Background
Henry Mower Rice was born on November 29, 1816 in Waitsfield, Vermont, the son of Edmund and Ellen (Durkee) Rice, both descendants of early New England ancestors. He was an elder brother of Edmund Rice.
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Henry Mower Rice was born on November 29, 1816 in Waitsfield, Vermont, the son of Edmund and Ellen (Durkee) Rice, both descendants of early New England ancestors. He was an elder brother of Edmund Rice.
He received an academy education supplemented by two years of law study.
At the age of nineteen he went to Michigan, where he was employed on a survey for the Sault Ste. Marie canal and in a mercantile house in Kalamazoo.
In 1839 he went to Fort Snelling, in what is now Minnesota, where he was engaged to manage a sutler's business, and the following summer he became post sutler at Fort Atkinson, Iowa.
In 1842 he went to Prairie du Chien to engage in trade with the Winnebago, and in 1847, after those Indians had accepted a reservation in Minnesota in exchange for their Iowa lands, he moved to Mendota, Minnesota, and conducted the trade with the Winnebago and the Mississippi Chippewa. The remarkable influence that Rice acquired with the Indians is evidenced by the fact that the Winnebago intrusted him with the selection of their new home. He was probably more influential than any other person in procuring the large Chippewa cessions in Minnesota.
He established his residence in St. Paul. By this time he had become one of the most prominent and influential men in the region. That winter he spent some time in Washington lobbying for the bill to establish Minnesota Territory, and it was due largely to his efforts that the bill was passed.
He was elected territorial delegate to Congress in 1853 and was reelected in 1855. With the admission of Minnesota as a state in 1858 he became a member of the Senate.
His term in the Senate ended in 1863 and in 1865 he was defeated as candidate for governor of Minnesota. His last important public service was performed as a member of the United States Chippewa Commission to carry out the provisions of the act of 1889 for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota. He served on the board of regents of the University of Minnesota and as president of the Minnesota Historical Society.
He died in San Antonio, Texas.
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Rice was a Democrat and while the Southern states were seceding he strongly advocated compromise and opposed coercion. Once convinced, however, that his constituents approved of the war, he gave it his hearty support and, as a member of the committee on military affairs, rendered valuable service in connection with the mobilization of troops.
Rice was ambitious, talented, and shrewd. "He divined with an unerring instinct the motives of men and parties, and knew when and how by appropriate suggestion to let them apparently move themselves towards his desired ends". His gracious manners, tact and address, and engaging personal presence won him popularity among Indians as well as among white men of all sorts and conditions.
On March 29, 1849, Rice married Matilda Whitall of Richmond, Virginia. Of his nine children, four survived him.