Retha Pitzer Byers, farmer's daughter with deep Back Creek Valley roots on both sides
When Retha Pitzer, "Reathie," was growing up as the youngest of four siblings in Berkeley County, her father must have been relatively well-off, as he could afford to pay for her to have a professional portrait made when she was a teen in the 1920s.
Her father, George Pitzer, was an area farmer who had also grown up in Hedgesville.
She had deep Back Creek Valley roots on both sides of her family. In fact, her parents were second cousins once removed. They were both descendants of Jacob Ludwig Snyder, the German man who immigrated to Philadelphia before becoming one of the first settlers of Jones Springs.
Jacob Snyder (also my 4th great-grandfather) owned 238 acres of land on Back Creek purchased in …
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