Rice, Zachariah A.

Businessman, city councilman, and judge, of Atlanta, Ga.

Zachariah A. Rice (1822-1890) was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina on September 22, 1822. He was a pioneer white settler of Atlanta in 1847. He began his military career at the age of 15 when he participated in the removal of the Cherokee Indians. After returning from military service in 1839, he obtained a position as clerk in the general store belonging to Alfred Austell in Campbell County. Four years later, he opened his own general country store in Campbellton. In 1847, with H.C. Holcombe, he established Rice and Holcombe Merchandising Firm in the small village of Atlanta. He continued in this and other enterprises until 1850, when he journeyed to California and engaged in quartz and gold mining for four years, after which he returned to general trading in Atlanta. During the Civil War he served as a 1st Lieutenant in General T.R.R. Cobb's Cavalry Legion in Virginia. He was a participant in the Peninsula Campaign. He was promoted to Captain in December 1861, and to Major in 1863. He returned to Atlanta in 1864, and organized, along with J.M.C. Reed, a regiment of Georgia troops. He became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Georgia State Militia under the command of General G.W. Smith. His business interests after the war included a cotton spinning factory in Campbell County, the presidency of the Concord Woolen Mills on Nickajack Creek, real estate interests and farms in Cobb and Douglas Counties. Politically, he was a Whig before the Civil War and a Democrat afterwards. He was also a participant in the prohibition campaign. Rice also served as a member of the Atlanta City Council before the war and was elected to a two year term in 1884. He served as judge of the Inferior Court beginning in 1855. In the same year he married Louisa R. Green. They had two sons and three daughters. Zachariah A. Rice died on July 2, 1890.