William Hyde Rice (July 23, 1846 – June 15, 1924) was a businessman and politician who served in the Kingdom of Hawaii, during the Kingdom's Overthrow, and in the following Republic of Hawaii and Territory of Hawaii governments. He collected and published legends of Hawaiian mythology.

Life

William Hyde Rice was born at Honolulu, Hawaii on July 23, 1846. His father was William Harrison Rice (1813–1862), and mother was Mary Sophia Hyde; both were Protestant missionary teachers at Oahu College. At an early age Rice began to amass knowledge of Hawaiian culture, myths and legendsalong with his fortune. Like his father, he was a student of Hawaiian legends, especially the myth of Pele. In 1854 the family moved to Līhuʻe on the island of Kauaʻi. His father became 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 Oahu College, and Braton's College in Oakland, California. In Honolulu, on October 17, 1872, he married Mary Waterhouse (1847–1933), and had eight 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 served in the Hawaiian House of Representatives from 1870 to 1872 and from 1882 to 1884, and in the Senate from 1886 to 1890. Rice helped to draw up the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii (known as the "Bayonet Constitution") and was one of the 13 committeemen who forced King David Kalakaua to sign it. 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, participating in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. Rice then served 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 to 1898. 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 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 to 1937. Still in the Rice family, Kipu Ranch offers ranch tours to visitors.

Family tree