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.