JUDGE BENJAMIN HERBERT RICE, JR.

 

 

     Benjamin Herbert Rice, Jr., b December 12, 1889 in Marlin, Falls County, Texas, d March 14, 1964 in

Marlin and buried in Calvary Cemetery - was a son of Benjamin Herbert and Mary Bowles (Carter) Rice, Sr., and a grandson of Dr. Ulysses Ashford and Mary Josephine (Buckner) Rice and Captain Henry Gray and Cleopatra (Williams) Carter.

     On December 21, 1917 in New York just before Ben sailed to Europe with the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War I, he married Betsey ("Bess") Mitchell, b August 11,1891 in Blue Ridge, Falls County, Texas, d September 4, 1956 in Austin, Travis County, Texas and buried in Calvary Cemetery - a daughter of William Henry and Margaret Lucinda (Chamberlain) Mitchell, and a granddaughter of Memnon A. and Martha (Harlan) Mitchell and Alexander Hunter and Temperance Killingsworth (Aldridge) Chamberlain. Ben flew in air combat in France, and Bess resided in Oklahoma to be near medical facilities and the Commissary provided for the families of the fighting men.

     Ben obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree with the Class of 1913 at The University of Texas in Austin, and in 1914 was simultaneously awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Laws. He was admitted to the bar of Texas in 1913, and began his practice of law in Marlin. Bess attended North Texas State Teachers College in Denton, Texas, and became a certified teacher.

     After Ben's return from war, he and Bess made their in Marlin, Texas, where he resumed his law practice. They were the parents of two sons:

     Ben Herbert Rice, III, b September 18, 1918 in EI Reno, Oklahoma - married Judith Arledge Craddock, and had children.

     William Mitchell Rice, b April 23, 1923 in Marlin, Texas - married first to Nancy Claire Turner and had two daughters; married second to Dagmar Jannke and had two daughters and a son.

     In 1940, Ben H. Rice, Jr. won the bench as Chief Justice of the Tenth Supreme Judicial District of Texas; and in 1945, he was appointed by President Harry S. Truman, upon the recommendation of his friend, Senator Tom Connally, to the Federal Bench - being Judge in the Western District of Texas. With confirmation of the U.S. Senate, Ben occupied the Bench in San Antonio until his health began to fail. He was sworn in as a Federal Judge in a ceremony marked by extreme simplicity in Marlin, Texas, with the Oath of Office in the library of his former law firm on the site bought by his father for his law office in 1879. The oath was administered by his uncle and former law partner, Colonel George M. Carter, and his 80-year-old mother, his wife, Bess (Mitchell) Rice, and other members of the family were present.

     Bess (Mitchell) Rice was a beautiful, imaginative, artistic person whose yard was the envy of all who viewed the exquisite lawns and flowers. Their in Marlin was one originally built by D. R. Emerson, and after the Rice family moved, it became the A. H. Peterson home, and is now the of Marlin Attorney - Steve Johnson.

     Judge Ben H. Rice, Jr. married secondly in Lewis- burg, West Virginia in 1951 to Caroline (Peyton) Davis - daughter of Andrew and Martha Caroline (Stall- worth) Peyton and widow of her cousin, George N. Davis of Lewisburg. Caroline resides in her parents' in Marlin, Texas.

 

 

Copyright Permission granted to Theresa Carhart for printing the biographies of these Falls County Families to this Web page.
"Families of Falls County", Compiled and Edited by the Falls County Historical Commission, page 381 column 2, page 382 column 1 and 2, and page 383 column 1.  
Member of Falls County Historical Commission.