Rev Joseph Rhea

M, b. 1715, d. 20 September 1777
Birth*1715 Rev Joseph Rhea was born in 1715 at Loughborne Parish, County Donegal, Ulster, Ireland
Marriage*1752 He married Elizabeth McIlwane in 1752 at Ireland
Death*20 September 1777 Rev Joseph Rhea died on 20 September 1777 at Virginia
Note* He and his wife, Elizabeth, and six of their children came to America on the ship 'George.' They left Ireland from Quigly Bay, according to a diary, which began Sept. 27, 1769 and ended on Dec. 1, 1769. They landed at Reed Island at the mouth of the Delaware River. For several weeks they lived with a relative in Philadelphia, PA and in the Spring of 1770 they moved on wagons to Octorarah, PA. They settled in Cumberland, Adams Co., PA. at Upper Marsh Creek Church in Gettsyburg 1770-1771. On November 14, 1771, he purchased a nearby farm of 201 acres on the Monocacy River in Maryland and he was called in 1771 to pastor Piney Creek Church, west of Taneytown, Maryland. By 1772 they moved there, where James, their youngest child, was born Jan. 18, 1775. In June 1775 Rev. Rhea requested leave to travel to Virginia and in November 1775 he was in Holston Country (now eastern Tennessee) and went with troops for four weeks against the Cherokee Indians on the Little Tennessee. He is said to have preached in 1775 under an old elm tree on land he had purchased, on the Bluff City road in Sullivan County, Tennessee; known today as the Philip Earhart farm, just inside the city limits of Bristol, Sullivan Co. In 1776 he joined with another Presbyterian minister as one of the Chaplains in the Cherokee Campaign, under Colonel William Christian. They were the first known ministers to preach in the territory, now known as Tennessee. Rev. Rhea purchased about 2,000 acres of land in the Holston Country and he secured land at the mouth of Beaver Creek. Immediately after the Cherokee Campaign, he returned to Maryland. On April 19, 1777 he wrote a letter in Latin to his son, John, who was in General Washington's Army, telling him about selling the farm and the need to relinquish it by June 5, 1777, with plans to move his family to the wild frontier. Five months after he wrote this letter, he contracted pneumonia and died. After the death of Rev. Rhea, his family lived for one more year at the place of John Scott in Monocacy. In the fall of 1778, his family arrived at their new home on Beaver Creek, with many of the members of the Piney Creek Church following. 

Family

Elizabeth McIlwane b. 1732, d. 19 Dec 1793
Child