William Hyde Rice, Governor of Kauai

Biography

William Hyde Rice, Governor of Kauai was born on July 23, 1846, in Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States. His parents were William Harrison Rice and Mary Sophia Rice. He was a Farmer- Governor of Kauai, 11th Governor of Kauai.

William married Mary Rice on October 17, 1872 in Honolulu, HI, United States. Together they had the following children:

1. William Henry Rice;
2. Charles Atwood Rice;
3. Arthur Hyde Rice;
4. Mary Eleanor Kaonohilani Scott;
5. (Daisy) Anna Wilcox;
6. Harold Waterhouse Rice;
7. Philip LaVergne Rice;
8. Emily Dorothea Sexton.

He died on July 15, 1924, and was buried in Lihue, Kauai County, Hawaii, United States.

William Hyde Rice was born at Honolulu, Hawaii on July 23, 1846. His father was William Harrison Rice (1813–1863), and mother was Mary Sophia Hyde, Protestant missionary teachers at the Punahou School. At an early age, Rice began to amass knowledge of Hawaiian culture, myths, and legends – along with his fortune. Like his father, he was a student of Hawaiian legends, especially the myth of Paliuli, Garden of Eden.

In 1854 the family moved to Līhuʻe on the island of Kauaʻi. His father became the manager of a sugarcane plantation, and in 1856, his father completed the first irrigation system for sugar for the Lihue Plantation in East Kauaʻi. He attended a boarding school at Kōloa, run by Reverend Daniel Dole. He then attended Punahou School, and Braton's College in Oakland, California. In Honolulu, on October 17, 1872, he married Mary Waterhouse (1847–1933), and had 8 children.

In 1872, 26-year-old Rice formed Kipu Plantation and Lihue Ranch, purchasing the Kipu parcel from Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani for $3,000 to breed cattle and fine horses. His family became one of the top ten private landowners on the island.

Rice loved politics, serving in the Hawaiian House of Representatives from 1870–1890 and participating in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. He was appointed the last of the Governors of Kauai in 1891 by Queen Liliʻuokalani, whom he later helped to overthrow and place under house arrest. Rice adapted easily, serving his childhood friend Sanford B. Dole (son of his school-master), who was named President of the new Republic of Hawaii, in the senate from 1895–1898. Rice helped to draw up the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii (known as the "Bayonet Constitution").

Rice spoke the Hawaiian language as his first language and published a valuable collection of Hawaiian Legends, a reprint of which is available online from the Bernice P. Bishop Museum's Special Publications section.

William Hyde Rice died on June 15, 1924. Charles Atwood Rice took over the business at that time. Charles would serve in the legislature of the Territory of Hawaii from 1905–1937. Still in the Rice family, Kipu Ranch offers ranch tours to visitors.