Chambers County AlArchives Photo person.....B. F. Rea 1893
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 15, 2004, 5:33 pm

Source: from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 633
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   B. F. REA, a leading physician of La Fayeette, Ala., is a son of Robert and
Jane (Smith) Rea, the former a native of Pennsylvania, born in Cumberland county
in 1775. He is a farmer by occupation. The family removed to Greene county, Ga.,
when he was but a small boy. He married in Greene county in 1818, and lived
there until 1845, when he moved to Alabama, settling at La Fayette in Chambers
county. Here he lived until his death, which occurred in 1852. His wife survived
him until 1878. He was a man of fine education, which he acquired mostly by
private study. He was especially well versed in astronomy and was quite an
authority on that subject, and as a mathematician few excelled him. He was
prominent in politics in his own state, representing Greene county for
twenty-three years in the legislature, serving during that time in both
branches. He was for many years one of the judges of the inferior county court.
He was a prominent member of and an elder in the Presbyterian church, and in
politics a whig. The Rea family are of Scotch-Irish extraction, Samuel Rea, the
grandfather of Dr. B. F. Rea, coming to this country a few years before the
Revolutionary war. He took an active part in the struggle, and after it was over
settled in Cumberland county, Penn. The Smith family is also of Scotch-Irish
ancestry, William Smith, grandfather of Dr. Rea, having come from near Dublin,
Ire-land, to this country with grandfather Rea. William Smith also took part in
the war of the revolution as an officer of high rank. The Smith family also
resided for a number of years in Greene county, afterward went to Tennessee. The
parents of Dr. Rea reared a family of four, three sons and one daughter, viz.:
B. F.; William S., deceased; Frances E., deceased wife of Rev. William H. Moore,
Presbyterian minister; Cornelius, of Lockesburg, Ark. Dr. B. F. Rea, was born in
Greene county, Ga., in November, 1819. He was reared in that county in
Greensboro and given a liberal classical education. He began the study of
medicine with Dr. T. W. Grimes of Greensboro, Ga., and remained a student there
two years, when he entered Jefferson Medical college at Philadelphia, and
graduated in 1842. During his two years in Jefferson college he was also a
private pupil of the great Dr. Robley Dunglison, one of the most renowned
physicians of any age. After his graduation he located for the practice of his
profession at his home in Greensboro, where he remained until 1852, when he
removed to his present location, La Fayette. During the war he was a surgeon in
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army. He was married in 1847 to Laura V. Gresham, who
was born in Georgetown, D. C., and reared in Greensboro, Ga., by whom he had no
children. She died of consumption in 1853, and Dr. Rea married, in 1855, Sarah
Williams, who was born and reared in Tuskegee, Ala. By her he has had the
following children: Ida, deceased; Carrie Lee, wife of Charles Schuessler of La
Fayette, Ala.; William R., salesman of Roanoke, Ala., Frances M., deceased; B.
Franklin, a physician of La Fayette, Ala., and Sarah, deceased. The mother of
these children died of typhoid fever in 1865. Politically Dr. Rea is a democrat.
He is a master Mason, and an elder in the Presbyterian church. He has served as
president of the Chambers county Medical society several years, and at the same
time, president of the board of censors. He has always been fond of languages,
and has never given up, or neglected, his Latin and Greek, as is too frequently
done by professional men, and he has devoted much time to the study of some of
the modern languages, and has given as much time to speaking and writing them
correctly, as to his own language.



Additional Comments:
Bio from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 632-635, published by Brant &
Fuller (1893)


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