A Birthday Treasure

Similar style Cylinder Roll-Top Desk

Similar drawer pulls

The fascination with my grandmother's cylinder roll-top, executive style desk began when my family lived with Nana at 134 Harrison. Its strategic placement in Nana's bedroom kept it as a focal point and a forever memory, like the upright, console tube radio that I found intriguing, the one with punch buttons like the buttons we pushed to activate the lights at my grandmother's house on Harrison Street.

Nana and MJD, 1949

That early 1900's desk stands now as a treasure, like the memory I hold of my grandmother, my Nana. Like many women of her generation, she held herself poised as a lady of strength because life offered her few other choices.

The youngest of five sisters and a brother, Mildred Gordon (Nana) watched her sisters marry and establish their own homes while she and Janie, her sister with a profound brain injury suffered at birth, and her mother (Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon) moved into the  circa-1913 house on Harrison Street after living for a time on Jackson Street with brother George Gordon and wife Emma Sue until the new house was completed, standing on the original home acreage.

Having moved from Union to Ouachita County prior to 1890, the family lived together, my grandmother being the only child born in Camden. After the turn of the century, the women found themselves alone after school master and public servant Charles T. Gordon unexpectedly died in 1906. Mildred graduated from Camden High School the next year, met and married Claude Garland Horne not until 1917.

Mildred and Claude returned from Altus, OK where he practiced pharmacy with his brother-in-law Bert Holt. Being pregnant, she and he returned to the security of her close-knit family in the early 1920's and by agreeing to live with Ella and Janie brought financial stability to the family at 134 Harrison Street. Mildred lost that first baby at birth, naming her Jane for her mother Ella Jane and sister Janie Louise. By 1937, when Ella died, the intact Horne family lived together along with Janie whose guardianship transferred to Mildred along with ownership of the family home.

Mildred with Margaret and Janie

As Janie Gordon's guardian, Mildred was accountable for every dime spent from Janie's estate. At that desk, Mildred (Nana) kept documents of petitions to the court, probate files, and records of monies spent, even for clothing and other necessities for the family after the sparks from a lumber yard fire flew onto multiple homes in the area. The fire burned sections of the Harrison Street house. Clothes and other combustible materials were reduced to ashes. Valued furniture pieces were saved by military men on weekend furlough from their base in El Dorado. They hauled valuable items to the front lawn, throwing some items from upstairs windows.

similar desk

Seated at her desk in her bedroom, built onto the house after the 1941 fire, Nana heard each hour chimed by the Courthouse clock directly across the street. The clock sounded every 15 minutes, signifying the steady march of time. She recorded daily events on her calendar or in her devotional book, kept record of prescriptions filled at Horne's Drug Store, paid her tithe and pledge, cared for the communion cloths, and maintained paperwork associated with all business interests which included the land and timber on Mary Sue Gordon Estate (Auntie's Place). She also kept detailed records of oil lease revenue from holdings in Ouachita and Union Counties.

Claude Garland Horne, the vibrant and virile hunter, fisherman, and pharmacist suffered from Parkinson's disease and became bound to a wheelchair and was bed-ridden. Nana hired a private nurse for him (Susie Sevier) and worked alongside her as she also cared for her husband and her sister, Janie. Claude (Granddaddy) died in 1950 and Janie died in 1953.

Thomas and Nana

The extended family including my mother, father, brother, and I moved to the Harrison Street house for the same reason Mildred and Claude moved there originally. We had not moved from 134 Harrison Street to 980 Truman for very long when, in 1959, the unthinkable happened.

Lightening struck the house on Harrison Street on a Sunday afternoon in August of 1959. Its demise shocked the family, but it had begun to drain Nana's monthly income and was holding the drug store as a financial hostage. My father was relieved, but when the house was razed, everything changed.

Many treasured heirlooms were saved, including my grandmother's desk. It was water soaked, singed by fire, and warped by steamy heat. Family members rescued and refurbished the desk along with other heirlooms so that it could be in Nana's office area in her next home on Truman Road, two doors up from our house.

During the 1960's, cousin Pam and I spent time together at the Truman Road house when our parents were out. On one particular time, we were left alone and, true to our personalities, we used the opportunity to snoop. We went through the desk, drawer by drawer, our imaginations fueled by Nancy Drew mysteries like Secret in the Old Attic, or Secret in the Old Clock. We found no secrets and no stashed cash, to our disappointment.

Now, after decades of life in various places, the desk has finally come to me from cousin Pam whose father claimed the desk in 1980 at Nana's death. Pam used the desk in her house in Camden but put it in unconditioned storage about 15 years ago. My husband and I rescued the desk from its sad state, bringing it to his workshop after Pam's sudden death on January 5, 2019.

Over this past year, he has cleaned it, repaired it, made it beautiful again, the gem that it always was. He moved it into my office and project room this week, putting it exactly where I had envisioned it. It is a rare piece, as he is for bringing this desk back to the glory it deserves.

It honors my grandmother and her life, serving as a reminder of how I should always conduct my dealings with family and business.

It is a gift, a birthday treasure.

Hemingway-Pfeiffer, Stickley and The Gordon-Ritchie Saga

Gordon Cousins - Pam - second from left.  Jane - third from right.

     After loading up the Stickley settle (couch), rocker, and footstool and taking it to Rector, Pam and I decided that the best thing to do with the "parlor set" that had belonged to Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon and family was to donate it. That decision took 5 years. After all, sentimentality usually trumps logic when dealing with Banmama's possessions.

    We believe our relatives would be pleased with our decision. We take heart when remembering the lovely donations of sterling silver tea sets and punch bowls to Camden First United Methodist Church. Mother and our grandmother knew they'd never have a time or place to use these beautiful items and so, the donation was made.

     Last year, Marvin and I moved to a smaller home in Rector and Marvin built a workshop. The Stickley pieces lined up for scheduling so they could be refurbished. They needed to be made sturdier, a few pieces of underpinning were missing or broken. The set was generally in good shape for 100 year old furniture.


      We had to decide what to do, how to do it, what fabric to choose, and generally, how to make the three pieces worthy of use and display in a Mission style, Arts and Crafts home that had been restored to its original beauty. The home is the Paul Pfeiffer home that is now an Arkansas State University Heritage Site. Pauline Pfeiffer, Paul's daughter, was the second wife of Ernest Hemingway and the Pfeiffer family home is now part of the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center.

       For those interested in the Hemingway-Pfeiffer marriage and Hemingway's related career, I'd highly recommend the book Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow by Ruth Hawkins. Extensive research is written in a very readable style.

     Inside this home/museum are larger pieces of Stickley furniture: a couch, a rocker, a foot stool, and an upright chair - all the larger "Morris" style.

Living room with original Stickley pieces belonging to the Pfeiffer family.

     Our donated Stickley pieces are from Stickley Brothers of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and are called "a parlor set," denoting a smaller size. The brand on the metal tag under the rocking chair indicates "Quaint" which was made exclusively between 1901 and 1907.

     Today, on our grandparent's 101 wedding anniversary, we gifted the Stickley parlor set to the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center. Mildred Gordon Horne and Claude Garland Horne were married on April 17, 1917.

Stickley settle under framed photos of Paul and Mary Pfeiffer

Karen Trout, HP Staff member, Marvin and Jane with parlor set.

       I also donated a copy of The House on Harrison Street, the Gordon-Ritchie saga, which details the lives of the owners of the furniture donated to the museum. A number of stories in the book were written while I attended several Hemingway-Pfeiffer writers' retreats. I have written inside the Pfeiffer kitchen, in Pauline and Ernest's bedroom upstairs, and in the Barn Studio where Hemingway wrote large portions of A Farewell to Arms.

Monday.-September 19 at 6:30 PM in Camden

I have updated my presentation for the Ouachita County Historical Society. For those of you who will be able to come to the meeting in Camden at 6:30 PM on Monday, September 19, please know that the presentation will be conversational, informal, and open for others to share stories, memories of Camden prior to the 1960's.
I'll have a PowerPoint to entertain you with pictures and a few stories.
Location: on the OCHS campus at the Ingham Library. How many of you remember actually going to that little library that was located at the corner of Harrison and Washington?
I'll have copies of The House on Harrison Street and several CD/DVDs. The book is $25 and the CD is $10.
A friend asked this question:  Did George L Ritchie serve during the Civil War?
The answer is "Yes." It's documented in Chapter 7, Note 1 in the book. The group he was with, etc. is noted and the information is included in Uncle George's obituary.

A Bunch of Boards and a Ton of Nails

The 'original' Thomas Gordon
Buried on home land near Atlanta

A house is a bunch of boards and a ton of nails. It's the living that goes on in the house that solidifies the memories. The House on Harrison Street is packed with memories, documented stories,  a tale of the Gordon Family and the Ritchie Family. 

Thomas Bullock Gordon Land Grant

The families start their journey during Revolutionary War time and move from the Carolinas through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and into Arkansas. Gordon married Tooke and Ritchie married Campbell, both in the Black Belt of Alabama, an area that called to farmers with its soil, weather, and opportunity. Rumblings of war sent many families from Alabama toward Arkansas and west of the Mississippi River. 

Nana and Me
Mildred Gordon Horne and MJD

My research began with questions, followed my mother's and grandmother's hand-written genealogy, and culminated in a volume that ends in August of 1959, when my grandmother's house on Harrison Street burned. Gracious OCHS leaders helped me with many details and have added some information since the book was published. I'm so grateful to them.
It was fabulous growing up in Camden during those years. Walking to the Methodist church, walking to the Ingham Library housed in the little whitewashed building facing Washington Street, watching the Camden Hotel being built, picking up pecans in our back yard and watching the squirrels scamper across the Court House lawn...I love talking about those times and sharing my research.

Will you join me for a Festival of Memories as they relate to the Gordon-Ritchie Saga as detailed in The House on Harrison Street. I'll have the books if you want to buy one and I'll also bring a DVD / CD of photos.
OCHS Meeting - at the Ingham Library building on the OCHS property. Check for times for the meeting on that Monday evening - September 19, 2016.

OCHS - Quarterly Meeting

An opportunity to share with the Ouachita County Historical Society at their quarterly meeting was offered and I accepted! September 19 -Monday evening - 6:30 PM.
I'm always thrilled to be in Camden and share our common love for our blended families.

Horne's Drug Store building - The Wesley Center

The program (*OPEN TO THE PUBLIC) for the Genealogy Society will be on Sunday, April 24 at 2PM. But, the program will not be held at the First Methodist Great Hall. Instead it will be held at The Wesley Center. The Wesley Center is the former HORNE'S DRUG STORE BUILDING! How COOL is that! I am so excited!

April Adventures Continue - Sunday, April 24, 2016

Mt. Holly and Lisbon area

                April, 1979 - Sunday afternoon - Mother and Lou Rushing were driving home from the Mt. Holly area in Union County.They'd been tromping around in cemeteries and around the old Gordon home place, the Gordon Plantation, the Sue Gordon Estate. They were on a quest for James Jefferson Tooke's grave site. James Jefferson Tooke was Jane Elizabeth Tooke Gordon's father who traveled to Union County with Jane Elizabeth and Thomas Bullock Gordon.
                Mother and Lou were unsuccessful in their quest and to boot, they were accosted by wind and hail as a F3 tornado swept into the Camden area and exited through south Camden. Read that story at www.lemonpiesunshine.blogspot.com.
             

Margaret Jane, Goss, and Thomas Gordon Dansby

You can hear more stories and learn about research for the book The House on Harrison Street: the Gordon-Ritchie Saga on Sunday, April 24, 2016, at The Great Hall at the First United Methodist Church in Camden. See you at 2 PM!