A poet, who was a brother of the Rev. Evan Rees (Dyfed), was a native of Pembrokeshire, and in his younger days migrated to Aberdare, where he was employed as foreman at a colliery. He was well-known in Eisteddfodic circles, and even eclipsed his more famous brother at the commencement of their literary careers. At the Liverpool National Eisteddfod, in 1900, he and his brother carried all before them, Nathan Wyn securing as many as six prizes. There was scarcely an Eisteddfod during the last 10 or 12 years of his life, when his name did not appear as a winner. A volume of his poems were published in 1881 (Treherbert: Isaac Jones), and most of his subsequent prize and other poems appear in the Eisteddfod Transactions, or in the Geninen, to which he was a regular contributor.
A second volume of his works was published in 1905 (Short & Co., Treorchy) entitled u Mynydau Hamddenol” (Ike Cambrian, 1905, p. 314; Cardiff Catalogue.) Rees, Josiah, 1744-1804, of Gelligron, a preacher and hymn writer.