William Hyde Rice

William Hyde Rice (July 23, 1846 – June 15, 1924) was a businessman and politician who served in the Kingdom of Hawaii, during the Kingdom's Overthrow, and in the following Republic of Hawaii and Territory of Hawaii governments. He collected and published legends of Hawaiian mythology. Life William Hyde Rice was born at Honolulu, Hawaii on July 23, 1846. His father was William Harrison Rice (1813–1862), and mother was Mary Sophia Hyde; both were Protestant missionary teachers at Oahu College (later Punahou School). At an early age Rice began to amass knowledge of Hawaiian culture, myths and legendsalong with his fortune. Like his father, he was a student of Hawaiian legends, especially the myth of Pele. In 1854 the family moved to Līhuʻe on the island of Kauaʻi. His father became manager of a sugarcane plantation, and in 1856, his father completed the first irrigation system for sugar for the Lihue Plantation in East Kauaʻi. He attended a boarding school at Kōloa, run by Reverend Daniel Dole. He then attended Oahu College, and Braton's College in Oakland, California. In Honolulu, on October 17, 1872, he married Mary Waterhouse (1847–1933), and had eight children: Son William Henry Rice was born June 24, 1874, married Mary Agnes Girvin on June 8, 1897, managed Līhuʻe ranch, and then became deputy sheriff in 1900 and sheriff of Kauaʻi county in 1905. He died in 1945. Son Charles Atwood Rice was born September 12, 1876, and married Grace Ethel King (1880–1940) on June 20, 1899. He served in the legislature of the Territory of Hawaii as representative from 1905 to 1911, and then in the Territorial Senate from 1913 through 1937. He died in 1964, and his daughter Juliet Rice Wichman (1901–1987) was co-founder of the Kauaʻi Museum. Son Arthur Hyde Rice (July 25, 1878 – November 2, 1955) married 1905 to Elizabeth "Bessie" Smith Forest (1883–1969) Daughter Mary Eleanor Rice (November 25, 1880 – January 22, 1923), married Walter Henry Scott (1873–1931). Daughter Anna Charlotte Rice (called "Daisy") (August 5, 1882–1948), and married 1903 to Ralph Lyman Wilcox (1876–1913) (who inherited part of Grove Farm from uncle George Norton Wilcox and grandson of missionary David Belden Lyman). Son Harold Waterhouse Rice (November 10, 1883 – June 5, 1962), attended Princeton for one year, and married Charlotte McKinney Baldwin (1884–1938) on December 7, 1907. She was daughter of Alexander & Baldwin founder Henry Perrine Baldwin.