Joshua M. Rice, Lyons

JOSHUA MOODY RICE, son of Elijah and J Mary (Prescott) Rice, was born in New Hampshire on the 12th of July, 1807. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors were of English origin, and were among the earliest settlers of New Hampshire. The paternal grandfather was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and served under Washington during the whole of that protracted struggle. When our subject was nine years of age the family removed from New Hampshire to Manlius, New York. The son having acquired at the common school a rudimentary English education, was at an early age apprenticed to learn the carpenter's trade; he also learned the cabinetmaker's trade, at which he worked during the winter, when, owing to the inclemency of the weather, out-door work was impossible. He continued laboring with his father until 1829, when he was married to Sarah Ann, only daughter of Eleazer Gudney, and early in the same year located at Phoenix, Oswego county, New York, in the building up and improvement of which village he took an active part. Having met with an accident which incapacitated him from physical labor, he, some three or four years later, entered into the mercantile business, in which he was constantly engaged for the following sixteen years, and was not only burdened with the duties of his own extensive affairs, but at the same time held several public offices of trust and responsibility.

About this time, his brother having become somewhat involved pecuniarily, Mr. Rice purchased all his interests and started him in business in Lyons, Iowa, which business during the following year he took in his own hands, employing his brother as a clerk.

In 1856, having established himself permanently in Lyons, Iowa, he closed up his mercantile business in his former residence, and soon after entered upon several enterprises in different localities. He established one mercantile house in Fulton, another in Rochelle, Illinois, and still a third one in Thompson, Iowa. In all these various and extensive business enterprises he was remarkably successful, and the extent and variety of his transactions, and the admirable manner in which they were managed, furnish sufficient proof of his comprehensive intellect and thorough business capacity.

During the rebellion his business was greatly enlarged and extended, and he was enabled to reap immense benefits from his mercantile and also from other investments. Through the financial crisis of 1857, his sterling integrity, and indomitable energy and industry, carried him successfully and triumphantly, with his financial reputation unimpaired, and his business operations uninterrupted.

In 1861 he disposed of his several interests in the adjacent localities, and purchased the block where his store is now located. Here he continued doing business until his death, which event occurred on the 6th of September, 1874, at the age of sixtyseven years.

His widow, who has been an active and silent partner in most of his business career, survives him; and to her may be ascribed his first achievement in life. It was his wife's patrimony, and his own limited accumulations, that enabled him at the beginning to embark in mercantile pursuits.

Mr. Rice was emphatically a self-made man. He relied upon his own energy and industry for success; and in his life, as well as in his business career, he has verified the maxim that honesty is not only the best policy, but the only policy. Especially to the young men in his employ he has ever been a true friend and benefactor, and they remember him with affection and veneration.

He was a man universally esteemed and respected by all who knew him. In business transactions his advice was sought by his neighbors, and his loss is painfully felt in the entire community in which he resided. He was a public-spirited citizen, taking an active interest in every improvement calculated to benefit society. Kind, sympathetic and benevolent, he labored not only for himself, but equally for the benefit of others, as many a young man can testify who has been the recipient of his benefactions.

In religious matters, he was a liberal supporter of church organizations, although not a member of any denomination. He was an active and esteemed member of the fraternity of Odd-Fellows.

In politics, he was a decided republican, although not a partisan; he believed and had faith in republican institutions, and entertained principles in harmony with that party.

He possessed a delicate physique, the result of years of physical suffering. Yet, with all his lameness and other ailments, he endured labor, and rarely, if ever, failed to be attentive to the business duties of his vocation.

His remains are interred in the family burying ground, in the cemetery at Lyons, Iowa, and his grave is marked by an imposing monument, erected to his memory by his disconsolate widow.

Source:

The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Iowa Volume.

Chicago and New York: American Biographical Publishing Company, 1878