Page 176
struggle a meeting house was built, and from that
time to this public worship has been maintained. He
was the leading spirit in the organization of the La-
Fayette, now the Tippecanoe, Association; at the time
of the organization he was the only Baptist minister
in that portion of the State. He assisted in the or-
ganization of several churches in that region--such
as Camden, Grand Prairie, Dayton and Rossville.
In 1839 he was elected financial agent of the In-
diana Baptist Convention, and for the next ten years
labored for the Convention and the College, giving
most of his time to the latter. He was a very suc-
cessful collector of money; he did not obtain large
gifts, for they were not to be had at that stage of
the State's material development. But whoever
will take the pains to look through his little account
books will be astonished at the large number of small
gifts; he was as grateful for the dollar as for the ten
dollars. His wife died in 1840, and in 1841 he and
Mrs. Mary Martin, of Delphi, were married. His
three sons, Cyrus W., Eli and Jonathan were Baptist
ministers--one in California, one in Texas and one
in Oregon. In 1849, upon returning from a tour in
southern Indiana, where his labors had been some-
what severe, he was attacked with a slight fever, ac-
companied by inflammatory rheumatism. During sev-
eral weeks he was quite ill, but he determined to at-
tend the annual meeting of the Convention, which
was held at Indianapolis. He was too feeble to at�
tend the public exercises, but from his sick room at
his old friend Henry Brady's he was able to give a
Page 177
good deal of aid to several of the Committees. After
his return to his home the recuperation that he
for did not come. He was profoundly interested in
the work of both the Convention and the College, and
was anxious to be in the field; but his Heavenly
Father had ordered it otherwise, and his brethren and
friends followed his body to the grave January 25th,
1850. The Rev. T. R. Cressey says further of him:
"He was not a literary man, he was nevertheless
an ardent advocate of education. He was one of the
founders of Franklin College, and never had that
institution a more devoted friend. He gave to it his
time and his money bountifully, and the toil of his
maturer years. He realized the necessity of an ed-
ucated ministry, in view of the characteristics of the
age in which we live, the civil, literary and religious
institutions associated with our government and the
high responsibility of the preacher of the gospel of
Christ. He was not in any sense a brilliant man,
nor an eloquent preacher. But as the celebrated Dr.
William Carey, missionary to India, once said of him-
self: `He knew how to plead.' Elder Rees possessed
that indomitable perseverance, stern self-application,
unblanching fortitude and holy consecration to labor
which made him a stranger to defeat in any enter-
prise to which he put his hand."
CURRY'S PRAIRIE ASSOCIATION--(COUNTIES OF VIGO,
CLAY AND SULLIVAN.)
The Association was organized at Union church in
1834 with Elder Abram Stark as moderator, T. Ken-
