Rice, Edward Y.

Born: 1820-02-08 Logan County, Kentucky

Died: 1883-04-16 Hillsboro, Illinois

Edward Y. Rice was an attorney, county government official, and judge. Born near Russellville, Kentucky, Rice moved to Illinois with his family in 1835. He studied the classics at Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois, and studied law under John M. Palmer. After being admitted to the bar in 1845, Rice moved to Hillsboro, Illinois, to begin practicing law. At this point his law and political careers blossomed. A Democrat, He became recorder of Montgomery County in 1847. Soon after, voters elected him to the Illinois House of Representatives where he served in the Sixteenth General Assembly, 1849 to 1850. In 1851, Rice commenced his role as Montgomery County judge. Circuit court judge Charles Emerson then appointed Rice as master in chancery of the Montgomery County Circuit Court in 1853, where he served until 1857. At the conclusion of his master of chancery role, Rice was elected judge of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, where he would be reelected in 1861 and 1867. That circuit included Abraham Lincoln’s home county of Sangamon. Judge Rice presided over at least 470 cases in which Lincoln was an attorney.

Rice married Susan R. Coudy in 1849 in Montgomery County. In 1860 they had two children living with them, Isabella and Mary. At that time, Rice owned $6,000 worth of real estate and his personal estate valued $2,000.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1725-26; Louis L. Emmerson, ed.,Blue Book of the State of Illinois, 1923-1924 (Springfield: Illinois State Journal, 1923), 677-78; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 17 April 1883, 3:4; John J. Duff, A. Lincoln: Prairie Lawyer (New York: Rinehart, 1960), 364; John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:155; 2:987-89; The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men: Illinois Volume (Chicago: American Biographical, 1876), 276-77; Albert A. Woldman, Lawyer Lincoln (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1936), 109; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Montgomery County, 29 November 1849, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Hillsboro, Montgomery County, IL, 16; For Lincoln's cases with Rice, search Participant "Rice, Edward Y.," Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis, et al., eds., Title: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition , 2d edition (Springfield, IL: Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), https://lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Search.aspx; Gravestone, Oak Grove Cemetery, Hillsboro, IL. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.