Minerd.com Biography of Jacob and Amanda (Younkin) Reger of Somerset, PA

Amanda (Younkin) Reger
(1824-1900)

In about 1840, the 16-year-old Amanda joined the Disciples of Christ Church, a movement in which her father and uncle Dr. Jonas Younkin were active. Many years later, she was called "one of the pioneers" of the First Church of Christ of Altoona. In fact, circa 1910, there was a memorial stained glass window in the church inscribed with her name.

They lived in the Borough of Somerset and produced two known children -- Mary C. Rager and Thomas M. Reger.

Center of Somerset (the "Diamond") prior to the great fire of 1872

Jacob earned a living in Somerset as a chairmaker. When the federal census enumeration was made in 1850, the 26-year-old Amanda and 25-year-old Jacob dwelled next door to her widowed mother in Somerset Borough.

Sadly, Thomas died in 1858, at the age of about 33. The cause of his untimely passing is not known.

His demise left Amanda a widow, a role which she maintained for the remaining 42 years of her life. The Altoona (PA) Tribune once referred to her as "a good mother [who] had a large circle of friends."

Amanda and her son then moved in with her widowed mother, in Somerset. They were in the dwelling together in 1860, when the federal census was made.

In March 1899, suffering from nerve damage or paralysis, she was confined to her residence. She died in February 1900 at the home of her son Thomas at the address of 1539 Ninth Street in Altoona, Blair County, PA. Funeral services were held in the Christian Chapel on Ninth Street near Sixth Avenue. Burial was in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Altoona, with an obituary appearing in the Altoona Tribune and the Somerset Herald.

Son Thomas M. Reger (1854-1924) was born on March 25, 1854 in Somerset Borough, Somerset County, PA. He was only three years old at the death of his father.

At the age of about 30, in 1885, he was united in holy matrimony with Cora Belle (1868- ? ).

The couple bore three sons -- George A. Reger, Thomas E. Reger and Kenneth E. Reger.

In 1900, at the death of Thomas' mother, the Regers resided at 1539 Ninth Street in Altoona, Blair County, PA. Federal census records for 1910 show Thomas working as a photographer in Altoona, with the family's home on Seventh Street.

The 1920 census shows Thomas as widowed, without any occupation, living in the household of his married son George in Logan, Blair County.

He is believed to have relocated to Cleveland, where he made a home at 1221 Superior Avenue and continued to earn a living as a photographer. Stricken with locomotor ataxia -- an ability to control one's body movements -- and then pneumonia, he died at the age of 70 on June 6, 1924, with his remains returned to Cambria County for funeral services in the First Church of Christ followed by burial in Altoona's Rose Hill Cemetery. An obituary was printed in the Altoona Mirror. His mother's maiden name, as written on the death certificate by informant Susan McMackin, was "Maude Howp" or "Howys."

Son George A. Reger (1887- ? ) was born in about 1887. He wedded Maud H. (1890- ? ). They were the parents of Helen L. Reger. Circa 1920, they lived in Logan, Blair County, PA and provided a home for George's widowed father. Then in 1924, the family was in Altoona.

Son Thomas E. Reger (1888-1924) was born on Feb. 22, 1888. He was unmarried at the age of 20, in 1910, and worked as an electrician for an Altoona electric utility company. Thomas married Lillian R. Manley ( ? - ? ), daughter of P.S. Manley. They did not reproduce. The couple moved to Hartford, CT in 1916, where he worked in sales for Wolcot Manufacturing Company. They were members of the First Church of Christ, and he belonged to the Masonic order of Philadelphia. But the specter of kidney disease ended hopes for a long life. He suffered for three years, as as the condition got worse, went to his in-laws' home in Canton, Bradford County, PA. Around that same time, he would have learned of the death of his father in Cleveland. A month later he died on July 21, 1924, at the age of only 38. After a prayer service in the Manley homeplace, the body was transported to Altoona for interment. Burial was in Rose Hill Cemetery, with an obituary appearing in the Altoona Tribune and Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette.

Son Kenneth E. Reger (1905- ? ) was born in about 1905. He lived in Cleveland in 1924.

Research for this page graciously shared by the late Olive (Rowan) Duff and the late Donna (Younkin) Logan.