Biographical Sketch of Hon. David Rea - Andrew County, Missouri

>From "History of Missouri, Andrew & DeKalb County" Published 1888

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Transcribed by: Penny Harrell (Incog3678@aol.com)

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Hon. David Rea was born in Ripley County, IN., January 19, 1831, and is
the eldest of a family of ten children born to Jonathan and Lurana
(Breeden) Rea, natives of Mecklenburg County, N.C., and Kentucky re-
spectively, and born in 1805 and 1813.  The mother was a daughter of
Joseph Breeden, and the father a son of John Rea, who died when 
Johnathan was but a boy.  The latter immigrated to Andrew County, MO.,
in 1842, and locating upon a farm made the same his home until his
death in 1854.  David Rea spent his boyhood in hard labor upon his
father's farm during the summer months, devoting himself to study 
during winter.  At the age of eighteen he was qualified to teach
school, which he did a portion of the time for five succeeding years,
during which time he began the study of law.  In 1852 he married Miss
Nancy E. Beatti, daughter of James C. Beatti, formerly of Virginia.  He
then commenced to improve eighty acres of land near Rosendale, and upon
the commencement of the war joined the ranks of the Union army, in which
he successively served as first lieutenant, captain, quartermaster and
lieutenant colonel.  Having been admitted to the bar in 1862, he began 
the practice of his profession in 1863, and followed his professional 
career diligently until nominated for Congress.  During these years of
his residence in Savannah he was for some time a member of the board of
education.  Politically he is and has always been a Democrat.  His first
presidential vote was cast for Pierce, and the nominees of his party
have since had his hearty support.  In 1874 the Democratic party of the
Ninth Congressional District, composed of Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan,
Clinton, DeKalb, Gentry, Holt, Nodaway and Worth, and afterward also of
Caldwell and Ray, chose Mr. Rea as its candidate for Congress on
September 22.  After a warm contest and campaign Mr. Rea was elected
by a majority of 1,558 over his opponent, Col. D. A. Thompson, of
Atchison County.  In 1876 Mr. Rea was again nominated by his party for
re-election to Congress.  Hon. B. F. Loan, of St. Joseph, MO., an able
lawyer, and for six years during and after the war a member of Congress,
was the Republican nominee against him, and after a very warm and 
exciting campaign Mr. Rea was re-elected, defeating his opponent by a 
majority of 2,372 votes.  In 1878 he was again the Democrats' choice
for a third term in Congress, his opponents for nomination being Gen.
James Craig, of St. Joseph, MO., Hon. Lafe Dawson, of Maryville, MO.,
Col. Cundiff, then editor of the St. Joseph Gazette, and Hon. Thomas
Porter, of Clinton County.  In this election he was defeated by Hon.
Nicholas Ford, the nominee on the Greenback ticket, the year being the
one in which that party swept many portions of the State.  During the 
XLIV Congress Mr. Rea was a member of the committee on agriculture;
during the XLV, of the committee on commerce, Hon. John H. Reagan, of
Texas, being chairman.  This committee prepared and reported to the
House the inter-State commerce bill of that Congress, and also during 
that Congress Mr. Rea was a member of the committee on mines and mining.
Among the public measurers warmly supported by Mr. Rea while in Congress
were the inter-State commerce bill, the remonitization of silver, and
the improvement of our great waterways.  After the 4th of March, 1879,
Mr. Rea retired from public life, having served as a member of Congress
from March 4, 1875, to that date, and has since resumed the practice of
law in Savannah.  He still works zealously every election for the success
of his party, but has not been a candidate or held any official position
since his retirement from Congress, with the exception of being a 
member of the school board of Savannah.  Mr. Rea resides in one of the
handsomest dwellings in Savannah, and has a family of four sons and two
daughters.  Himself and wife are unostentatiously charitable, and much
respected and admired as among the best citizens of the county.