Editing William Marsh Rice (section)

== Later life ==
Rice made his fortune by investing in land, real estate, lumber, railroads, cotton, and other prospects in Texas and Louisiana. In 1860, his total property, which included fifteen enslaved persons, was worth $750,000.<ref name=tsha/> According to the 1860 census, Rice was then the richest man in Houston.<ref name=Muir60>Muir, A. F. (1960). Railroads Come to Houston 1857-1861. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 64(1), p.54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30240901</ref> He invested in business firms in Houston; in 1895, he was listed in the city directories as "Capitalist. Owner of [[Post Rice Lofts|Capitol Hotel]] and Capitol Hotel Annex Building, President of Houston Brick Works Company."<ref name=thresher72/> Rice was a member of the [[Independent Order of Odd Fellows]].<ref name=tsha/><ref name=thresher72/> 

Rice married Margaret Bremond,<ref name=Ford18/> daughter of [[Paul Bremond]] ([[Houston and Texas Central Railway]]) and Harriet Martha Sprouls, in 1850 in Houston. The 1860 census places William and Margaret Rice in Houston's 2nd Ward. Clerks are also identified in the same census report; thus the location is most likely Rice's merchant business. Margaret was 16 years Rice's junior. She died, at age 31, in 1863 in Houston. Rice is also reported to have lived in [[Matamoros, Tamaulipas|Matamoros]], Mexico, in 1863. Whether there is a connection to the timing of Margaret's death to his living in Matamoros is not clear. By 1865, he was reported as living back in Houston. While living in Houston, Rice served on the Harris County Slave Patrol.<ref name=Muir64>{{Cite book|last=Muir, Andrew Forest.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/13345285|title=William Marsh Rice, Houstonian.|date=1964|oclc=13345285}}</ref>

Rice lived in Houston until around 1865, when he moved to New York (but did not own a home there). He built a house on a {{convert|160|acre|km2|adj=on}} estate in [[Dunellen, New Jersey]], and moved there in 1872. He became a resident of New York again in 1882.<ref name=thresher72/>

Rice married Julia E. Brown (nee Elizabeth Baldwin)<ref name=Ford18/> on June 26, 1867. Baldwin was the sister of Charlotte Rice, the wife of William Rice's brother Frederick. 

In the early 1870s, his company build a railroad through the area of what is now the now the city of [[Rice, Texas|Rice, Texas]] (between [[Corsicana, Texas|Corsicana]] and [[Ennis, Texas]]).  He donated land to the city for a church and a cemetery.<ref name=RiceTx>{{cite web|accessdate=2025-02-28
|url=https://ricetx.gov/city-history |title=City History - City of Rice, Texas |work=Handbook of Texas|publisher=TSHA|via=ricetx.gov}}</ref><ref name=thresher72/> 

On January 28, 1882, William Rice drafted a will, instructing the executors to pay over to the trustees, the Governor and the Judge, funds from his estate for the establishment of "The William M. Rice Orphans Institute." The next year, he began spending more time in Houston, reuniting with old acquaintances. After an 1886 or 1887 meeting with a C. Lombardi, Rice decided that the benefits of his wealth should be enjoyed by the children of the city where he made his fortune. In 1891, Rice decided that he would not establish an Orphans Institute at the Dunellen estate, but would instead found the William M. Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art in Houston, Texas. The Institute's charter was signed by all the original trustees, except for Rice, on May 18, 1891, and certified by the State of Texas the following day.  Rice donated land to the now incorporated city of Rice located between Corsicana and Ennis, Texas.<ref name=thresher72/>

Rice's marriage to Elizabeth was "stormy", and during the 1890s, she consulted an attorney regarding the possibility of a divorce. She died "hopelessly insane" in [[Waukesha, Wisconsin]], on July 24, 1896.<ref name=thresher72/>

Rice was an [[Eccentricity (behavior)|eccentric]]. In his later years, he ate no meat and rarely any vegetables. His diet consisted of [[Broth|bouillon]] and [[egg]]s.<ref name=InJournal1900>{{cite news|accessdate=
|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1900-10-15/ed-1/seq-5/ 
|title=New York's Mystery: Development's Following the Death of Millionaire Rice |page=5|work=[[Indianapolis Journal]]
|date=October 15, 1900|via=Library of Congress at ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov}}</ref> 

William Marsh Rice donated land to the now incorporated city of Rice located between Corsicana and Ennis, Texas.<ref name=thresher72/>