Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-10-15
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Annals of Kauai, the Garden
Island-MOther Rice.

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Fairgrounds; the most prolific
semi-tropical spot under the flag,
a center of culture, educational
facilities, industry and natural
beauty; the hating spot for lux
ury ships touring the globe in
search of earthly splendofs-a
Pacific ocean oasis between the
Far East and the West and a fruit
and floral kingdom second to
none on the two henispheres.
Midst this archipelago of riches,
Kauai, in which pineapple and sug-
ar reign as twin monarchs, is known
as the Garden Island, upon which
$1,000 industrious and prosperous
people live contented lives.
1t was on Kauai that Captain
Cook first landed 1778 to meet death
the following year. 1t was 40 years
before this group of islands began
to attract world attention. Mission
aries arrived 1920; recognition by
the United States 1912; provisional
cession to Great Britain 1913; pro-
tectorate offered United States 1851;
reign of kings and queens up to
1898; republic established 1894;
American annexation secured 1898;
territorial government began 1900.
The first English newspaper was es-
tablished 100 years ago.
Rice Family Distinguished.
Lacking space in which to do JUS
tice to even the smallest percent
age of those countless noble and out
standing figures identified with the
development of Kauai, what re-
mains of this column I dedicate to
that benign character, Mary Water
house, born in Tasmania in July,
1847, died in June, 1888, beloved of
every man, woman and child, ma
tive and otherwise, living on Kauai.
To all of these she was known affec-
tionately as "Mother Rice" She
was the granddaughter of a superin-
tendent of the Wesleyan Missions
in the South Seas, from which she
came with her father in 1851 to
Honolulu, where in the course of
events Mary Warehouse in her
twenty-fifth year met and mar
ried William Hyde Rice, two years
her senior, the son of William Har-
rison Rice, teacher of the Aneri-
can Protestant mission to the then
Sandwich Islands.
Not in all the history of Hawai-
ians, since the arrival of peoples
from the outer world, had there
been a more profound student of
Polynesian life, manners and char
acteristics, or one more highly es-
teemed among them than William
Hyde Rice. He died in 1924. His
wife survived him nine years.
William and Mary brought up
eight children-fve sons and three
daughters-all save one daughter
living. There are twenty grandchil-
dren and twenty-three great-grand-
children, with three or four ex-
ceptions, all residing in the Hawai-
ian group. The adult progeny adorn
the professions while the younger
generation prove the adage that
"blood will tell" Blessed is the
union responsible for the Rice pos
terity. Kauai, to it's eternal credit,
has at least dozen families equal
ly distinctive.
Believed in Work.
"Satan finds work for idle hands
to do" was the text upon which she
fashioned the course of her life and
those about her. She kept every
body busy. With the true instinct of
a pioneer woman she recognized the
worth of labor. In her opinion hon
est toll, self-sacrifice and the doc
trine summed up in the golden rule
was the road to attainment. She
was mother to all. To her came the
lame, the halt and the blind; the
rich and poor, when in extremes,
certain that Mother Rice would not
turn a deaf ear, nor withhold coun-
sci. When the telephone came to
Kauai she turned it into voice
and an ear to widen the scope of
her action. Possessing Napole-
onic passion for detail, an insatiate
yearning for particulars, minor and
major, always with the single idea
of serving others, she became an
impelling force among the people.
Her purse, her heart and her
mind, always open to the needs of
others, seemed never to be drained
to emptiness. She founded schools,
libraries, hospitals, Fairgrounds,
kindergartens, when and where
needed. She discovered before it was
too late every weak link in the moral
and economic fabric of the island,
coming to the rescue without wait
ing to be called.
In her later years, stricken by
blindness, Mother Rice, accorded
the Thanking privilege over all lines
of communication throughout the
islands, telephone, telegraph, radio,
with every inhabitant a willing mes
senger, subject to her beck and
call, directed the movements of an
army trained and anxious to take
orders for the common good.
A birth or death occurring on
Kauai at any hour of the day or
night was first recorded in the ear