# Henry Rice *Fur trader and Democratic politician; delegate to Congress from Minnesota Territory, 1853–1857.* Henry Mower Rice (November 29, 1816 – January 15, 1894) was a fur trader and a politician of the [[Democratic Party (United States)]]. He sat in the 33rd and 34th Congresses as the delegate of [[Minnesota Territory]], from March 4, 1853, to March 4, 1857.[^1] His biography credits him with lobbying in 1849 for the bill that created the territory. It also credits his work on the Minnesota Enabling Act, which Congress passed on February 26, 1857, as a step toward [[Minnesota]] statehood.[^1] In 1856, while he was serving as delegate, Rice was charged with corruption over whether he had used his influence in government, possibly illegally, to obtain land. He was not expelled.[^1] Rice is the named figure in one at-issue pair in the project's catalogue, which concerns the [[Lake Pepin Half-Breed Tract]]. The Minnesota Historical Society's MNopedia entry records that the 320,000-acre tract was authorized for conversion to scrip in 1854 at Rice's urging.[^2] According to the same entry, the scrip was distributed at [[Wabasha]] and Red Wing in 1857 and was later converted into Tahoe timber, Nevada silver land, California redwoods and Minnesota iron country.[^2] ## Who Rice was born in Waitsfield, Vermont, to Edmund Rice and Ellen (Durkee) Rice. Because his father died, he was raised from an early age by friends of the family.[^1] At eighteen he went to Detroit, Michigan. There he took part in surveying a canal route around the Sault Ste. Marie rapids, which separate Lake Superior from Lake Huron.[^1] In party politics Rice belonged to the faction of Minnesota Democrats known at the time as "Moccasin Democrats." The name came from his ties to the fur trade and to the supplying of Indian Agency contracts.[^1] Henry H. Sibley, also a Democrat, had been his trading partner. The two men broke in 1849 and were political rivals from then on, with Sibley in the party's non-Rice wing.[^1] Rice was a regent of the [[University of Minnesota]] from 1851 to 1859, serving on what is now the [[Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota]]. He was also president of the [[Minnesota Historical Society]].[^1] That society now publishes the MNopedia entry recording the 1854 scrip authorization at his urging.[^2] In March 1849 Rice married Matilda Whitall of Richmond, Virginia, and the couple lived in St. Paul. His brother Edmund Rice was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.[^1] ## What From [[Fort Snelling]], Rice traded furs with the Ho-Chunk and the Chippewa (Ojibwe). According to his biography, he played a central part in negotiating the 1847 United States treaty under which the Ojibwe ceded extensive lands.[^1] His biography lists further treaty work, in official or unofficial capacities:[^1] - the 1846 Winnebago treaty at Washington; - the 1847 Ojibwe treaties at Fond du Lac and Leech Lake; - the 1854 Ojibwe treaty at LaPointe, Wisconsin; - service as a United States Commissioner with the Ojibwe of Minnesota in 1887–1888. The biography also reports that Rice is rumored to have influenced the secondary negotiations with the [[Dakota]] at St. Paul. Those negotiations followed the Senate's revision of the 1851 treaties of [[Mendota]] and Traverse des Sioux. The record here does not establish that influence.[^1] In 1848 Rice helped organize the removal of the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) from the Neutral Ground in Iowa. In 1850 he received a federal contract to remove a second time those Winnebago who had not gone to Long Prairie, in Minnesota Territory, or who had scattered.[^1] ## When - **1830**: The Lake Pepin tract is set aside, according to the project's at-issue catalogue.[^2] - **1839**: Rice takes a position at Fort Snelling.[^1] - **1847**: Ojibwe land-cession treaty, in which he had a negotiating role.[^1] - **1848**: He helps organize the Winnebago removal from the Neutral Ground.[^1] - **1849**: He lobbies for the bill establishing Minnesota Territory, breaks with Sibley and marries Matilda Whitall.[^1] - **1850**: He receives the federal contract for a second Winnebago removal.[^1] - **1851–1859**: He serves as a University of Minnesota regent.[^1] - **March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1857**: He serves as territorial delegate in the 33rd and 34th Congresses.[^1] - **1854**: The scrip conversion of the Lake Pepin tract is authorized at his urging, according to MNopedia. The at-issue catalogue dates the conversion to July 1854.[^2] - **1856**: He is charged with corruption over land acquisition and is not expelled.[^1] - **February 26, 1857**: Congress passes the Minnesota Enabling Act.[^1] - **1857**: The scrip is distributed at Wabasha and Red Wing, according to MNopedia. The catalogue places the distribution in spring 1857.[^2] - **1887–1888**: He serves as a United States Commissioner with the Ojibwe of Minnesota.[^1] - **January 15, 1894**: He dies.[^1] - **1906**: A marble statue of Rice by Luella A. Varney Serrao is placed in the [[Minnesota State Capitol]].[^1] - **1916**: Minnesota gives the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol a marble statue of Rice by Frederick Triebel.[^1] ## Where Rice's Minnesota career began at Fort Snelling, near present-day [[Minneapolis]], and he later made his home in St. Paul.[^1] Lake Pepin scrip was handed out at Wabasha and Red Wing. It was later turned into holdings in the Lake Tahoe timber country, the Nevada silver fields, the California redwoods and Minnesota's iron-ore region.[^2] [[Rice County, Minnesota]], bears his name.[^1] ## How much The tract on [[Lake Pepin]] covered 320,000 acres.[^2] The project's at-issue catalogue describes it as roughly twenty-five miles by thirty-two.[^2] ## In the at-issue record The catalogue entry is pair AI-Dakota-091, filed in its section on founding instruments. It records the following:[^2] - The tract was set aside in 1830 for mixed-race Dakota citizens. - The land was converted to scrip in July 1854 at the urging of territorial delegate Henry Rice, then a Democrat serving in Congress. - The scrip was distributed in spring 1857 at Wabasha and Red Wing. The entry further records that sale of the scrip was nominally prohibited. It states that speculators nonetheless bought the scrip cheaply and converted it into timber, silver-rush, redwood and iron-ore land.[^2] The catalogue lists one source for the entry, a historical record on mnhs.org.[^2] The 1856 corruption charge concerned land acquisition, and it was brought while Rice was the delegate who had urged the 1854 conversion.[^1] The record does not establish whether that charge concerned the Lake Pepin scrip.[^1][^2] The catalogue pairs the entry with a May 2026 White House presidential action, *Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System*. The record here carries no text of that action, and this article draws no finding from it.[^3] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Henry Mower Rice* (revision 1373652182, retrieved 2026-10-27) — birth and death, early life, fur trade, treaty activities and Winnebago removals, 1849 territorial lobbying, delegacy 1853–1857, 1856 corruption charge, Enabling Act, party faction and Sibley rivalry, regency, Historical Society presidency, marriage, 1906 and 1916 statues, Rice County. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mower_Rice [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society, *MNopedia: Lake Pepin Tract* (n.d.) — 320,000 acres; 1854 scrip authorization at the urging of Henry Rice; 1857 distribution at Wabasha and Red Wing; conversion into Tahoe timber, Nevada silver land, California redwoods and Minnesota iron country. The project's at-issue pair AI-Dakota-091 cites an mnhs.org historical record for its added details: the 1830 set-aside, July 1854, spring 1857, the tract's dimensions and the nominal sale prohibition. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/lake-pepin-tract [^3]: The White House, *Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System* (presidential action, May 2026) — the anchor the at-issue catalogue assigns to pair AI-Dakota-091; no text of the action is in the record. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/