^ before he made that sign, just for fun here is a portrait of young elwood rice in the local dayton business journal — it’s an incrediblely charming olde fashioned read — we should go back to writing like this —
Business Men of Dayton 1905-1906
Elwood E. Rice to J. M. Zeller
Elwood E. Rice
MAKING DAYTON A METROPOLITAN CITY
Mr. Elwood Rice, whose portrait is herewith given, is one of Dayton’s leading young businessmen and this is concededly due to the fact that he learned the essentials of success and had the ambition and enterprise to apply this knowledge in a manner that would bring him the best results. By dint of his own exertions he has arisen, although quite young, until he occupies a plane that makes him the envy of many older and more experienced in business life, at least in point of years. The business in which he is engaged has for its object the illumination and metropolitanizing of the city of Dayton, and considering the short time in which he has given his attention to this worthy pursuit, he has achieved remarkable success. Mr. Rice is one of the R. R.’s, who has erected numerous brilliant electric signs for the Dayton merchants and manufacturers.
He is especially anxious that North Main Street shall have more complete illuminations in order that it may take on a more enlivening appearance. The firm, of which Mr. Rice is a member, consists of himself and Mr. V. E. Rumbarger, and is operated under the title of R. R. Sign Company. Mr. Rice made his first business venture in connection with the plaster business and is the father of the widely known and extensively used Rice’s Diamond Wall Plaster. In this business undertaking he was distinctively successful. However, he has the faculty of recognizing an opportunity when one is presented and pursuant to this capacity he embarked in the electric sign business, which is thoroughly modern and has a promising future and, as every one who is familiar with industrial conditions in Dayton is aware, he has made signal progress and his career has so far been such as to indicate that the future for R. R. Sign Company bears a roseate hue.
To any one accustomed to visiting Dayton only occasionally, there is perceptible a marked contrast owing to the improvement wrought through the more perfect brilliancy as the result of the many signs they have constructed. This firm’s reputation for building the finest and most snappy electric signs that can be produced is not confined to this city, but their reputation extends to the larger Eastern and Western cities, in which they have established a considerable business. In fact the R. R. Company has the reputation of controlling the model electric sign plant in the entire country.
Among the numerous signs which they have erected in this city are those that decorate the establishments occupied by the following companies: Green, Green & Company, G. W. Shroyer & Company, Elder & Johnson, Globe Clothing Company, Surprise Store, Harvey’s Tiger hat store, Byrne and Palmer, London Hat House, Hunter and Hardie, Dayton Lighting Company and numerous others, while many are now in process of construction for others of the most enterprising Dayton merchants and businessmen.
Mr. Rice’s prominence is not confined alone to the business sense, but he enjoys the same prerogative socially. He is a 32nd degree Mason and enjoys an intimate friendship with many of the best families of Dayton. He resides in his own modern home on Washington Street, which is adorned by an estimable companion and one bright little boy.
https://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/page/page/2114948.htm
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