excerpts from History of Placer County, Thompson and West, 1882 page 390
The fifth son of English parents, who moved to Maine. He remained there and was employed in the mills. In 1854 he came to California, by the Nicaragua route arriving in San Francisco in June. He went to El Dorado County, then to Lake County, before moving to Foresthill, Placer Co. Mr. Rea was largely interested in the milling business during his life in California and is at present the owner of a mill situated in the Black Hawk Canyon, about three miles above Forest Hill. This mill was erected in 1869 by two brothers of Mr. Rea, but was subsequently purchased by him, and moved to it’s present site. About five years since, Mr. Rea leased the well-known “Forest House” which hotel he has since conducted. In the fall of 1880, he became one-third owner in the stage line running between Auburn and Michigan Bluff, a distance of about thirty miles.