James S. Rice

James Stephen Rice (1846–1930) was an American businessman and rancher who was a pioneering resident of Orange County, California and a civic leader in Tustin, California.

Early life and education in Ohio James Stephen Rice was born pm 31 October 1846 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Harvey Rice (1800–1891) and Emma Maria (Fitch) Rice (1812–1889). Rice was educated in the public schools in Cleveland and attended Case Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio, graduating with a BA degree in classical studies in 1866. Rice married Coralinn Frances Barlow (1849–1919) of Cleveland on 2 October 1872, and they had four children. From 1866 to 1877, he was in business with his half-brother Percival Wood Rice and his brother-in-law Proctor Rollin Burnett, who were proprietors of the Rice & Burnett Company, a crockery and home furnishing business in Cleveland.

Life and career in California The James S. and Coralinn Rice House on First Street (corner of Prospect), Tustin, California 1895 Rice and his family moved to Orange County, California, on 18 January 1877, first residing near the head of Newport Bay in one of the former ranch houses owned by José Antonio Andres Sepúlveda (1803–1875), the owner of Rancho San Joaquin. Rice began ranching by working for his brother-in-law James Irvine who had purchased the Rancho San Joaquin from Sepúlveda in 1864 and established the Irvine Ranch.

In 1878, Rice purchased a small tract of land from Peter Potts in the village of Tustin, shortly after Columbus Tustin laid out the first real estate plats, and he planted Valencia orange trees and Muscat grapes. A few years later, he purchased an additional tract of and expanded his lucrative agricultural operations. In the California real estate boom of 1886–87, he sold off all but of his land for development at $4000 per acre, allowing him to build a three-story home on his remaining property. Mrs. Coralinn Rice was a noted Orange County socialite frequently hosting performing artists including Helena Modjeska at their home in Tustin. Mrs. Coralinn Rice died in 1919.

Rice was active in politics in Orange County, serving as chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party Central Committee in the early 1920s.

The Rice family relations and genealogy

His eldest son, James Willis Rice, who was born on 24 August 1873 in Cleveland, followed his father as a rancher and fruit grower in the Tustin, California area. About 1910 James W. Rice married Ruebel Martin, daughter of John Henry Martin, a Nevada state senator from Douglas County, Nevada, and they had two sons: Harvey M. Rice (1913–1974), and James Willis Rice Jr. (1916–1996). James W. Rice Sr. died in 1951 in Tustin. was married to James Irvine, a San Francisco merchant and founder of the Irvine Ranch in Orange County. His brother-in-law (the brother of Coralinn), Charles Averill Barlow (1858–1927), lived in Bakersfield, California and was a U.S. Congressman from the Populist Party serving in California's 6th congressional district.

James Stephen Rice, son of Harvey Rice, (1800 – 1891), 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)