Rice
Rice, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settlers began arriving at this site in the late 1860s, mostly from the nearby settlement of Porter's Bluff, which had been devastated by a flood in 1866. By 1872, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, which bypassed Porter's Bluff, was routed through this site. One of the railroad's principal investors, Houston businessman William Marsh Rice (1816-1900), donated five hundred acres of land for a station and a townsite, which was named in his honor. The Rice Post Office was established in 1872. Cotton was the main crop of the area, and accounted for much of the community's business interests. One of the first businesses in Rice was a cotton gin, and the Rice Railroad Station was a major cotton shipping point. A train carrying Spanish-American War recruits came through the station in 1898, and the Liberty Bell passed through on a World War I Liberty Bond campaign. Early settlers of Rice included Isaac Sessions, who arrived in 1846; Texas Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Calloway Bartlett, who was Rice's first postmaster; and many Civil War veterans. The community's first school opened in 1875. Citizens voted to incorporate the city in a December 1912 election. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlers displaced by an 1866 flood at nearby Porter's Bluff gathered here, and when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad bypassed the old town and ran through this site, a Houston businessman donated five hundred acres for a station and townsite that took his name. Cotton drove the local economy, with one of the town's first businesses a gin and its depot a busy shipping point, while troop trains and a Liberty Bell tour later rolled through on the rails that had made the place.
Why it matters
Rice is a textbook case of how the railroad, not the river, decided which Texas towns lived and died in the late nineteenth century.
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Related people
- · William Marsh Rice
- · Joseph Calloway Bartlett
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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