Charles Rice (December 26, 1787 – November 20, 1863) was a brigadier general in the

Massachusetts Militia This is a list of militia units of the Colony and later Commonwealth of Massachusetts. * Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (1638) * Cogswell's Regiment of Militia (April 19, 1775) * Woodbridge's Regiment of Militia (April ...

, a

selectman The select board or board of selectmen is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States. The board typically consists of three or five members, with or without staggered terms. Three is the most common numb ...

in Needham, a justice of the peace and a member of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

Biography

Charles Rice was born in

Brighton, Massachusetts Brighton is a former town and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of Brighton. Initially Brighton was part of Cambridge, and known as " ...

on 26 December 1787 to John Rice and Mary (Lee) Rice. He married Lucy Mann of Needham on 23 November 1809, and they had no children. After Lucy Rice's death in 1819, Rice married Maria Jennings of Natick on 8 November 1820 and they had six children. Rice was an owner of a

planing mill A planing mill is a facility that takes cut and Wood drying, seasoned Wood, wooden boards from a sawmill and turns them into finished dimensional lumber. Machines used in the mill include the Thickness planer, planer and matcher, the Moulding plan ...

and a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

in the village of Newton Lower Falls in

Needham, Massachusetts Needham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census. It is the home of Olin College. History ...

and leased lands to other factory owners. Rice served as a selectman in Needham from 1825–1833, and was a leader in the Democratic Party in the town. He was elected to the

in 1829 and served until 1831. Rice served a militiaman in the War of 1812, and rose through the ranks as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Massachusetts State Militia from 1825–1827, and in 1828 became general of the brigade, serving until 1843. He was a prominent

freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

, and was a local justice of the peace. General Charles Rice and Emery Fiske are credited with the first proposal (1852) to separate Newton Lower Falls and other villages from Needham to form the town of Wellesley. Rice died in Needham on 20 Nov 1863, and he was buried at St. Mary's Churchyard in the village of Newton Lower Falls. General Charles Rice's nephew Alexander Hamilton Rice was a governor and congressman from Massachusetts.

Biography

References

See also