[1] With changes in circus venues and popular culture after the Civil War, his fame has gradually slipped into such historical obscurity that in 2001 biographer David Carlyon called him "the most famous man you've never heard of".

[1] He began performing in 1841, when he got a job of presenting a pig named Sybil whose tricks included a supposed ability to tell time.

"Rice was not simply funnier than other clowns; he was different, mingling jokes, solemn thoughts, civic observations, and songs.

[1] He won the affection of many newspapers and publicists, including those of a then unknown Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.

[1] He died almost penniless in 1900 and is buried in the Old First Methodist Church cemetery in West Long Branch, New Jersey.

The small town of Girard, Pennsylvania, where Rice had a home and lived for many years, also housed his circus animals.