HON. ELMER A. RICEHON. ELMER A. RICE, lawyer and legislator, has made a most creditable record at the bar and in the council chambers of the state, his career reflecting honor upon the district which has honored him. He has been closely associated with constructive legislation that has shown the thorough familiarity with the needs and possibilities of the states in various lines and his labors have been far-reaching and beneficial in their effect. Mr. Rice was born on a farm near Alvarado, Johnson county, Texas, September 12th, 1874, his parents being W. A. and Frances (Claunch) Rice. The paternal grandfather, Elias Rice, located in Johnson county in 1861, saw service in the Confederate army and was with his parents in 1859, and settled in Johnson county, becoming a pioneer resident of this part of the state. The family home was established near Alvarado and there W. A. Rice was reared to manhood. His birth had occurred in Blount county, Alabama, and throughout an active business career he has followed farming, becoming a prosperous agriculturist who now makes his home in Ellis county. His wife is a native of Talladega county, Alabama. Elmer A. Rice was a public school student in the district schools near Alvarado and spent two years in the high school in this city, where he made a splendid record for scholarship. Subsequently he engaged in teaching school for three years, spending two years of that time in Johnson county and one year in Hill county. It was while teaching in the latter county that he was admitted to the bar at Cleburne in December, 1897, having studied law during the preceding five years, a part of which time was spent in the office of Ramsey & Brown, one of the most prominent law firms of Cleburne. Mr. Rice located for practice in Cleburne and has gained success at the bar, which numbers some of the strongest lawyers of Texas. He has won for himself very favorable criticism for the careful and systematic methods which he has followed. He has remarkable powers of concentration and application with a retentive mind and oratorical power. He stands high as an orator, especially in the discussion of legal matters before the court, where his comprehensive knowledge of the law is manifest, while his application of legal principles demonstrates the wide range of his professional acquirement. The utmost care and precision characterizes his preparation of a case and has made him one of the most successful attorneys of Cleburne. Mr. Rice has also gained honor and distinction in public life. In 1902 he was elected a member of the twenty-eighth legislature, representing the Seventy-third district and in 1904 was re- elected to the twenty-ninth assembly. In the former session he performed much valuable service for his district in the commonwealth, including the work which he did as a member of the state committee when it revised, passed upon and reported to the house the now famous Terrell election bill which became a law. In both sessions he was on the revenue and taxation committees, and in the twenty-ninth sessions he was also a member of the judiciary committee No. 1, the election committee and two other committees and was likewise chairman of the committee on commerce and manufactures. In the twenty-ninth general assembly he took a prominent part on the work of the committee on revenue and taxation, of which the Hon. W. D. Williams, of Fort Worth, was chairman. Mr. Rice was the author of the bill which became a law, fixing a period of limitation (ten years) on superior titles retained on vendor's liens and on deeds of trust--a law of special value in real estate transactions. Mr. Rice was also instrumental in securing the passage of the bill for the new Cleburne charter, permitting a city to issue bonds for certain improvements, and a special road law for Johnson county was likewise passed through his efforts. He took just pride in his work as committee on common carriers and was one of the few members to get up a minority report on the Southern Pacific merger bill. On the 23d of December, 1903, Mr. Rice was married to Miss Pauline Meredith, a native of Alvarado, and they occupy a very prominent and enviable social position in Cleburne. Mr. Rice is yet a young man and his ability gives promise of a successful future and still greater honors in public life. B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North
and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol.
II, pp. 26-27. |
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