Davidson-Franklin-Washington County TN Archives Biographies.....Rice, DeLong 1872 -
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Author: Will T. Hale
DeLONG RICE. Recently Democratic nominee for the office of state treasurer,
DeLong Rice is a Tennessean whose career was a remarkable rise from an
environment of limited opportunities to a place among the most influential
citizens of the state. Mr. Rice has long been familiarly associated with the
Rice Lyceum Bureau, which for years controlled and directed most of the
high-class artistic talent in its engagements through the South. Mr. Rice was
born on the top of the Cumberland mountains, not far from the historic town of
Winchester, Tennessee, in 1872. His parents were David C. and Maria J.
(Crabtree) Rice. The father was a country squire of the old school, a man of
robust body and mind, an ex-Confederate soldier, and a loyal Democrat. The
mother possessed unusual intelligence and exquisite gentleness, and the
influence of her early training and the ambition which she instilled in her son
were to no small degree responsible for his rise in the world.
The father's death occurred in 1898, but the mother is still living. DeLong
Rice was reared in middle Tennessee, amid the surroundings which are familiarly
associated with that country. He was a scholar in a little log school, and when
not in school had his hands on the plow or the hoe, or in the work of tilling
new fields. During one season he worked in an old fashioned brickyard, and then
for two years was fireman of the engine in his father's sawmill, and he himself
cut the fuel for the engine. He became thoroughly familiar with the business of
making lumber according to the somewhat crude fashion of that time, and he also
had an experience which gave him a thorough familiarity with the operation of
sorghum making, since he had charge of a sorghum mill for some time. This early
life was spent in the free open air of the mountain regions, and was helpful and
stimulating to mind and body, although the privileges and opportunities for
advancing into professional affairs were limited.
When he was fifteen years old he began driving a mule team with wagon loads
of lumber and other supplies from the mill to the town of Winchester. In 1888,
after his arrival with his team and wagon at Winchester, he found a greater part
of the population of the country district gathered to the public square, and on
a flag-draped platform stood a speaker whose name has now for twenty-five years
been synonymous with eloquence and statesmanlike power. This was Bob Taylor,
since known as Gov. Bob Taylor, and former United States senator from Tennessee,
and one of the great men of the past epoch. The eloquence of this orator filled
the young man, who was seated on his load of lumber, and both as an inspiration
at the time, and in the consequences which followed in later years, this was one
of the most important events in the early career of Mr. Rice.
At the age of seventeen, through arrangement made by his father, Mr. Rice
began the study of law in the office of John Simmons, one of the leading lawyers
at Winchester. A year later he entered the Winchester Normal College in order to
supplement the deficiencies in his early education, and while a student there
found time to master the art of shorthand. This latter accomplishment attracted
him to the field of business, and he soon afterwards accepted a place in
Chattanooga as a stenographer at $8.00 a week. The firm which employed him for
this work failed in three weeks, and the young man was left with a little money
and worse prospects in that city. Bob Taylor had just vacated the office of
governor, and had recently found a partnership for the practice of law at
Chattanooga. It occurred to young Rice that here would be an excellent place to
offer his services as stenographer. Though he had no friends to introduce, nor
any recommendations as to his ability, he recalled to the former governor how
three years before he had stood on the top of a pile of lumber in order to hear
him speak at the old town of Winchester, and in this way secured a favorable
hearing and began work the next day as a stenographer.
In the fall of 1891, Bob Taylor decided to go upon the lecture platform, thus
beginning a career which made him notable among platform lecturers throughout
the United States. Mr. Rice went along with him as secretary, and the following
year was appointed general manager of his lecture tours. From that point on Mr.
Rice's career has been on the plane of substantial success and gratifying
achievements throughout. In 1893 he was appointed by President Cleveland as
secretary to the government town site board, with headquarters at Perry,
Oklahoma, and for some time he was busy in connection with multifarious duties
arising from the settlement and opening of new lands in the territory of
Oklahoma. When his office term expired, he again took the management of the
Taylor lecture tours, and it was in no small degree due to the energy and
enterprise which he employed in this business that Bob Taylor became in time the
highest priced professional lecturer in the United States. Mr. Rice in 1900
organized and put in operation the well known Rice Lyceum Bureau. In this
business he has been content to deal with only the best talent, and at the very
start engaged the services of some of the most noted and highest priced
entertainers in New York City and elsewhere. In many ways he revolutionized some
of the old Lyceum methods, and conducted the bureau in such, way as to make it a
great educational source throughout the South.
In 1910 and again in 1912 Mr. Rice was the nominee of the Democratic party
for the office of state treasurer, having received that honor by gratifying
pluralities in the primary election.
In 1897 Mr. Rice married Miss Mary Carr of Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional Comments:
From:
A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in
commerce, industry and modern activities
by Will T. Hale
Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913
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