William Marsh Rice (March 14, 1816 – September 23, 1900) was an American businessman and entrepreneur who made his fortune in Texas. He is best known for leaving his fortune to fund the establishment of Rice University in Houston, Texas.

His death in 1900 captured national attention, drawing widespread media coverage of the complex events surrounding it.

Rice left school at the age of fifteen to begin working as a general store clerk in Springfield.

Later life

Rice made his fortune by investing in land, real estate, lumber, railroads, cotton, and other prospects in Texas and Louisiana. In 1860, his total property, which included fifteen enslaved persons, was worth $750,000. He invested in business firms in Houston; in 1895, he was listed in the city directories as "Capitalist. Owner of Capitol Hotel and Capitol Hotel Annex Building, President of Houston Brick Works Company."

Rice lived in Houston until around 1865, when he moved to New York (but did not own a home there). He built a house on a estate in Dunellen, New Jersey, and moved there in 1872. He became a resident of New York again in 1882.

Death and scandal

In 1893, Rice made a new will, naming as executors Captain James A. Baker (a lawyer who often worked for him), William M. Rice Jr. (his nephew), and John D. Bartine. The value of Rice's estate at the time was estimated at about $4.6 million (equivalent to $ million in ).

The new will stipulated his estate was to be divided into two equal parts. One half was go to the creation of the Rice Institute, and the other half was to be divided such that 50% would go to wife Elizabeth Baldwin Rice, and the remaining 50% would be distributed to his four other beneficiaries. Soon, Patrick made an announcement that Rice had changed his will right before his death, leaving the bulk of his fortune to Patrick rather than to his Institute. A subsequent investigation led by the District Attorney of New York resulted in the arrests of Patrick and of Jones, who had been persuaded to administer chloroform to Rice while he slept.

Court testimony would later show that Jones and Patrick had conspired to murder Rice on September 23. The will was proved a forgery. Patrick was sentenced to death, spending four years on death row at Sing Sing Prison before having his sentence commuted by Governor Frank Higgins in 1906. He received a full pardon from Governor John A. Dix six years later. Patrick died in Tulsa, Oklahoma on February 11, 1940, aged 74.

Charles Jones was given freedom in exchange for his confession and testimony against Patrick. After the trial, he remained in seclusion until November 16, 1954. On that date, at age 79, he died by suicide in Baytown, Texas, where he lived.

thumb|right|upright=.7|Statue of William Marsh Rice at [[Rice University, sculpted by John Angel.]]

Rice's body was eventually cremated, and the urn of his ashes was kept in the vault of the business office of the Trustees of the Institute until it was deposited beneath the monument erected in his memory on the campus of the Institute.

Legacy

Rice left the bulk of his estate to the founding of a free institute of higher education in Houston, Texas. Opening in 1912 as William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art, it is known today as Rice University. In his will, Rice mandated that the university to bear his name would be for "the white men and women of Houston." This request was eventually overruled, and Raymond L. Johnson Rice University's first black student was admitted in 1964.

The Rice School in Houston is also named after William Marsh Rice.

A film, The Trust, depicts the story of William Marsh Rice's murder and the role of his attorney, James A. Baker Sr., in uncovering the truth.

References

  • Guide to the William M. Rice family collection, 1880–1941 (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA)