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MONONGALIA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
PJSTON@aol.com
December 14, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg 191
Carl Reger. Morgantown, West Virginia, has celebrity as the home of a great
university. It has many additional advantages and cause for civic pride, and
not the least of these is that it is the chosen home of professional men of
marked ability and county-wide reputation. Among these valued citizens no
one enjoys greater confidence or personal esteem than Carl Reger, architect,
who during the past six years has contributed greatly to the material
improvement and general attractiveness of all parts of Morgantown and
throughout West Virginia. His artistic designs appear in business structures
in combinations making for utility also, in church edifices, hotels,
apartment houses, schoolhouses and magnificent private residences.
Mr. Reger is a native of West Virginia and is descended direct and
collaterally, from old Colonial families of what is now West Virginia. The
original American settler of this branch of the Reger family was Jacob Reger,
who was born in Holland in about 1733. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean to this
country in about 1765, accompanied by his wife and their older children. He
settled in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, later removed to the south
branch of the Potomac River in what is now West Virginia, and in 1782,
following the close of the Revolutionary war, he settled near what is now the
town of Volga in Barbour County, West Virginia, where he died. His children
bore these names: Anthony, Jacob, Philip, John, Abram, Isaac, Elizabeth,
Barbara, Annie, Mary and Catherine.
Isaac Reger, son of Jacob and great-grandfather of the present generation,
was born on the south branch of the Potomac River, August 19, 1782, settled
on Hacker's Creek in Upshur County and spent his life there. He married Mary
Magdalena Brake, daughter of Jacob Brake, who was known in Virginia as "the
captive." During an Indian raid in his childhood he was captured by the
savages and taken with them to near what is now the City of Detroit,
Michigan, where he was detained for eleven years and then was returned to his
parents. The children of Isaac Reger and his wife were seven in number:
Ruth, Rebecca, Philip, Lydia, Elizabeth, David B. and Maria.
David B. Reger, of the above family, was born in Barbour County in 1822, and
with his father moved to Hacker's Creek in Upshur County in 1830, and died on
his farm there in April, 1906. His wife's name was Elizabeth Neely, and she
was born near Morgantown in 1824, and died June 5, 1904. Their children
were: Marion D., Joseph S., Isaac S., Mary and Angela.
Joseph S. Reger, son of David B. and father of Carl Reger, was born on the
old family homestead in Upshur County, August 12, 1847, and grew up on the
farm. He had educational privileges, attended French Creek Academy, and
afterward taught school for a number of years, although farming was his main
occupation. He was prominent in republican politics in Upshur County, served
two terms as county superintendent of schools, served as a member of the
County Court and also on the State Board of Agriculture. He was a member and
liberal supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In his death on July
31, 1914, his community lost a man of great worth. On June 6, 1872, he
married Miss Sirene Bunten, who was born at Sago in Upshur County, April 11,
1847, and died May 29, 1912. she was a daughter of James and Fanny (Morgan)
Bunten, the former of whom had come to Virginia from Dunbarton, New
Hampshire. The maternal grandparents of Carl Reger were Zedekiah and Rebecca
(Watson) Morgan, the former of whom was born in Connecticut, March 8, 1744,
and died at Sago, Upshur County, October 12, 1822. His second wife, Rebecca
Watson, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, and died at Sago, Upshur County,
May 20, 1846. Zedekiah Morgan was a descendant, four generations removed,
from James Morgan, who came from Wales in 1636, settling near what is now
Gloucester, Massachusetts. His branch of the family in New England and the
Morgantown Morgans unite in Wales with a common ancestor, Sir John Morgan.
Carl Reger was born on the home farm near Buckhannon in Upshur County, West
Virginia, October 2, 1878. After attending the common schools he took a
preparatory course in the West Virginia Conference Seminary now the West
Virginia Wesleyan College. His tastes and talents led to an early interest
in architecture, and before completing his education as proposed, he had
experience in the offices of several architects, following which he entered
upon the study of architecture in the University of Pennsylvania, but did not
remain to complete his course because of trouble with his eyes. In 1905 he
gave them a needed rest and in the following year went to Los Angeles,
California.
In the western city Mr. Reger found ready opportunity and appreciation of his
talent as an architect and there received a certificate enabling him to
practice architecture in that state. During the nine years he resided there
he built up an enviable reputation in his profession, and some of the most
imposing structures of that city of today stand as testimonials to his artisti
c conceptions and architectural knowledge. While there he had charge, as
architect's superintendent and chief engineer in charge of construction, of
the erection of some of the largest and most modern business blocks on the
Pacific Coast.
In 1915 Mr. Reger returned to his native state and on August 1st of that year
establishing himself professionally at Morgantown, securing two small rooms
in the West Virginia Utilities Building, but his quarters soon became
entirely inadequate, and at the present time his offices and busy employees
occupy the entire floor of that building. He is not only the leading
architect at Morgantown but his talents have also been engaged in other
sections of the state. He was the designer of the greatly admired Sales and
Service Building of the Central Automobile Corporation at Clarksburg, made
the plans for the big fire-proof hotel now under way that will be a great
improvement to Shinnston, West Virginia, and has many other contracts under
way. He is secretary of the West Virginia State Society of Architects, and
was the West Virginia delegate to the 1921 convention of the American
Institute of Architects held at Washington, D. C.
On September 26, 1909, Mr. Reger married Miss Lura L. Law, who was born in
Ritchie County, West Virginia, and is a daughter of Martin L. Law. Mr. and
Mrs. Reger have three children: Ruth L., born May 15, 1913; Catherine, born
April 24, 1917; and Carl Robert, born May 23, 1921. Mr. and Mrs. Reger are
members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Morgantown, in which he is
a steward. He has long been deeply interested in Sunday school work, and is
a member of the State Executive Committee of the West Virginia Sunday School
Association and is secretary of the Monongalia County Sunday School
Association. He is an active citizen in all that concerns the real welfare
of Morgantown, but the political field has not attracted him. He belongs to
the Morgantown Rotary Club.
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