Americus Vespucius RICE, Congress, OH (1835-1904)

RICE, Americus Vespucius, a Representative from Ohio; born in Perryville, Ashland County, Ohio, on November 18, 1835; pursued classical studies; attended Antioch College and was graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1860; studied law; commissioned as captain in the Twenty-first Ohio Infantry April 27, 1861, and promoted through the ranks to brigadier general in 1865; manager of a private banking house in Ottawa, Ohio; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1872; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1879); chairman, Committee on Invalid Pensions (Forty-fifth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1878; president of A.V. Rice & Co., a banking concern of Ottawa; director in various business enterprises; appointed pension agent for Ohio in 1893 and served from May 1, 1894, until the fall of 1898; moved to Washington, D.C., in 1899 and engaged in banking and various other enterprises; appointed purchasing agent of the United States Census Bureau, which position he held at the time of his death in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1904; interment in Arlington National Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present