Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/281

 HARYEY RICE Hakvet Rice is a native of Massachusetts. He was born on the eleventh day of June, 1800. Having graduated at Wilhams College, he emigrated to the West and settled at Cleveland, in 1824, where he opened a classical school, and began to read law in the office of Reuben Wood, afterward Governor of Ohio. In 1826 he was admitted to the bar, when he entered into partnership with Mr. Wood. In 1829, he was elected a Justice of the Peace, and in 1830 was chosen by the Democrats of Cuyahoga county, as a Representative in the General Assembly. The same year he was appointed agent for the sale of the Western Reserve School Lands, a tract of fifty thousands acres, situated in what is known as the Vii'ginia Military District of Ohio. He opened an office in Millersburg, Holmes county, and in the course of three years sold all the lands ; the avails of which, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, were paid into the State Treasury, and now form a part of the Irreducible Debt of Ohio, on which six per cent, interest is paid, for the support of Common Schools. In 1833 Mr. Rice returned to Cleveland, and was appointed Clerk of the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga county. In 1834, and again in 1836, he was the Demo- cratic candidate for Congress in the Cleveland District. He was the first Democrat sent to the Legislature from Cleveland, and by his efforts the first Democratic news- paper, published in Cleveland, was established. In 1828 it was known as the Independent News Letter. In 1829 Mr. Rice was the editor. It is now The Cleve- land Plain Dealer. In 1851 Mr. Rice was elected to the State Senate by a handsome majority over two competitors. He was therefore a member of the first General Assembly of Ohio, under its second Constitution — a General Assembly upon which devolved the respon- sibility of reconstructing the Statutes of the State. Mr. Rice was an influential mem- ber of the Senate. He was the author of the bill, which became a law, reorganizing the Common School system, and establishing new features — which the friends of popu- lar education declared to be of primary importance— among which may be mentioned the just recognition of the doctrine that the property of the State should educate the children of the State ; that the school system should have an authorized head, and that school libraries are expedient. Mr. Rice has been twice married. He is now a citizen of Cleveland, in the enjoy- ment of a well-earned income, which permits him, free from the cares of business, to give liberal attention to enterprises designed to promote moral reforms and disseminate intelligence. In early life he contributed frequently to leading periodicals, but for a few years past, has oftener revised the poems of other years than composed new ones. In 1859 he collected his poems. The third edition, enlarged, has been issued, in a handsome volume of 179 duodecimo pages, by Follett, Foster & Co., Columbus, Ohio. It is entitled '"Mt. Vernon and other Poems." ( 265 )