RICE, HARVEY, LL. D., Lawyer
and Author, was born in Conway, Massachusetts, June 11th, 1800.
When seventeen years of age he requested his father, who was a farmer,
to give him his freedom and allow him to acquire a liberal education.
This he achieved by graduating from Williams College, in 1824. From
college he went directly to Cleveland, where he had no influential
friends to aid him in his advancement. His worldly goods, all told,
were the plan suit of clothes he wore and three dollars in money.
Cleveland at that time contained but four hundred inhabitants. He
soon began to teach a classical school in the old academy on St.
Clair street, and also to study law under the direction of Rueben
Wood, a prominent member of the Cleveland bar. In two years he was
admitted to the practice of law, and at once formed a copartnership
with Reuben Wood, with whom he had read law. This partnership continued
until Mr. Wood was elected to the bench. In 1829, Mr. Rice was elected
Justice of the Peace, and in 1830 Representative to the Legislature.
Soon after this he was appointed an agent for the sale of the Western
Reserve school lands, which comprised a tract of fifty-six thousand
acres situated in Virginia Military District. He opened his office
in Millersburg, Holmes county, for the sale of these lands, and
in three years had sold them all for one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars and paid that sum into the State Treasury as a school fund
to educate the children of the Western Reserve, the interest of
which is now annually paid by the State for that purpose. In 1833
he returned to Cleveland and was appointed Clerk of the Common Pleas
and Superior Courts, and held that position seven years. In 1834
and 1836 he was nominated by the Democratic Conventions for Congress,
but was not elected, as the Democrats were in a small minority.
He was the first Democrat ever sent to the Legislature from Cuyahoga
county. In the House Select Committee for provisions, which are
still retained on the statute book. In the autumn of 1851 he was
nominated and elected State Senator by seven hundred majority. The
General Assembly met for the first time under the new constitution,
and new laws were to be enacted to secure to the people the practical
benefits of the great reforms which had been achieved by its adoption.
It was said of Mr. Rice, that he was always at his post. He took
an active part in establishing two insane asylums in the State,
and performed great service in forming a new system for the common
schools of Ohio." He introduced a bill to establish a State reform
school for juvenile offenders, which resulted in the establishment
of the Reform Farm School at Lancaster. In 1857, he was a member
of the City Council, and took a leading part in establishing in
Cleveland an industrial school, and was afterward active in extending
its usefulness. During the same year he introduced a resolution
to erect the Perry monument, which now graces the public park of
that city. The resolution made the cost to depend solely on voluntary
subscriptions of the citizens. As Chairman of the Monument Committee
he carried the object of his resolution into effect in three years
after he had introduced it. On September 10th, 1860, the anniversary
of Perry's victory on Lake Erie, the monument was inaugurated with
imposing ceremony. Mr. Bancroft, the historian, delivered the address.
By a careful estimate it is supposed that not less than one hundred
thousand people were in attendance. In carrying out the programme
the battle of Lake Erie was reproduced in a mock fight on the lake
in front of the city. Everything was a perfect success-the monument,
inauguration, and the crowd of interested spectators, who fully
appreciated the importance of the occasion. In 1861, he was elected
a member of the Board of Education, and was appointed President
of the Board. In 1862, he was appointed by the Governor, with the
approval of the War Department, Commissioner for Cuyahoga County,
to conduct the first draft made in that county during the late civil
war. While in the discharge of this duty five or six hundred men
appeared one morning to demolish his office and records. They had
heard that there had been unfairness in the draft, and were greatly
excited. Mr. Rice quietly sent to the military camp on the heights
for a detachment of soldiers, infantry and artillery, who came to
his relief and dispersed the riotous assemblage. To satisfy all,
he offered to have a committee appointed to investigate and see
that everything had been conducted justly in all respects. Two of
the men who had been instrumental in getting up the mob were drafted
on the spot. In 1867, he planned and erected at his own expense,
approved by the college authorities, a beautiful marble monument
in Missions Park, at Williamstown, Massachusetts, commemorative
of American Foreign Missions, originated by Samuel J. Mills, a religious
enthusiast-thus: in an outdoors meeting they were driven by a violent
storm to take refuge under a haystack; while there Mr. Mills suggested
the idea of missions to foreign heathen lands as a religious duty.
His companions agreed with him, and consecrated themselves in solemn
prayer to the great work. From this circumstance originated the
American Foreign Missions. The monument is erected on the spot where
the haystack stood. It is twelve feet high, surmounted by a marble
globe three feet in diameter, cut in map lines. The face of the
monument has the inscription, "The Field is the World," followed
by a haystack sculptured in bas-relief and the names of the five
young men who held the prayer meeting, and the date, 1806. The monument
was dedicated, July 28th, 1867, at Maple Grove, in the park, and
by special request Mr. Rice delivered the dedicatory address, which
was published in pamphlet form. In 1869, he visited California,
and became a correspondent for the papers; his "Letters from the
Pacific Slope; or, First Impressions," were ready by thousands with
deep interest. In 1871 Williams College conferred upon him the degree
of LL.D. He is widely known as the author of "Mount Vernon, and
other Poems," a volume of 250 pages, which attained its fifth edition.
In 1875, he wrote another volume, entitled "Nature and Culture,"
which has received a wide circulation. His natural abilities are
of a high order; his mind thoroughly disciplined and cultivated,
and although practising at the bar but a short time he won an enviable
reputation for legal ability, discriminating judgment and gentlemanly
deportment. He is a graceful and vigorous writer, and is well known
as an able contributor to some of the best periodicals of the day.
At present he is engaged in literary and other labors, especially
in attempting to promote the success of the reformatory institutions
of Cleveland. He has twice been married; first in 1828, and afterwards
in 1840.
