Victor Moreau Rice (April 5, 1818 Mayville,

Chautauqua County, New York Chautauqua County is the westernmost County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the population was 127,657. Its county seat is Mayville, New York, Mayville, an ...

– October 18, 1869

Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida Na ...

, Madison County, New York) was an American educator and politician from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Life

Rice was born 5 March 1818 in Mayville, New York to state assemblyman William Rice (1787–1864) and Rachel (Waldo) Rice (1790–1854). He was a direct patrilineal descendant of Edmund Rice an early immigrant to

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...

. He graduated from Allegheny College in 1841, and then taught school in Mayville. Soon after he began to study law, first in Mayville, then with Millard Fillmore in Buffalo, was admitted to the bar in 1845, but did not practice. While studying law in Buffalo, he continued to teach school. On November 27, 1846, he married Maria Louisa Winter (1820–1916), and they had nine children.p. 390. R.L. Ellis (ed.), Edmund Rice (1638) Association. A Genealogical Register of Edmund Rice Descendants. Rutland, VT: The Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1970. In 1847, he became the editor of the ''Buffalo Cataract'', later renamed ''Western Temperance Standard''. He continued to teach school, and was City Superintendent of Schools, and President of the New York State Teachers Association. On April 4, 1854, the

77th New York State Legislature The 77th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 3 to April 17, 1854, during the second year of Horatio Seymour's governorship, in Albany. Background Under the prov ...

elected Rice to a three-year term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was a member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

(Erie Co., 2nd D.) in

1861 Statistically, this year is considered the end of the whale oil industry and (in replacement) the beginning of the petroleum oil industry. Events January–March * January 1 ** Benito Juárez captures Mexico City. ** The first steam-p ...

. On January 30, 1862, the 85th New York State Legislature elected Rice again as Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was re-elected in 1865. In 1868, he became President of the American Life Insurance Company, and later President of the Metropolitan Bank of New York City. Rice died suddenly on 17 October 1869 while returning home from New York City, and was buried at the

Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo Forest Lawn Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in Buffalo, New York, founded in 1849 by Charles E. Clarke. It covers over and over 152,000 are buried there, including U.S. President Millard Fillmore, First Lady Abigail Fillmore, singer Rick J ...

References

Sources

''The New York Civil List''
compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough, Stephen C. Hutchins and Edgar Albert Werner (1870; pg. 411ff and 493)
''Biographical Sketches of the State Officers and the Members of the Legislature of the State of New York in 1862 and '63''
by William D. Murphy (1863; pg. 38ff)
''OBITUARY; Hon. Victor M. Rice''
in NYT on October 20, 1869

External links

at Syracuse University * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Victor M 1818 births 1869 deaths New York (state) Republicans People from Mayville, New York Politicians from Buffalo, New York Allegheny College alumni Members of the New York State Assembly New York (state) Whigs 19th-century American politicians Burials at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Buffalo)