Charles Rice (December 26, 1787 – November 20, 1863) was a brigadier general in the

Massachusetts Militia This is a list of militia units of the Colony and later Commonwealth of Massachusetts. *Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (1638) *Cogswell's Regiment of Militia (April 19, 1775) *Woodbridge's Regiment of Militia (April 20, ...

, a selectman in Needham, a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and a member of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

Biography

Charles Rice was born in

Brighton, Massachusetts Brighton is a Municipal annexation in the United States, former town and current Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of ...

on 26 December 1787 to John Rice and Mary (Lee) Rice. He married Lucy Mann of Needham on 23 November 1809, and they had no children. After Lucy Rice's death in 1819, Rice married Maria Jennings of

Natick Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part of the Greater Boston area. ...

on 8 November 1820 and they had six children. Rice was an owner of a

planing mill A planing mill is a facility that takes cut and seasoned boards from a sawmill and turns them into finished dimensional lumber. Machines used in the mill include the planer and matcher, the molding machines, and varieties of saws. In the planing mil ...

and a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

in the village of

Newton Lower Falls Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The commercial area extends across the river into Wellesley, Massachusetts, where it is known as Wellesl ...

Needham, Massachusetts Needham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 at the 2020 U.S. Census. It is home of Olin College. History Early settlement Needham was first settled in 1680 with the purchase of a ...

and leased lands to other factory owners. Rice served as a selectman in Needham from 1825–1833, and was a leader in the Democratic Party in the town. He was elected to the

in 1829 and served until 1831. Rice served a militiaman in the War of 1812, and rose through the ranks as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Massachusetts State Militia from 1825–1827, and in 1828 became general of the brigade, serving until 1843. He was a prominent

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, and was a local justice of the peace. General Charles Rice and Emery Fiske are credited with the first proposal (1852) to separate Newton Lower Falls and other villages from Needham to form the town of Wellesley. Rice died in Needham on 20 Nov 1863, and he was buried at St. Mary's Churchyard in the village of Newton Lower Falls. General Charles Rice's nephew Alexander Hamilton Rice was a governor and congressman from Massachusetts.

Biography

References

See also