Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-02
HENRY M. RICE,
OF THE PIONEERS
Type of Wonderful Glass of Men
Who Went West and Built
Commonwealth in the
Wilderness

TT ISN'T so very long ago that Minnesota
i was pioneers country Congress has just
accepted for Statuary Hall statue of Henry
Mower Rice, who at % years of age went
West to Minnesota when Minnesota was a sort
of no mans land, an uneXplored wilderness
That was in 1882
In 1897 at Philadelphia, H. l.. Ellsworth
published "a Sketch of the State of Illinois"
The subtitle of the book was Suggestions to
Emigrants" During the thrties there were
many accounts of the West written by tray
elers, describing the facilities for trade fer
tlity of the soil and rapidity of the growth of
population This is today as very likely it
was then, one of the most interesting of these
descriptions.
The part with which we are just now con-
cerned is this Among the number of adj
vantages which the West has over the East
may be enumerated the following: In the East
the professions are monopolized by the older
members; in the West the responsible duties
of the professions are confded to the young
men.
Second In the West greater inducements
for the acquisition of a fortune being held
out by the farming or agricultural interests
and greater privations having necessarily to
be encountered, the number of professional
men is fewer than in the East and, conse.
auently, the field Is more ample
Third. In new country, everything being
to build up and construct, greater opportunity
is offered for the exercise of professional
talent.
Country of Young Men
Fourth The tendency of a new country be-
ing to develop and bring forward youthful
talent, exerts highly favorable influence
upon boldness, force and originality of in
teect.
'Now in the West the population is mostly
young consisting chiefly of youthful adven-
turers who have left their youthful homes
with the determination to reap the advantages
of a new country"
Rice was one of the enterprising emigrants
of the thirties. He perhaps, never read Mr..
Ellsworths account of the Western country;
but he felt the lure of Western opportunity
Indeed at the age of 10 he had reached the
territory of Michigan. First, however, he had
been born. That was in 1916 at Waitsfield,
VT Before he started out to make fortune
and fame he had gone through an academy
and studied law two years. Whether he was
thinking of fortune and fame at the time II is
hardly certain, but probably he was. Most
-oung men think Of these things at time
or another Henry Rice was ambitious. In
his early years in the region which is now
marked off by the States of Michigan, Wis.
consin and Minnesota he followed various oc-
cupations OF frontier country-surveyor,
post sutler of Fort Atkinson, agent of a fur
trading company fur trader on his own hook.
In lS49 he settled in ST. Paul. which until S45
had been a struggling village of some thirty
families of voyageurs and fur traders In 1S4S
Minnesota had been cut off from Wisconsin
and left without a government. Shortly after,
ward territorial government had been organ
lied. Rice soon became territorial delegate
to Washington, in which capacity he served
two terms of four years each. He procured
the passage of an act authorizing the framing
of State constitution preparatory to the ad.
mission of Minnesota into the Union. In 1858
he became one OF the first two Senators of the
new State Of Minnesota. A war Democrat he
strongly supported the Union cause and the
Lincoln policies. Back home in Minnesota he
was one of the prime movers in the building
of the first railroad in the State and the es-
tablishment Of a State university.
When Rice came TO Minnesota the country
was an unexplored wilderness There were
very few people except some soldiers at Fort
Smelling and a few missionaries, and In addi
ton 10 that the fur traders and their EN-
ployes. AS fur trader Rice became intimate
with the Indians and very popular with them
They looked upon him with favor. because he
always treated them fairly and as a conse-
quenee he was largely instrumental In secur-
ing their consent to the opening Of the coun-
try to white settlement When he came TO
the State in 1889 the whole country except
a little territory around Fort Smelling was oe.
cupied by nomadc bands Of Sioux and Chip
pewa Indians. The FIRST great problem Of the
embryo State was 10 secure those lands from
the Indians and 10 obtain the removal Of the
Indians therefrom. 10 this matter Senator
Rice Was very active ana eaieient re per.
haps had mere influences taaa ansnody esss