Early Rice Institute records

These records include the original William Marsh Rice murder trial records, and the estate records of Rice, founder of Rice Institute, now Rice University. These records relate to the formation of the idea of the Rice Institute and the activities of its first Board of Trustees in the years before Mr. Rice’s death and to the Institute’s formative years just after his death. The outcomes of the legal proceedings documented in these records, which related to significant financial resources and real estate, played the critical role in the creation of Rice Institute. A small amount of Rice’s personal and business papers are also present.

See Series descriptions in the Detailed Description of the Collection for more information.

These cases are filed chronologically based on each case’s beginning date. Major cases include cases challenging William Marsh Rice’s late wife’s will and William Marsh Rice’s murder trial. Each generally includes correspondence, notes, and legal documents such as testimony, exhibits, trial documents, affidavits, releases, published versions of the trials, and newsclippings.

The first case is that of William Marsh Rice vs. Orren T. Holt, executor of Mrs. Elizabeth Baldwin Rice’s estate, 1896-1902, regarding Rice’s challenge to his wife’s will. This trial began while W.M. Rice was living and continued after his death. Mrs. Rice’s will assumed that the couple’s property was divisible equally under Texas’ community property law, and would have given away significant funds and lands, including the land on which Rice University sits today. W.M. Rice and his representatives proved that the couple were actually residents of new York and not Texas, making Mrs. Rice’s will essentially null. The lawyer for Mrs. Rice’s executor, Orren T. Holt, was Albert T. Patrick, who features as the defendant in the Rice murder trial. This case was settled in 1903 for $200,000.

The second case is William Marsh Rice’s murder trial, People of the State of NY vs. Patrick, 1900-1902. The evidence available here includes medical and handwriting experts’ testimony, as well as the original glass plate negatives of Rice’s real and alleged signatures used to prove Patrick’s forgery of the 1900 Wm. M. Rice will, which benefited Patrick greatly and essentially scrapped significant plans for the Rice Institute, thereby proving Patrick’s motive for the murder. Patrick was convicted and went to prison, but only a few years later was pardoned and released.

Adele Baldwin vs. W. M. Rice Jr. & executors of Rice will, 1886-1908, the last large case in this series, relates to Mrs. Elizabeth Baldwin Rice’s heirs challenging the executors of W.M. Rice’s estate and is essentially a continuation of William Marsh Rice vs. Orren T. Holt. In November 1905, the case was decided, then appealed. Attorneys included Arthur Turnure of NY, for administrators of estate of E.B. Rice; William B. Hornblower, Atty. for estate of Wm. M. Rice (Hornblower, Byrne, Miller & Potter, of NY); and Oran Holt, Houston representative for E.B. Rice estate, with A.T. Patrick as his NY legal representative (up until the time of his trial and incarceration).