Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Reese, Thomas

REESE, Thomas, clergyman, b. in Pennsylvania in 1742; d. near Pendleton, S. C., in August, 1794. He was graduated at Princeton in 1768, studied theology, and was admitted to the ministry of the Presbyterian church in 1773. He then became pastor of Salem church, Sumter district, S. C., where he continued until the Revolution. During the war he preached in Mecklenburg, N. C., but in 1782 he returned to his previous charge, and in 1792-'3 he was pastor of two churches in Pendleton district. Princeton gave him the degree of D. D. in 1789. Dr. Reese was an eminent scholar and a successful teacher, and did much to promote the religious life of the colored race in his district, to whom he regularly lectured. He published a valuable essay on the “Influence of Religion on Civil Society” (Charleston, S. C., 1788), and three sermons in the “American Preacher.”