http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/preston/bios/fike.txt

“On two Occasions he reached home frozen to his saddle and had to be helped from the horse, his hands and feet being thawed out in cold water. He paid little attention to swollen streams, fording or swimming them on his horse. Once he tried to urge his horse into Cheat River when it was high, but his faithful animal refused to make the venture, and later he discovered that the stream had washed a new channel ten feet deep at that point.”