Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of William Frederick REGER This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 301 WILLIAM FREDERICK REGER. For twenty years or more William Frederick Reger has been closely associated with the coal mining industry of the Berryburg locality in Bar- bour County. He is one of the oldest men in the service of the Consolidation Coal Company at that point, where he has been store manager for ten years. Mr. Reger was born near Weston, Lewis County, May 1, 1881. The Regers are an old family of West Virginia. His grandfather, Henry Reger, was an early settler in Upshur County, locating there from one of the eastern states. His life was devoted to farming. He left a large number of children at his death. One of them was William Reger, only a child when his father died. William Reger was born in Upshur County, but spent most of his life in Lewis County. He enlisted from Upshur County in the Union Army as a member of the Upshur Battery, and was a can- noneer and corporal of his company. He participated in some of the heavy fighting of his regiment, but sustained no wounds or other injuries beyond disease contracted in the war. After the war he was satisfied to let others con- tinue the memories of the great conflict, and he manifested little interest even in the G. A. R. He was a staunch republican without official aspirations, and was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. William Reger, who died at Weston in March, 1917, at the age of sixty-eight, married Mary Jones, daughter of Henry and Sallie (Tremble—formerly Turnbull) Jones. She is living at Wes- ton, and became the mother of six sons and three daugh- ters: Thomas L., of Pittsburgh; Avis, wife of C. G. Hinz- man, of Weston; Gertrude, who died at Berlin, West Vir- ginia, wife of J. E. Swisher; Charles H., of Philadelphia; Mattie, wife of A. M. Corathers of Weston; Robert V., of Clarksburg; William Frederick; Samuel Steele, of Burk- burnett, Texas; and Earl, who is the postmaster of Weston. William P. Reger grew up on a farm near Weston, and the routine of the farm constituted his early training and experience. He attended the common schools, and when past his majority he left home and began his career at Berryburg with the Southern Coal and Transportation Com- pany. This company sold out to the Consolidation Coal Company in 1905, and along with the property and good- will Mr. Reger went perhaps as a part of the contracting, since he was the only one of the store force to remain under the new management. He was promoted in 1912 to store manager for the company at Berryburg, and in addition to these responsibilities he is postmaster of the village and has accepted a share in every organized move- ment for the welfare of the community. Two of his own children are teachers, and he has for years been an advocate of better schools at Berryburg, and is one of the local school trustees. He is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church, and fraternally is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, of which he is a past chancellor and past repre- sentative, the Woodmen of the World and the Junior Order United American Mechanics. At Weston, August 1, 1901, Mr. Reger married Miss Lillie Smith, who was born on a farm near that city, daughter of Clinton Smith. Her mother was a daughter of Isaac Rohrbaugh, and Mrs. Reger was one of six daugh- ters and three sons, all still living. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Reger are: Scott N., Albert Paul, Evelyn, Fred- erick and William. Seott and Albert both finished their educations in Broaddus College and are teachers in the public schools of Barbour County. Albert also took work as a student in an automobile school at Cincinnati.