REV. JOHN REA

Reverend John Rea, the son of Joseph and Isabel Rea, was born in the village of Tully, Ireland, in 1772; emigrated to the United States when eighteen years of age. After remaining at Philadelphia, Penn., a short time, "left on foot," said he, "traveled mostly alone through the wilderness, sad, gloomy and dispirited, until after many days I arrived west of the Allegheny Mountains, stopping at the house of Mr. Porter, a Presbyterian minister," He now prosecuted the study of Latin, privately, which be had begun in his native land. To procure temporary means of support, he taught, first a night school, and afterward a day school In 1793, he married Miss Elizabeth Christy, of Westmoreland County, Penn, They had nine children, seven sons and two daughters, four of whom are still living, and one grandson, Rev. David Thompson, who is laboring in Jeddo, Empire of Japan, under the direction of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Mr. Rea felt it his duty, even after marriage, to finish his education, already commenced, and if it was the will of his Divine Master, to enter the work of the Gospel ministry; for at his conversion and public profession of religion, he secretly vowed to his God that if He spared his life and gave him strength and grace, he would dedicate himself to the work of preaching the Gospel of Christ. With faith in Jesus, and his eye ever fixed upon his future calling, he labored and struggled on amid many adverse circumstances, with untiring zeal and more than ordinary industry, he worked his way through a literary course of education, teaching school, and studying alternately, until he graduated with honor at Jefferson College, when it was but a small school kept in a log cabin near Canonsburg, Penn. Mr. Rea was among the first alumni of this college, and studied theology under the direction of Dr. John McMillen; was licensed to preach by the Ohio Presbytery, June 1803, and after some three months' itinerancy in the wilderness of Central Ohio, among Indian camps Land the few white settlements, he was appointed to supply the newly organized churches of Beech Springs, Crab-apple and vicinity; for included in the letter was the Nottingham appointment, then considered on the confines of civilization, but now in the midst of a well-improved and densely populated country. After preaching for one year, as stated supply of these congregations, a united call was made out and carried up to the Presbytery, from these churches, In the spring of 1805, for each one-half of the labors of Mr. Rea, which was put into his hands and accepted. He was immediately ordained and installed pastor of said congregations by the Presbytery of Ohio. The country settled up rapidly and his charges grew as fast, so that it soon became necessary to have the relation between the two churches dissolved, that he might labor all his time at the Beech Springs, with the exception that a portion of his services, at discretion, might be occupied in fostering those vines springing up on his borders; and so untiring and devoted was this servant of Christ, that, besides ministering to the wants of so large a church, he found time to be instrumental in raising up some six or seven separate societies, that went out as colonies from the mother church and are now self-sustaining and prominent congregations. Dr. Rea died of decay of vital powers, February 12, 1855, at his residence near Unionville, Ohio (among the people of his charge, with whom, in part, he first settled), in the eighty-third year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry, greatly and deservedly beloved and esteemed as a citizen, Christian and faithful preacher of "Christ and Him crucified." Whatever else he omitted, he never neglected due preparation for the pulpit; his sermons evinced research, invention and original thought. It might be truly said of him that he was everywhere a living example of a Christian minister. He taught both by precept and daily walk. Mr. Rea established the Nottingham Mission, in 1806, and served it at stated times from the beginning, until 1810, when all his labors were required at Beech Springs, where his pastorate continued forty-five years, and during all this time he was much beloved and appreciated by the people. The older members of the congregation were enthusiastically attached to him, both as a preacher and spiritual adviser, and well they might be, for he was untiring in his exertions for their well-being.