| Edmund Rice | |
| Image Name: | Edmund-Rice.jpg |
| Birth Date: | February 14, 1819 |
| Birth Place: | Waitsfield, Vermont |
| Death Date: | July 11, 1889 (aged 70) |
| Death Place: | White Bear Lake, Minnesota |
| State1: | Minnesota |
| District1: | 4th |
| Term Start1: | March 4, 1887 |
| Term End1: | March 3, 1889 |
| Preceded1: | John Gilfillan |
| Succeeded1: | Samuel Snider |
| Office2: | Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives |
| Term Start2: | January 2, 1877 |
| Term End2: | January 6, 1879 |
| Term Start3: | January 2, 1872 |
| Term End3: | January 6, 1873 |
| Term Start4: | January 8, 1867 |
| Term End4: | January 6, 1868 |
| Office5: | Member of the Minnesota Senate |
| Term Start5: | January 7, 1873 |
| Term End5: | January 4, 1875 |
| Term Start6: | January 5, 1864 |
| Term End6: | January 1, 1866 |
| Predecessor6: | James K. Smith |
| Successor6: | William Pitt Murray |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Spouse: | Anna Maria Acker |
| Children: | 11 |
Edmund Rice (February 14, 1819 - July 11, 1889) was an American politician. Rice served in the U.S. Congress in Minnesota's 4th District from March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1889.
Edmund Rice, Jr. was born in Waitsfield, Vermont on February 14, 1819, to Edmund Rice and Ellen (Durkee) Rice, ethnic English whose ancestors had been in New England since the 17th century. He moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in November 1838 to study law. He was appointed registrar of the court of chancery in 1841. He was admitted to the bar association in 1842 and commenced practice in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was appointed master in chancery in 1845. Rice enlisted to serve in the Mexican–American War in 1847 and was commissioned first lieutenant of Company A, First Regiment, Michigan Volunteers. He was the younger brother of Henry Mower Rice. He married Anna Maria Acker on November 28, 1848.[1]
In July 1849, Rice moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and became clerk of the Minnesota Supreme Court's third circuit the same year. He was elected as a member of the Territorial house of representatives in 1851. Rice continued to practice law until 1856, when he was elected commissioner of Ramsey County.
The following year, he became president of the Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Co., a job he held until 1863, when he became president of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad and of the St. Paul & Chicago Railroad. He served as SP&P president until 1872 and as SP&C president until 1877. In 1879, he became a trustee of the SP&P.
Rice served in the Minnesota State Senate (1864–66) and (1874–76), and was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1867, 1872, 1877, and 1878.[2] He was elected mayor of St. Paul and served from 1881 to 1883, was again elected mayor in 1885, and served until February 1887 when he resigned to take an office in the 50th United States Congress (March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1889).
In 1879, he was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Minnesota. Incumbent Governor John Pillsbury defeated him and was elected to a third term.
After being defeated in 1888, Rice retired from public and political activities. He died in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, on July 11, 1889. His body is interred in Oakland Cemetery in Saint Paul.
Rice was a descendant of Edmund Rice, an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows:[3] [4]
He had 11 children. Ellen Rice, Jessie Rice, Annie Rice, Rachel Rice, Edmund Rice III, Stuart Rice, Sedgwick Rice, William Acker Rice, Maria Rice, Virginia Rice, and Philip Durkee Rice.
His daughter Jessi married Frank Hamilton Clark, a president of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad and a member of the Clark banking family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.