the E. B. Nichols household.
- He married Margaret C. Bremond on 29 June 1850.
- He was a merchant, according to the 1850 census.
- The following appeared in the Houston Telegraph & Texas Register: Notice. From and after this date our business will be conducted in the name of W. M. Rice & Co., at this place, and in the name of E. B. Nichols & Co., at Galveston. W. M. Rice. E. B. Nichols. Houston, Aug. 2d, 1852.
- William Marsh Rice became a widower at the 13 August 1863 death of his wife Margaret C. Bremond.
- He married Julia Elizabeth Baldwin on 26 June 1867.
- Green Wood did a lot of business with William Marsh Rice and Ebenezer B. Nichols: first, the Houston mercantile firm of Rice & 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; and later Houston firm Wm M. Rice & Co. (from their billhead, "groceries, provisions and liquors, drugs and medicines, iron, steel, nails, castings, rope, bagging, &c &c") and Galveston firm E. B. Nichols & Co. (cotton factors and commission merchants). It appears that Green shipped his cotton to Rice in Houston who passed it on to Nichols to be sold. At some point, Marsh turned his railroad interests over to his brother Frederick A. Rice and business associates Abram Groesbeck and W. R. Baker, and moved to New York City where he remained until his death.
- William Marsh Rice died on 23 September 1900 at age 84 in New York City.
- William Marsh Rice and Ebenezer B. Nichols were partners 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.
- For additional biographical information, see The Texas Handbook Online.
- Last Edited: 28 Jul 2014