BENJAMIN HERBERT RICE, SR
Benjamin Herbert Rice, Sr., b December 6,1851 at Woodlawn Plantation,
Beaufort District, South Carolina, d November 18, 1918 and buried in Calvary
Cemetery in Marlin, Falls County, Texas - was the first child of Dr. Ulysses
Ashford and Mary Josephine (Buckner) Rice, who moved from South Carolina to
Georgia, where the mother died. After the father's second marriage, the family
immigrated to Texas after the Civil War.
In 1869, Benjamin entered the University of Virginia, and was initiated
in the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity. In 1871, he transferred to a Commercial
College in St. Louis, Missouri, where he prepared himself to accept a position
in Marlin, Texas in 1872. Later, he attended the Law School of Cumberland University in Lebanon,
Tennessee - graduating in 1877.
In the summer of that same year, he was
admitted to the Bar of Texas at Calvert, Texas - returning to Marlin to practice
law in the firm of Martin and Rice.
On April 6, 1887, Benjamin Herbert Rice was married to Mary Bowles
Carter, b June 8, 1865 in Cameron, Milam County, Texas, d February 20, 1959 in
Austin, Travis County, Texas and buried in Calvary Cemetery in Marlin - a
daughter of Captain Henry Gray and Mary Cleo (Williams) Carter. They established
their in Marlin.
Mr. Rice served with Mr. James Gameson as his Assistant County Attorney
before his marriage, and in 1878 was himself elected County Attorney of Falls
County, serving in this position until 1885 through five consecutive terms. He
then resumed a general law practice, and soon formed a partnership with Mr. Sam
Scott. In 1896, he was elected to the Office of Falls County Judge - presiding
on this bench until 1898, when he associated himself with Mr. Zenas W. Bartlett
as senior member of the firm of Rice and Bartlett. He built his office on
property purchased from Captain J. A. Martin in 1879 - located across from the
County Courthouse.
In 1907, Judge Rice was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Court of Civil
Appeals, Third Supreme Judicial District, in Austin, Texas; and in 1910, he was
chosen as his own successor by popular vote for the full term of six years. His
portrait now hangs in that Court. He served in that capacity until his death at
his in Austin, Texas.
While residing in Marlin, Judge Rice served for many years on the Marlin
School Board, and on the Board of Stewards of the First Methodist Church of
Marlin.
Benjamin Herbert and Mary Bowles (Carter) Rice, Sr. were the parents of
nine children:
Mary Cleo Rice who married A. P. Brogan, of Aus- tin, Texas; Benjamin
Herbert Rice, Jr. - later a Federal Judge - who married first to Betsey Mitchell
(called "Bess") - a daughter of William Henry and Margaret Lucinda (Chamberlain)
Mitchell, and had two sons, and married second to Mrs. Caroline (Peyton) Davis;
Nancy Rice who married Thomas Stokes; George Carter Rice who died in infancy;
John Percival Rice - a Dallas, Texas attorney; Emily Buckner Rice who married
Stanley P. Finch; James William Rice- who became a rancher; Mary Carter Rice -
who became Head of the Austin Library; and Mildred Elizabeth Rice who married
Jack Finks.
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 383 column 1 and 2.
Member of Falls County Historical Commission.