Santa Barbara County Biographies

J. H. RICE

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


J. H. RICE, an early pioneer of California, and a prominent developer of the Santa 
Maria Valley, was born in Rhea County, Tennessee, June 20, 1832. His father was 
a farmer and a prominent trader of that period, who, ever in the advance line of 
civilization, pushed to the front in 1842 and emigrated to Arkansas, where he 
continued farming. The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools, 
and remained at home until 1850. Then, "enthused" with the spirit of emigration 
and the gold excitement of California, he started across the plains with a mule team, 
and after a period of four months he arrived at Mud Springs, Placer County, August 10, 
1850. He then began placer- mining, and for one year shook the pan or rocked the 
cradle on the banks of the Yuba and Auburn rivers; but, meeting with poor success, he 
resumed the industry of his youth, farming, and to that end settled in Sonoma County, in 
November, 1851, taking the " squatters' " claim and carrying on general farming for 
sixteen years. While there Mr. Rice was married, November 19, 1854, to Miss Mary 
A. Long, a native of Ohio, and they have six children, five sons and one daughter. In 
1867 Mr. Rice removed to Monterey County, where he farmed for six years, and in 1873 
they removed to Santa Maria Valley, settling near Guadalupe. Through litigation with 
grant-holders, he deemed it wise to change his present location, which he did in 1874, 
and purchased from Martin Murphy 1,831 acres of the Punta de Laguna Rancho, at 
$4.10.per acre, a barren tract, unfenced and no improvements upon it. Mr. Rice 
immediately began substantial improvements, and his well-fenced and well-stocked 
ranch is now satisfactory evidence of his progressive ideas with his energy and ability. 
The first ten years he farmed in wheat, barley and corn; but in 1884 changed to sheep, 
cattle and hogs, and in 1886 began his present successful and well- managed dairy, 
consisting of 160 cows. He makes the " R " brand of butter, shipping only in rolls, and 
averaging 2,000 pounds per month. His present farming is for feeding purposes, raising 
eighty acres in barley hay, which averages three tons to the acre; forty acres of pumpkins, 
of twenty tons to the acre, and ten acres in corn, averaging thirty bushels to the acre. His 
ranch is very rich and productive. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.