George Rice partnered with Jonathan Temple - sources provided by Bill Rosar:
a) An Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, California, published by Louis Lewin & Co., Los Angeles, Cal., Mirror Printing, Ruling and Binding House, 1876.
p. 19
"In the winter of 1832-33 a small party of Americans from New Mexico came over the Gila River route into Los Angeles. In this small party came Joseph Paulding, who, in 1833 and 1834, made the first two billiard tables of mahogony wood made in California. The first was made for George Rice, and the second for John Rhea, both Americans. Mr. Rice came to California about 1827, from the Sandwich Islands."
b) History of Los Angeles County, California, With Illustrations Descriptive of its Scenery, Thompson & West, Oakland, Cal., 1880.
p. 33
"George Rice, a native of New England, came to Los Angeles, about the year 1827, from the Sandwich Islands, and was for some time a partner of John Temple in the mercantile business. After dissolution of their firm, he continued in business on his own account in the block on Main Street, between Downey Block and the Cosmopolitan Hotel. About the year 1830, he married a lady names Lopez, in Los Angeles, and some five years later removed East with his family."
c) History of California, Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume V, 1846-1848, San Francisco, The History Company Publishers, 1886, p. 693.
"R.[ice] (Geo. Joseph), 1826, nat. of Mass., who came from Hon.[olulu] on the Rover. iii. 176; ii. 558; and settled at Los Ang. In '28 he made a trip to Hon.[olulu] on the Heros for his health, returning by L.[ower] Cal. and S. Diego, obtaining naturalization and a license to marry in '29. His wife was a Lopez, and he was for a time associated in business with John Temple, the partnership being dissolved in '32. I have several of his letters of '31-4. In the later years he kept a billiard-saloon, which he sold to Frna. Figueroa about '35; and he is said to have left Cal. for the east about the same time."
d) An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1889.
p. 111
"John Temple, one of the most prominent pioneers of Los Angeles County, arrived about 1827, and, forming a partnership with George Rice, opened the first store of general merchandise in the town, on Main street, where the Downey Block now stands. Dissolving partnership about 1831, Temple continued in the business till about 1846. George Rice, a native of New England, came to Los Angeles about 1827, from the Sandwich Islands, and for a time was in partnership with John Temple in the mercantile business; afterward he was in business in the block on Main streen between Downey Block and the St. Elmo Hotel. About 1830 he married one of the Lopez family. He went East with his family about 1835, and is reported to be dead.
e) Life in California, Alfred Robinson, The Doxey Press, San Francisco, 1897.
p. 273
"There were but two foreigners in the town at this time [1829], natives of New England, namely, George Rice and John Temple, who were engaged in merchandising in a small way, under the firm name of Rice & Temple."
f) The Quarterly: Historical Society of Southern California, September 1942, Vol. 24, No. 3., Pioneer Merchants of Los Angeles: Part 1
pp. 77-78
"In 1826, John Temple, a man bearing a name ever since honored in Southern California, arrived on the scene. In his first years of residence here, he signed himself 'Jonathan' but was better known as 'Don Juan.' In 1827, together with John [actually George] Rice, he started the first general merchandise business here, at the corner of Main and Temple Streets, on the later site of the Downey Block, and still later, of the Post Office."
g) The Lopez Adobe Blog (https://lopezadobe.wordpress.com/2013/01/)
Gerónimo and Catarina López and the 1836 and 1844 Censuses, Posted on January 21, 2013 by hriinc
"Jonathan Temple and Temple’s brother Pliny. Jonathan Temple, an arrival of 1828 in Los Angeles, opened the pueblo’s first general store and his younger half-brother, Pliny, became a prominent merchant and banker in subsequent decades. Jonathan Temple’s earlier partner in the store was George Rice, like Temple a native of Massachusetts. Rice married Gerónimo’s sister Catarina and the two moved back to Massachusetts where Catarina died in 1851."
h) Narciso Botello's Annals of Southern California 1833-1847, Brent C. Dickerson, iUniverse LLC, Bloomington, In., 2014
p. 116
"Mr. John Temple: Jonathan Temple, alias Juan or John, ... 1827, arrived in California, via Honolulu, on the Waverly; July 30, 1827, baptized as a Catholic at Mission San Diego; started the first general store in L.A.; 1830-32, engaged in trade in L.A. in partnership with George Rice, afterwards alone or with his half-brother F.P.F. Temple."
i) The Homestead Blog (https://homesteadmuseum.blog/2019/08/24/through-the-viewfinder-a-stereoscopic-photograph-of-buena-vista-street-los-angeles-ca-1872/)
Through the Viewfinder: A Stereoscopic Photograph of Buena Vista Street, Los Angeles, Ca. 1872, by Paul R. Spitzzeri.
Jonathan "Temple (1796-1866) was the second American or European resident of Los Angeles, settling in the pueblo in 1828 after leaving his native Massachusetts and spending several years living in Hawaii where he was a merchant. He became the first store-owner in sparsely populated Los Angeles and was situated at the northwest corner of where Spring Street ended at Main Street, first in partnership with fellow Massachusetts native George Rice and then on his own."