Early Rice Institute records

This collection contains Rice’s personal business records including account statements, receipts, bills of exchange, and deeds. Many of these records showcase his business relationship with his father in law, Paul Bremond. The items range in date from the late 1850s to the early 1860s.

William Marsh Rice was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 14, 1816. In the 1830s Rice moved to Houston, Texas, where he started out in business as a merchant and later would partner with a wealthy Houston businessman, Ebenezer B. Nichols, establishing William M. Rice and Company. In 1860 Rice was listed as one of the wealthiest Texas men at that time and in the same record it was indicated that 15 enslaved people were included as Rice’s property. Rice was murdered on September 23, 1900 by Patrick Jones. The Rice Institute opened on September 23, 1912 on the anniversary of Rice's murder, funded by his estate.

The original materials are held by the Woodson Research Center in Fondren Library. Search the finding aid/inventory for the Early Rice Institute records, UA 101.