David Rees

    David Rees, of Lawrenceburgh Township, was born near Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1766, and removed with his father's family to Berkley County, Virginia, in the year 1775. In the year 1794, he proceeded on horseback on a prospecting tour, with no companion but his trusty rifle. He passed through southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, through the Cumberland Gap, to Louisville, Kentucky, crossing the river he proceeded through the State of Indiana to Cincinnati. He returned to Berkley, Virginia; the entire route traveled was an unbroken wilderness, inhabited by the Indians and wild animals.

    In 1804 he returned to the West and purchased the fine tract of bottom land, now owned by his descendants, and in the year 1807, removed to it with his family. He was a man of indomitable courage and energy, of that type of men of moral honesty and integrity, that laid the deep foundation of good government, of which the benefits are realized by his descendants of this day. Charitable and humane, he possessed the power of wielding an influence among his fellow men, for the best interest of all. He died in the year 1820, and by acts and deeds, left behind him a remembrance that will survive the destroying hand of time.

Source: History of Dearborn and Ohio Counties, Indiana by F.E. Weakley & Co., 1885.