Alexander H. Rice

Infobox Governor
name = Alexander Hamilton Rice


order = 30th
office = Governor of Massachusetts
term_start = January 6, 1876
term_end = January 2, 1879
lieutenant = Horatio G. Knight
predecessor = William Gaston
successor = Thomas Talbot
birth_date = birth date|1818|8|30|mf=y
birth_place = Newton, Massachusetts
death_date = death date and age|1895|7|22|1818|8|30|mf=y
death_place = Melrose, Massachusetts
party = Republican
spouse = Augusta E. McKim (d. 1868) [citation |last=Hagar | first = Daniel B.|year=1884 |title=The Bay State Monthly, A Massachusetts Magazine of Literature, History, Biography, and State Progress. Vol. I No. II | page = 66 |publisher=John N. McClintock and Company |location=Boston, MA |date=February 1884] , Angle Erickson Powell [citation |last=Waters | first = Henry Fritz-Gilbert|year=1896 |title=The New England Historical and Genealogical Register Vol. L | page = 89 |publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society |location=Boston, MA |date=February 1896]
profession =
religion =
order2 = Member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 3rd & 4th district
term_start2 = March 4, 1859
term_end2 = March 3, 1863 (4th)
March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1867 (3rd)
predecessor2= Linus B. Comins (1859)
Benjamin Thomas (1863)
successor2 = Samuel Hooper (1863)
Ginery Twichell (1867)
order3 =15th Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts
term_start3 =1856
term_end3 =1857
predecessor3=Jerome V.C. Smith
successor3 =Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr.

Alexander Hamilton Rice (August 30, 1818ndash July 22, 1895) was Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts from 1856-1857, a U.S. Congressman during the American Civil War, and the Governor of Massachusetts from 1876–78.

Biography

Born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Thomas and Lydia (Smith), Rice received "business training in his father's paper mill at Newton and in a mercantile house in Boston". He graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1844. [http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~dav4is/people/RICE1049.htm "Alexander Hamilton Rice - Celebrity Relations"] Accessed April 13 2006.] Upon graduating, he became a paper manufacturer and dealer with Wilkins, Carter and Company in Boston.

In 1853 Rice was elected a member of the City of Boston's Common Council. He became the Chariman of the Common Council in 1854. [citation |last=Hagar | first = Daniel B.|year=1884 |title=The Bay State Monthly, A Massachusetts Magazine of Literature, History, Biography, and State Progress. Vol. I No. II | page = 66 |publisher=John N. McClintock and Company |location=Boston, MA |date=February 1884]

Rice served as the first Republican mayor of the City of Boston from 1856 to 1857. During his tenure, the area known as Back Bay was developed.

He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1859–1867, serving as chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs from 1863–65.

He died at the Langwood Hotel [citation |last=Waters | first = Henry Fritz-Gilbert|year=1896 |title=The New England Historical and Genealogical Register Vol. L | page = 89 |publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society |location=Boston, MA |date=February 1896] in Melrose, Massachusetts, on July 22, 1895.

References

External links

*CongBio|R000193
* [http://www.mass.gov/statehouse/massgovs/arice.htm Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography]
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