Editing Rice Township, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
The first recorded white settler in the vicinity of modern-day Rice Township was Conrad Wickeiser in 1798. Samuel B. Stivers and William Vandermark were the first known white settlers in what is now Rice Township. Additional settlers entered the territory and constructed the first houses and [[sawmills]]. The first [[school]]house was erected in 1840.<ref name="pagenweb.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/patk/rice.htm|title=History, Rice township, Luzerne Co., Pa.|website=www.pagenweb.org|access-date=December 25, 2018}}</ref>

Rice Township was originally part of [[Hanover Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania|Hanover]] and [[Wright Township, Pennsylvania|Wright]] Townships. Hanover was granted to Captain [[Lazarus Stewart]] in 1770. On April 12, 1851, Wright Township was formed from a segment of Hanover Township; it was named after the Hon. [[Hendrick B. Wright]] of [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania|Wilkes-Barre]]. Rice Township was officially established in 1928 from a piece of Wright Township. In the 1920s and 30s, a major industry in Rice Township was the [[Ice trade|harvesting of ice]], which was sold in both Wilkes-Barre and [[Hazleton, Pennsylvania|Hazleton]]. The ice industry faded with the growing popularity of the electric [[refrigerator]].<ref name="pagenweb.org"/>