Rhees, Morgan John (2), Dd

Rhees, Morgan John (2), D.D., a Baptist minister, was born at Somerset, Somerset Co., Pa., Oct. 25, 1802. He devoted himself at first to law, began practicing in May, 1826, and gave promise of great success in that profession; but, directing his attention to the study of theology, he acted for a time as temperance agent, and was finally ordained Sept. 9, 1829, and on April 1, 1830, became pastor of the churches at Bordentown and Trenton, N.J. Here he was also one of the founders of the New Jersey State Convention for missionary purposes in 1829, of which he became secretary, besides being chairman of the executive committee of the State Temperance Society, and editing for a time the Temperance Reporter. He closed his connection with the church at Bordentown in 1833, retaining that at Trenton. In 1840 he also resigned the latter to become corresponding secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society, in which position his services proved very useful. In 1843 he became pastor of the Second Baptist Church at Wilmington, Del., where he remained until 1850, when he accepted a call from the First Baptist Church of Williamsburgh, L.I. and here, still acting as recording secretary of the Board of the Missionary Union and the American and Foreign Bible Society, death closed his useful career, Jan. 15, 1853. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 6:780.