Henry Freeman Rice

Henry Freeman Rice (1818–1877) was an American businessman and silver miner who was a pioneering resident and civic leader in Carson City, Nevada. Early in his career he was associated with the express cargo services in Boston, Massachusetts. He later engaged in coal and transportation businesses in Cleveland, Ohio during the 1840s before moving to Carson City in the early 1850s to engage in silver mining. Although a member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed by President Grant as postmaster of Carson City and Superintendent of the Carson City Mint, and he managed the Wells Fargo and Company office in Carson City.

Early life and early career Henry Freeman Rice was born 31 July 1818 in Conway, Massachusetts to Stephen Rice (1769–1891) and Abigail Freeman Hamilton Rice (1812–1889). Rice began his career in the express cargo and insurance sales businesses in the 1830s in Boston before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in the 1840s with several of his relatives. He married Jennie E. Hume (c1820–c1887) of Maitland, Nova Scotia, Canada on 31 August 1853, and they had one son Harry Hume Rice (1854-1899) known as “Lightning Harry” for his skills as an aggressive locomotive engineer with the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. In December 1865, Rice had been appointed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch to be one of the commissioners to oversee the efforts to have a mint established in Nevada’s capital city. Despite being a registered Democrat, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Rice to be the postmaster of Carson City in 1869, as well as appointing him to be the second superintendent of the Carson City Mint in October 1870.

Later years and death The poor financial climate of the 1870s caused the failure of Rice's partnership securities brokerage house of Rice & Peters in 1877. Henry Freeman Rice was a direct patrilineal descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows:

Henry Freeman Rice, son of Stephen Rice (1769 – 1850) son of Cyrus Rice (1726 – 1804), son of Josiah Rice (1696 – 1730), son of Ephraim Rice (1665 – 1732), son of Thomas Rice (1625 – 1681), son of Edmund Rice (1594 – 1663)