William B. Rice

William Ball Rice (April 1, 1840 – May 21, 1909) was an American industrialist who co-founded Rice & Hutchins, a shoe manufacturing company with main offices in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as president of the company from its founding in 1866 until his death. Early life and military service William Ball Rice was born April 1, 1840, in Hudson, Massachusetts, to Obed Rice (1810–1890) and Sarah Maria (Ball) Rice (1816–1895). Rice was educated in the public schools in Massachusetts and apprenticed as a shoemaker in Marlborough, Massachusetts, until he reached 21 years of age. He married Emma Louise Cunningham of Marlborough on October 25, 1860, and they had four children. From 1861 to 1864 he served in the Union Army as a second lieutenant in Company E, 5th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, serving in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and North Carolina. Between 1865 and 1866, he served as a sales agent to the U.S. military for the L. T. Jefts shoe manufacturer in Marlborough. Business career In October 1866, Rice and his partner and neighbor from Hudson, Massachusetts, Horatio H. Hutchins, began the Rice and Hutchins Shoe Company with sales offices in Boston, and a factory in Marlborough, Massachusetts. By the time of the company's founding, Marlborough had built a reputation in shoe and boot making to supply the Union Army during the American Civil War. In the first twenty years of the company, Rice and Hutchins established shoe factories in Warren, Maine, and Rockland, Massachusetts, four factories in Marlboro, Massachusetts, a factory in Boston, and their first wholesale distribution warehouse outside New England in Philadelphia. After Hutchins retired from the company in 1885, Rice led the further expansion of the company by adding more factories in Quincy, Braintree, and Yonkers, New York. He also expanded the distribution capability of the company by opening wholesale houses in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Chicago. He also was responsible for developing international sales by establishing offices in London, Berlin, and Manila. He led the initial incorporation of the company in 1892 under the laws of New Jersey, and later the reorganization and incorporation of the company in Maine in 1905. At the time of Rice's death in Quincy on March 21, 1909, the company was among the largest shoe manufacturers in the United States.