"He stood six feet two inches in his moccasins, with well-rounded and muscular proportions. A veritable Hercules, he was renowned for his enormous physical strength, which was unequaled on the western [Virginia] frontier. He married Elizabeth West, "Little Bettie," as she was called, a daughter of Edmund West, Sr., of West's Fort. The wedding took place the year after the bride's father was killed by the Indians, December 5, 1787. At the ceremony the bride sported a "store gown" to procure which the bridegroom-elect walked from the Buckhannon settlement to Winchester [Va.] and back with rifle on shoulder. During the wedding festivities, the bride stood in midair on the groom's outstretched hand. The newly-wedded couple settled near where Burnersville (Barbour County, West Virginia) now stands, where they resided as long as they lived."John Reger's nature was as kindly as his physical strength was great. I cannot refrain from giving a few incidents in his career on the border, illustrative of the rude, happy-go-luck of those days. He could easily swim the flood-swollen rivers in his excursions, holding his gun, shot pouch and clothing high and dry in one hand. He was a noted hunter and many are the accounts of his daring feats and great endurance. On one of his hunting trips, he killed a yearling bear early in the morning and after taking out the entrails, he slung the carcass over his shoulder and carried it with him during the entire day's hunt." [1]
"The following incident is related of Reger, and it illustrates his good humor and gigantic strength. .... It was Reger's eighty-second birthday, and as they were returning to the field from dinner, Black and Reger's son, both large strong men, thought to take advantages of the old man, and "wallow" him. Slipping up, each caught hold of a leg, then throwing him and whirling him upon his back, both immediately sprang on him, one on either side, with arms tightly hugging the old man's shoulders. For a moment Reger lay surprised, and occasionally ejaculating, "Poys, you had better let me be," at the same time feeling for a secure hold in the waistbands of their strong homespun pantaloons. Having secured a satisfactory hold on each, he slowly lifted them from him, swung them in mid-air, cracked their heels together, then jammed their heads together a few times and cast them from him, and laughing, rose to his feet."[2][3]
Compiled by Dan Hyde
1. Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia 1768 to 1785, by Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, 1915, reprinted by Jim Comstock, Richwood, West Virginia, 1974, as part of The West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia, page 299.
2. McWhorter, page 303.
3. Notes from Ada Lea Fitz.