Murdock, Thae.

Raymond Jacob Reitzel (1888-1984) served as an officer of the YMCA International Committee in European prison camps from 1916 to 1920, first in Hungary, then in Minsk on Russia's Eastern Front, and finally in Siberia, where he met and married Gail Linnae Berg (1894-1969).

Upon their return to the United States, Raymond Reitzel enrolled in medical school at Harvard, and their two children, Ray and Thae, were born in Boston. In 1930, they settled in California, where Ray Sr. directed laboratories, taught, and ran a private practice in internal medicine. He retired from medicine in 1971. The couple wrote about their adventurous life in two memoirs contained in this collection.

Their daughter, Thae Reitzel Murdock, assembled the genealogical papers presented in this collection, including those of the McCully and Hendershott families, Oregon pioneers.

Valuable information comes from recollections and other family information recorded by Frances Hendershott Walton. Members of the Hendershott family made their fortune in the California gold rush and eventually returned to bring their families west in 1852 with their neighbors, the McCullys. Samuel McCully and his brothers founded the town of Harrisburg, and also the People's Transportation Company. James Hendershott served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature, as sheriff of Josephine County, and later represented Union County in the Oregon State Legislature. Some of the Hendershotts were notable supporters of woman suffrage, including Minerva Hendershott Eaton.

From the description of Thae Murdock family papers, circa 1850-2000. (Oregon Historical Society Research Library). WorldCat record id: 660079094