# Edmund Rice (politician)

Edmund Rice (February 14, 1819 – July 11, 1889) was an American politician. Rice served in the U.S. Congress in Minnesota's 4th District from March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1889.

## Early life

Edmund Rice, Jr. was born in Waitsfield, Vermont on February 14, 1819, to Edmund Rice and Ellen (Durkee) Rice, ethnic English whose ancestors had been in New England since the 17th century. His father, also named Edmund Rice, died when he was young and his siblings began to live in Michigan Territory. He acted the role of Big Brother to younger siblings. His brother Henry left Kalamazoo for the West about the time Edmund moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in November 1838 to study law. Edmund was appointed registrar of the court of chancery in 1841. He was admitted to the bar association in 1842 and commenced practice in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was appointed master in chancery in 1845. Rice enlisted to serve in the Mexican–American War in 1847 and was commissioned first lieutenant of Company A, First Regiment, Michigan Volunteers. He was the younger brother of Henry Mower Rice. He married Anna Maria Acker in Kalamazoo on November 28, 1848.

## Political career

In July 1849, shorly after Minnesota Territory was born, the Rices moved to St. Paul, , where Henry and his new wife had begun residence. Edmund became clerk of the Minnesota Supreme Court's third circuit the same year. He was elected as a member of the Territorial house of representatives in 1851. Rice practiced law in St. Paul, Minnesota Territory in partnership with George Becker and Ellis Whitall initially; Whitall left and William Hollinshead joined the firm which continued until Rice left in 1856 when he was elected commissioner of Ramsey County.
The following year, he became president of the Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Co., a job he held until 1863, when he became president of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad and of the St. Paul & Chicago Railroad. He served as SP&P president until 1872 and as SP&C president until 1877. In 1879, he became a trustee of the SP&P.
Rice was a director in a syndicate of investors in the young Superior, Wisconsin and held leadership roles for many years. He also speculatively bought lands for himself and for his businesses. The area north of St. Paul that included White Bear and French Canadian communities interested him.
Rice served in the Minnesota State Senate (1864–66) and (1874–76), and was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1867, 1872, 1877, and 1878. He was elected mayor of St. Paul and served from 1881 to 1883, was again elected mayor in 1885, and served until February 1887 when he resigned to take an office in the 50th United States Congress (March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1889).
In 1879, he was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Minnesota. Incumbent Governor John Pillsbury defeated him and was elected to a third term.
After being defeated in 1888, Rice retired from public and political activities. He died in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, on July 11, 1889. His body is interred in Oakland Cemetery in Saint Paul.

## Ancestry

Rice was a descendant of Edmund Rice, an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows:
* Edmund Rice, son of
** Edmund Rice (March 26, 1784 – May 27, 1829), son of
** Jedediah Rice (b. April 2, 1755), son of
   ** Ashur Rice (July 6, 1694 – August 20, 1773), son of
   ** Thomas Rice (June 30, 1654 – 1747), son of
   ** Thomas Rice (January 26, 1626 – 1682), son of
**** Edmund Rice (1594 – May 3, 1663)
He had 11 children. Ellen Rice, Jessie Rice, Annie Rice, Rachel Rice, Edmund Rice III, Stuart Rice, Sedgwick Rice, William Acker Rice, Maria Rice, Virginia Rice, and Philip Durkee Rice.
His daughter Jessi married Frank Hamilton Clark, a president of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad and a member of the Clark banking family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.