Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/89

 EEZE

RHEA

Lutlieran congregation at Deerfield, N.J., 1835- 36, and professor of Latin in Pennsylvania col- lege, 1836-50. He was married in June, 1838, to Anna Maria, daughter of John Swan. He was the first president of Capitol uni%'ersity, Colum- bus, Ohio, 1850-53: principal of a female seminary, Easton, Pa., and of a classical academy, Allen- town, Pa., 1853-57; president of Illinois State university, 1857-60; principal of a female semi- nary in Chicago, 111., 1860-64; was admitted to the diaconate and ordained priest in the Protestant Episcopal church by Bishop Whitehouse of Illi- nois in 1864, and was rector of various parishes in the diocese of Illinois until his death. He received the degree D.D. from Jefferson college in 1850. He founded and became editor of the Evangelical Magazine in 1840; edited the Lin- ncean Record and Journal in 1845, and established and edited the Evangelical Review, 1849-63. He was also the chief editor of the hymn book of the general synod in 1850, and an active member of its litux-gical committee for several years. He publislied American Literature, an address (1845); The Captivi of Plautus, with introduction and notes (1846); Inaugural Address as President of Capitol University (1850); Historical Address before the Historical Society of the Lutheran Church (1848); Inaugural Address as President of Illinois State University {lS'i8}; and translated with introduction and notes. History of Xew Sweden, by Israel Acrelius (1874), He died in Oak Park, 111., Sept. 5, 1876.

REZE, Frederic, R.C. bishop, was born near Vienenberg, diocese of Hildeshiem, Germany, Feb. 6, 1791; son of John Gotfried and Caroline (Alrutz) Reese and was baptized John Frederic Conrad Rese (Reese). Being left an orphan he was apprenticed to a tailor, and subsequently engaged in that trade until 1813, when he was drafted into the military service of his country. He served in the English Hanoverian campaigns, 1813-14, being a dragoon under General Bliicher at Water- loo. He was prepared for the priesthood in the College of the Propaganda at Rome, and ordained at Rome by Cardinal Zurla, prefect of the Pro- paganda in 1822, his name being thereafter written Frederic Reze. He served on the African mission, 1822-24, when ill-health forced him to retire. He accompanied Bishop Edwai-d D. Fenwick to the United States in 1825, became his secretary, and labored in the diocese of Cin- cinnati, devoting himself specially to the Ger- mans. He was sent to Europe by Bishop Fenwick in 1827, to secure German priests and financial aid, and returned in 1828 with several mission- aries, having been successful and instrumental in founding the Leopoldine society in Vienna, Austria, for helping poor missions in America. He went on a mission to the Indians in "Wiscon-

sin and Michigan in 1830, having been appointed vicar-general of these states; became adminis- trator of the diocese of Cincinnati on the death of Bishop Fenwick in 1832. and on Feb. 25, 1833, was appointed the first bishop of the diocese of Detroit, established, March 8, 1833. He was con- secrated at Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 6, 1833, by Bishop Rosati, assisted by Bishop Flaget and Coadjutor-Bishop David, and was the first bishop of German birth in the United States. He at- tended the 2d provincial council of Baltimore in 1833, and during his bisliopric founded St. Pliilip's college in Detroit, established academies there and at Green Bay, which he placed under the order of the Poor Clares, and opened scliools for the Indians. He also introduced the Redemp- torists into the United States. Although successful in his work he met with innumerable difficulties in his diocese, and becoming ill from a disease of the brain he was called to Rome and given a coadjutor in 1837, in the person of Peter Paul Lefevre (q.v.). Bishop Reze continued to per- form some duties at Rome, 1837-49, and was placed in the hospital of the Sisters of Charity, at Lappenberg, Germany, in 1849. He died in Hildesheim, Germany, Dec. 30, 1871.

RHEA, John, representative, was born in Ire- land, about 1753. He came to the United States with his father, a Scotcli-Irish Presbyterian min- ister in 1769; settled in Pennsylvania, and re- moved to eastern Tennessee, then a part of the state of North Carolina, in 1778. He was gradu- ated from the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1780, A.M. 1783, was a member of the Patriot force in the battle of King's Mountain in October, 1780, and was clerk of the county court of Sullivan county in the proposed state of Franklin, and subsequenth' in North Carolina, 1785-90. serving in the North Carolina house of commons and in the state convention that ratified the consti- tution of the United States, 1789. He was a del- egate from Sullivan county to the constitutional convention of Tennessee, 1796, serving on the committee that drafted the constitution of the new state. He was attorney-general of Greene county, 1796; a representative from Washington district in the lower house of the Tennessee leg- islature and doorkeeperof the house, 1796-97. and a legislation elector to select presidential electors in 1796. He was a Democratic representative from Washington district in the 8th-12th con- gresses, 1803-13, and from the first Tennessee dis- trict in the 13th, 15th, 16th, and 17th congresses, 1813-15 and 1817-23, serving for many years as chairman of the committee on postoffices and postroads. He was appointed U.S. commissioner to treat with the Choctaw Nation in 1816; was an intermediary between General Jackson and President Monroe in the memorable correspond-