U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Reger, Joseph S. (1847-1914) ------------------------------------------------------------------- The History of Upshur County West Virginia From its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time by W. B. Cutright Buckhannon, W. Va., July 1, 1907 Data for the following sketch was discovered among the miscellaneous manuscripts of the Rev. John W. Reger, D. D., and to his cherished memory, it is affectionately dedicated. L. A. E. R. H., February 5, 1907. Pages 556-558 JOSEPH S. REGER, son of David B. Reger, and grandson of Isaac Reger, was born on the 12th day of August, 1847. He is a great grandson of Jacob Reger, who left the South Branch of the Potomac, near Romney, about the close of the Revolutionary war, and settled in what was then a wilderness on Big Run, in Barbour County, West Virginia, near where the village of Burnersville or Volga now stands. His grandfather moved from the old homestead, near Burnersville, to Hackers Creek, in what is now Upshur County, in the year 1830, when David B. was a lad nine years old. David B. was the only living son (his older brother, Phillip, having died when ¦quite young) of a family of six children, viz: Ruth, Rebecca, Lydia, Elizabeth. David B. and Maria. Ruth married John W. Marple and Rebecca married Nicholas McVany. Both settled on Hacker's Creek, near the residence of their father, Isaac, where they continued to reside until called away from this world. Lydia married Henry Jackson, an older brother of S. D. Jackson of Upshur County, and moved soon after her marriage to the forks of the Hughes River, in Ritchie County, where she died about the year 1872 or 1873. Elizabeth married David T. Wolf and about the year 1856, moved to Sullivan County, Missouri, where she died in 1893. Maria married Nimrod Scott, and moved to Iowa in the year 1851 or 1852, where she still resides, the only living member of the family. David B. Reger married Elizabeth Neely, February 22, 1844, and commenced housekeeping at his father's home on Hackers Creek, where he continued to reside until the time of his death, which occurred April 12, 1906. To David B. and Elizabeth were born three sons and two daughters: Marion D., who married Sarah Hinzman; Joseph S., the subject of this sketch; Isaac S., who married Olive Morrison, and lives at the old Reger homestead on Hackers Creek; Mary M., who married Albert J. Marple, formerly sheriff of Upshur County, and Angela E., who married Isaac C. Ours, a worthy citizen of Turkey Run, who died of Typhoid fever in the fall of 1903. Joseph S., while growing up, worked on his father's farm, and occasionally attended a subscription school three months in the winter, though sometimes, two or three years elapsed without any school. His opportunities for learning were few and poor. The teachers employed, though commendable persons, were usually of very limited scholarship, and could teach nothing except spelling, reading, writing and a little arithmetic. The books in his home were few, but were read and re-read until the contents became, as it were, a part of his own mind. Newspapers were almost barred as being not worth the cost, and as useless consumers of valuable time. However, after the adoption of the present free school system, the qualifications of teachers improved, and he was enabled to add to his meager learning a scanty knowledge of geography and English grammar. Thus equipped, at the age of twenty, he applied to the County Superintendent of Schools, Captain J. Loomis Gould, for a teacher's certificate, and obtained a No. 3, which was considered medium, there being at that time, five grades granted. That winter, 1867-8, he taught his first school, receiving ninety dollars for his labor, fifty of which because he was not twenty-one years old, he gave to his father, spending the remaining forty dollars in buying clothes and books and attending two teachers' institutes, one at Lost Creek, Harrison County, and one at French Creek, Upshur County, both conducted by Prof. W. R. White, the first State Superintendent of Schools of West Virginia. In 1870, he received his first No. 1 certificate, with which grade he continued to teach, during the winter season, with the exception of a few intervals, until the winter of 1890-91, after which he gave up school work and gave his attention more particularly to his farm. He was married June 6, 1872, to Sirene Bunten, youngest daughter of James Bunten, who in an early day, came from New England and settled on the Buckhannon River at Sago, Upshur County, and built the mills which long bore his name. Mrs. Reger almost claims to be of Puritanical descent, her mother being a Morgan, whose ancestors came from England to New England in 1836, sixteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims. Her grandfather, Zedekiah Morgan, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and Quartermaster of one of the New England regiments. Her three brothers, Watson M., Burnham A., and Walter B. D., were Federal soldiers in the late Civil War, Watson serving as Lieutenant in an Illinois regiment, and Burnham and Walter in the Third West Virginia Infantry. Watson was severely wounded at Pittsburg Landing and badly wounded at Missionary Ridge, but survived the war, married and settled at Crawford, Lewis County, and built the mill, which bears his name, near which place he died in 1899, having devoted the last years of his life to farming. Burnham died of typhoid fever in hospital at Buckhannon, W. Va., in the winter of 1862, and Walter, having been captured and taken to Andersonville prison, is supposed to have died there, not having been heard from since he was conveyed to the prison Hospital. Mrs. Reger's three sisters were named, Sarah A., Elsey R. and Hattie. Sarah married George C. Moore, and lived at Sago, Upshur County until the death of her husband, since which time she has resided among her children. Elsey R., married T. F. Payne, and about the close of the Civil War moved to Missouri, and died in Appleton City in 1893. Hattie taught school a number of years, married John W. Wilson of Frenchton, Upshur County, and died in the winter of 1906. To Joseph S. and wife were born three sons, Roy, born April 21, 1874; Carl, born October 2, 1878, and David Bright, born April 11, 1882. Roy, after graduating at the West Virginia Conference Seminary at Buckhannon, W. Va., took the A. B. and also the military course at the West Virginia University, graduating as Captain of Cadets. After teaching three years in the State Normal Schools of West Virginia, he went to the Philippines, where he taught two years in the native schools, after which he returned to America, took the Law course in the West Virginia University, and is, at this writing, in the practice of law at Buckhannon, W. Va. Carl, having taken the Seminary course at Buckhannon, studied Architecture by Correspondence with the International Correspondence School of Scranton, Pa., and after having some practical experience, spent one year at the Seminary at Buckhannon, studying the higher mathematics, after which he devoted one year to the study of Architecture in the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. He supervised the erection of the West Virginia Preparatory School building at Keyser, W. Va., and also the new West Virginia Wesleyan College building at Buckhannon. He is at present supervising the erection of a large depot and hotel combined for the Santa Fe R. R. Company at Ash Fork, Arizona. David Bright, having also graduated at the West Virginia Conference Seminary, and having spent two years in post graduate work at the same school, and one term at the West Virginia University, and three summers in United States Geological Survey work in West Virginia, is now making a survey of the United States Naval Station, at Guantonamo, Cuba. Joseph S., was Census Enumerator for Warren District, Upshur County, in 1880, and also in 1890, having received the first appointment from Gen. George R. Latham, and the second from Hon. George M. Bowers. He served three terms as Associate Teachers' Examiner for Upshur County; First, with Gen. George R. Latham as County Superintendent; second, with Prof. Robt. A. Armstrong as Superintendent, and third with Mr. Luke P. Brooks as Superintendent. In 1877, he was elected Superintendent of Schools for Upshur County, and served one term of two years. In 1894, he was elected County Commissioner, and served one term of six years, during which time our present Court House, Jail and Sheriff's residence were built. In 1901, he was appointed Notary Public by Governor Geo. W. Atkinson, which position he still holds. He was elected delegate from Buckhannon Circuit to the West Virginia Lay Electoral Conference of the M. E. Church, which met at Morgantown in 1879; to the Conference which met in Wheeling in 1883; to the Conference which met at Buckhannon in 1895, and also to the Conference which met in Wheeling in 1903, and also the Conference which met at Huntington in 1907. He was Steward for Pleasant Valley Class, Buckhannon Circuit, M. E. Church, for thirteen years, and at the present writing, is Class Leader for the same class, which position he has held about three years. He lives on Hackers Creek near where he was born, and as a farmer, he believes in large crops from small areas, rather than small crops from large areas. He also believes it pays better to raise one fine horse than two scrubs. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Register of Deaths, Upshur County, WV (Page 2) FULL-NAME: J. S. Reger AGE-AT-DEATH: 66y-11m DEATH-DATE: July 25, 1914 MARITAL-STATUS: Widower CAUSE-OF-DEATH: Typhoid Fever There are tombstones in Heavner Cemetery, Buckhannon, WV Joseph S. Reger Aug. 12, 1847 July 25, 1914 Rene B., wife of J. S. Reger Apr. 11, 1847 May 30, 1912 Mother of Roy, Carl, and D. Bright Reger ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Upshur County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/upshur/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------