Henry Rice was born on November 29, 1816, in Waitsfield, Vermont. His parents were Edmund Rice and Ellen Durkee Rice. He went to school in Detroit and Kalamazoo, Michigan. He became a sutler at Fort Atkinson, Iowa. In 1847 he negotiated a treaty with the Winnebago and Chippewa Native American tribes. In 1848 he settled in St. Paul, Minnesota. He helped negotiate the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851. This opened up parts of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River to white settlers. In 1856 Rice, as a territorial delegate, worked hard to secure Congressional land grants for the railroads in Minnesota.