Charles Francis Rice

Charles Francis Rice (April 4, 1851 – October 2, 1927)[1] was a prominent minister and author. He was a member of the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 50 years, serving as a District Superintendent for five years and as President of the Massachusetts Federation of Churches for 10 years.[2]

Charles Francis Rice
Born(1851-04-14)April 14, 1851
Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedOctober 2, 1927(1927-10-02) (aged 76)
Medford, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materWesleyan University
OccupationMinister
OrganizationMethodist Episcopal Church
Spouse
Miriam Owen Jacobs
​
(m. 1875)​
Children
Parents

Early life and education

He was born April 14, 1851, in the parsonage of the Walnut Street Church in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the third son of the Reverend William Rice and Caroline Laura North. He attended Springfield High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Wesleyan University, graduating as Salutatorian in 1872. He was a member of the Eclectic Society, and Phi Beta Kappa. He received an A.M. in 1875 and a D.D. degree from Wesleyan in 1893. The Wesleyan archives have his journals in which he describes his college experiences during the early 1870s.[3]

Career

Teaching

He taught classics at both Springfield High School (1872–73) and Wesleyan University (1874–77).[4] In 1874, he worked in the Springfield City Library. While a faculty member at Wesleyan, he served on the committee on the Annual Examination and the committee on the Olin Prize. He also served as President of the General Alumni Association. His father William Rice was a trustee, and his brother William North Rice was a professor and an acting president of Wesleyan.[5][6]

Ministry

Rev. C. F. Rice was licensed as a member of the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873. He served as pastor at the following churches:

He was noted for serving the Wellington Church after his retirement, until his death in 1927.

Boards and Committee work

He was an incoming trustee of the New England Methodist Conference in 1902, and dealt with the results of unwise investments, which had cost the church thousands of dollars.[8] He was a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1904 in Los Angeles and 1908 in Baltimore, the Inter-church Conference on Federation in 1905, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, 1912, 1916 and 1920.

He served as president of the Massachusetts Federation of Churches from 1911 to 1921. In 1922, the federation honored his service in a special ceremony at King's Chapel. Speakers included his brother, Rev. Dr. William North Rice, president of the Connecticut Federation, and Lt. Governor Alvan T. Fuller.[9]

Rice was president of the Lynn Inter-church Union from 1918 to 1919. He was also director of the Federation of Churches and Religious Organizations of Greater Boston.[10] He was also chairman of the Conference Board Exam from 1897 to 1905, president of the New England Educational Society, president of the New England Conference Board of Stewards, and a member of the board of education of the M.E. Church from 1908 to 1912. He was also chairman of the board of managers of the New England Deaconess Association.

Other work

He wrote History of Methodism in Webster, Massachusetts, printed in the Webster Times in 1884. He hosted Methodist students from Harvard University in the 'Oxford Club' and presented a paper entitled Life in the Epworth Rectory in 1894.[11] Also in 1894, he delivered the Baccalaureate Sermon for Lasell Seminary in the Auburndale Congregational Church.[12] Part of his speech read:

There is a distinct purpose in the life of everyone. He is the great architect and we the builders, each having a part the great work, however trivial and inefficient our life may seem.

He also served on the visiting committee of the Boston University School of Theology, delivering communion at its Matriculation in 1905. Some of his sermons from Boston University chapel services are included in Noontime Messages in a College Chapel: Sixty-nine short addresses to Young People by Twenty-five Well-known Preachers, printed 1917.

He was a trustee at Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy and succeeded his father as president of its board of trustees from 1898 to 1912. He was a Republican, and a member of the Twentieth Century Club. He served as secretary for a Boston Wesleyan alumni group, and as secretary for the class of 1872. In 1916, he was listed as a donor to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Family life

He married Miriam Owen Jacobs (1863-1901) on August 25, 1875. She was the daughter of Dr. Horace Jacobs and Emily Owen Jacobs. She was educated in the Springfield public schools, and graduated with honors from Vassar College in 1874.

Together, they had five children; Laura Owen Rice, William Chauncey Rice, Horace Jacobs Rice, Paul North Rice, and Rachel Caroline Rice.[13] All three sons attended Wesleyan University. Laura Owen Rice attended Vassar College, and Rachel Caroline Rice attended Boston University. After graduating from Wesleyan in 1901, William Chauncey Rice received an A.M in Government from Yale in 1902. He then studied at Harvard, where he earned a law degree in 1908, and later wrote a dissertation on the decline of the Federalist Party in New England in 1912. Horace Jacobs Rice also graduated from Harvard Law School in 1908. Both were admitted to the bar and practiced law in Boston and Springfield respectively. Paul North Rice graduated from the New York Library School and became a notable librarian at the New York Public Library. Laura Owen Rice married The Rev. Dr. William Grant Seaman, who served as minister of the City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana, and as the president of Dakota Wesleyan University. Rachel Caroline Rice married Burton Howard Camp, who was a longtime mathematics professor at Wesleyan University.

The New York Times lists Rev. C. F. Rice and his brother Professor William North Rice as having sailed to Liverpool on the Cunard Line ship, SS Bothnia, and returned on the SS Catalonia in 1881.[14][15] C. F. Rice presented a sketch of his European trip at a meeting of the Essex Institute, in 1882.

In 1898 with William North Rice, he co-authored and published William Rice: A Memorial, a book about their father the Rev. William Rice.

In 1904, he and Laura O. Rice were listed as being at Camp Curry, at Yosemite in The San Francisco Call.[16]

On January 10, 1914, Rice hosted his son in law, Rev. William Grant Seaman, who preached at Winthrop Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Roxbury.

He died in 1927 at his home in Medford. His funeral was held at the Copley Methodist Church in Boston, and he was buried with family members in the Springfield Cemetery.

Genealogy

Charles Francis Rice was a direct descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows:[17][18]

  • Charles Francis Rice, son of
  • William Rice (1788–1863), son of
  • Nathan Rice (1760–1838), son of
  • John Rice (1704–1771), son of
  • Ephraim Rice (1665–1732), son of
  • Thomas Rice (1625–1681), son of

References
  1. "Collection of Autograph Letters by Author (P-Z)". BU School of Theology Library.
  2. "REV DR RICE PASSES AWAY AT MEDFORD". Boston Daily Globe. October 3, 1927.
  3. "Popcorn and Walnut Burn". Wesleyan University.
  4. "EPWORTH'S NEW PASTOR. Rev. Charles F. Rice Enters on his New Work—Sketch of His Life". Cambridge Tribune. April 22, 1893.
  5. Wesleyan University Publications ... 1869.
  6. Catalogue. Wesleyan University. 1869.
  7. Rice, William North (1898). William Rice, A Memorial – via babel.hathitrust.org.
  8. "CHURCH LOST BY SPECULATION; New England Methodist Conference Trustees Dropped $20,000 In Unwise Investments". The New York Times. 1902.
  9. "Dr. Rice's Leadership and Work Praised". The Boston Globe. January 24, 1922.
  10. Marquis, Albert Nelson (1915). Who's who in New England: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men ...
  11. "University Calendar". The Harvard Crimson.
  12. "At Church in Cap and Gown; Lasell Students Listen to Baccalaureate Sermon by Rev Charles F. Rice". No. page 12. Boston Daily Globe. June 11, 1894.
  13. Alumni Record. By Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.). 1911.
  14. "DEPARTURES FOR EUROPE". The New York Times.
  15. "Passengers Arrived". The New York Times. 1881.
  16. "WHERE SUMMER GIRLS LINGER". San Francisco Call. June 12, 1904.
  17. Edmund Rice (1638) Association, 2007. Descendants of Edmund Rice: The First Nine Generations.
  18. "Edmund Rice descendants: First six generations". Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Inc. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
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