Archives West Finding Aid

Raymond Jacob Reitzel (1888-1984) was born in Mitchell, South Dakota, and received his undergraduate degree from Cornell College, where he became active in the YMCA. He served as an officer of the YMCA International Committee and representative for the Red Cross in European prison camps, first in Hungary in 1916, among Russian prisoners of war. Eventually he was transferred to the Russian headquarters in Minsk to work with POW’s on the Eastern Front. War prisoner relief work led him to Siberia in 1918, where he met Gail Linnae Berg (1894-1969), a YMCA secretary from San Mateo, California. The two married in Vladivostok in 1919, where they remained until their return to the United States in 1920, as the Russian Revolution gained ground in Siberia.

Raymond Reitzel subsequently enrolled in medical school at Harvard, and their two children Ray and Thae were born in Boston. Upon Ray Sr.’s graduation, the family moved to Galveston, Texas, where Ray taught clinical pathology. In 1930, they finally settled in California, where he directed laboratories for San Francisco General Hospital, taught clinical pathology for the University of California Medical School and as a member of the field staff at the University of Indonesia introduced clinical clerkships to their teaching curriculum. He also ran a private practice in internal medicine, and retired from medicine in 1971. The Reitzels were active members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Burlingame, and Ray often performed in stage productions. In later life, the couple recorded their life stories in two volumes, Gail’s Shifting Scenes in Siberia and Ray’s All in a Lifetime.

Their daughter, Thae Ellen 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.

Samuel McCully and family migrated west from Iowa in 1852, settling first in Salem, Oregon. Samuel McCully and his brothers founded the town of Harrisburg, and also the People’s Transportation Company. After several years, McCully sold his interests in Oregon and moved to California. His brother David, a merchant, stayed on in Salem. 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. Other members of the Hendershott family migrated in 1853. 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, who was mentioned in Abigail Scott Duniway’s book, Path Breaking.