He was a direct patrilineal descendant of Edmund Rice an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Soon after he began to study law, first in Mayville, then with Millard Fillmore in Buffalo, was admitted to the bar in 1845, but did not practice.
[3] In 1847, he became the editor of the Buffalo Cataract, later renamed Western Temperance Standard.
On January 30, 1862, the 85th New York State Legislature elected Rice again as Superintendent of Public Instruction.
[2] Rice died suddenly on 17 October 1869 while returning home from New York City, and was buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo.