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!

Siblings

Frances, Susie, Mildred

Facebook or Hallmark created Siblings Day.

Celebrate:
Having someone other than yourself as the source of joy to your parents.
Having a wing man or wing girl during trouble.
Having someone operate as the perpetual little to your big.
Having someone function as the perpetual answer to your question.

And then one day, you are each other's best friend, strongest ally, best cheerleader.
One day, you grow up and know you are not alone in this world.

The Gordon Sisters (Alice, Susie, Janie, Frances, Mildred) and their brother (George).
My aunt and my daddy.  (Betty and Goss)
My mother and my uncle. (Margaret and Gordon)
My brother and me. (Thomas Gordon and Margaret Jane)

The Ritchie Brothers (James Franklin, George Louis, John Campbell)
The Ritchie Sisters (Frances Alabama, Martha Virginia, Ella Jane)

Read about this fluid dynamic in The House on Harrison Street: The Gordon-Ritchie Saga

Mildred and Frances

Alice

Frances

Janie

Susie

Mildred

Susie, George, Alice

George

Margaret and Gordon

Bonus: Sister-Cousins Pam and M Jane

Thomas and M Jane

Happy Birthday, Nana

March 26, 1890. Mildred Gordon born to Charles Thomas and Ella Jane Gordon in Camden, Arkansas in the original 1854 colonial home on Harrison Street.

March 26, 1975. Nana's 85th birthday celebration at the home of her daughter Margaret Dansby on Truman Rd in Camden.

"They weren't secrets, except from me."

"Even though people have passed away, some subjects can be painful to revisit decades later. Think hard before you share old secrets."

The quote surfaced from Family Tree Magazine on Facebook.

Stories I struggled to tell weren't secrets, except from me.
I learned so much, especially about George R. Gordon, my great uncle. So many pieces of the puzzle lay scattered across the floor, some showing his honorable service to others, his business dealings, his intelligence, his public service as Mayor. The tragedy of his home life didn't surface. In fact, his trouble was ignored except for a comment here and there about Emma Sue, his wife. I didn't know his house was the old Methodist Parsonage. So much I didn't know. 

C. Thomas Gordon

Mother told me his son, Thomas, died of an ear infection. I could not grasp that. I learned that to be true, but that he was away at Military School in Memphis when he died. He was seventeen. His parents never recovered. Thomas' sister Jean never recovered either. Oh, how I wish I'd known the truth long ago. Would I have been kinder? Would I have visited more often? I would have understood so much more.

Janie - The more I learned, the more I wish I had been taught how to appreciate knowing her.

I also struggled with Aunt Alice's story. I was fearful of her and her big, black car. Why? Her house was dark and gloomy. Was I right? I was a very young child. 

Charlotte, Thomas with Jean, Elinor, Frances with John Ritchie - Where was Janie? Where was Alice?

Big Tattee (Frances) was a polar opposite to Aunt Alice, in my estimation. She'd welcome me into her house, call me to her chaise lounge, draw funny pictures for me and laugh. I enjoyed her, even as a child. Every time we visited, she was reclined upon the chaise lounge; she was so different from my grandmother and Sookie. I wondered what could keep her lying down all the time. I found out what caused her depression.

My grandmother suffered from depression also, but was not treated as kindly as Frances. Nana was sent to Shreveport for weeks, taking "shock treatments." Sometimes, mother would be gone with her for weeks at a time. The phrase, "For Heaven's Sake, Don't Sigh," came to be a warning. 

There were so many pieces of our story that faded or were missing. After conducting the research, I was finally able to understand and see the puzzle completed. I believe it important to preserve these stories. The creative hand I used made the stories memorable, I hope. 

Baby Shoes, Well-worn

Our parents have passed away also. They had their stories, too, and many of their behaviors caused the younger set of cousins to separate. Addictive behaviors became culprits throughout our family: alcohol, tobacco, all complicating heart disease. Regardless of hardships, the Gordons and the Ritchies were honorable movers and shakers in Camden and Ouachita County and in Ruston, LA.

L to R: James Cooper, Martha Ellen, Margaret Jane, and Thomas Gordon

Any time a writer puts pen to paper and publishes, the work is open to criticism and I'm my toughest critic. 

Easter, 1926. Claude Horne with Margaret Horne. Court House provides backdrop.

When the blog post from Family Tree Magazine popped up, I read it. Then Mother's words returned, "Well, Margaret Jane, you don't have to tell everything you know."

Mr. Postman to deliver The House on Harrison Street

Tasks for this afternoon -  sign and put The House on Harrison Street into envelopes - CHECK.
                                           - follow up with those who said they wanted a copy - CHECK
                                           -address the envelopes, add return address sticker - CHECK

Task for tomorrow - go to the post office and send the book with great appreciation.

Women's History Month: "the women wrote the book"

Alice

Susie

March is Women's History Month. Celebrate the achievements, accomplishments, perseverance of the women in your family tree.

It was the women in my family whose stories ignited the quest and thus my journey to publish a family history. So, here's to Jane Elizabeth Tooke Gordon, Jane McBride Campbell Ritchie, Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon.

The daughters of Ella Jane Gordon are Alice Gordon Lide, Susie Gordon Ritchie, Janie Louise Gordon, Frances Gordon Usrey, and Mildred Gordon Horne.
The daughter of Jane Elizabeth Tooke Gordon was Mary Sue Gordon, unmarried. To her came the homeplace in Union County- "Auntie's Place" or The Sue Gordon Estate.
The daughters of Jane McBride Campbell Ritchie were Frances Alabama, Julia Sonora, Martha Virginia, and Ella Jane.

The more research I conducted, the more honor and respect I have for them, for their courage, and for their stamina. In the face of great loss and trying circumstances that came to each, they triumphed.
Read their stories in The House on Harrison Street: The Gordon-Ritchie Saga.

Janie

Frances

Mildred

Gordon-Ritchie Cousins - March 13, 2016

Alice Gordon, Mildred Gordon, Frances Gordon, and Susie Gordon's grandchildren

Alicia Horton Mosley (Alice Gordon Lide, Alice Lide Horton); Pam Horne (Mildred Gordon Horne, Claude Gordon Horne); James Cooper Usrey (Frances Gordon Usrey, John Ritchie Usrey); Martha Ellen Usrey (Frances Gordon Usrey, John Ritchie Usrey); Frances Usrey Raley (Frances Gordon Usrey, John Ritchie Usrey); Margaret Jane Dansby Gatewood (Mildred Gordon Horne, Margaret Horne Dansby); Susan Ritchie Shirley (Susie Gordon Ritchie, John Campbell Ritchie II -"Jack"); Edwin Horton (Alice Gordon Lide, Alice Lide Horton).

Not pictured because they were unable to attend the lunch in Camden:  Orlando Lide Lockett (Alice Gordon Lide, Charlotte Lide Lockett) and Thomas Gordon Dansby (Mildred Gordon Horne, Margaret Horne Dansby).

Cousins Gather Today for Lunch

Frances, Susie, Mildred in Shreveport shopping

     When Cousin Alicia said, "Your mother would be so proud," it stopped me mid-sentence. I know she would be pleased and oh, how I wish she were here. Swallowing tears, I took a moment, and said, "I do ok until she sits right beside me."
     At the Great Hall, I saw some of Mother's friends and some of Daddy's golfing buddies and Kiwanis Club friends. High School classmates, college friends from Henderson surfaced, too: Sarah O'Kelly Silliman and Jeanie Ballentine, and of all people, Tom Dillard. How connected our lives remain. You just never know who will surface and surprise you with a warm memory.
    The House on Harrison Street sold out this weekend. People who bought the book bought it for many different reasons, all of which were eye-opening for me. Many bought the accompanying CD of 115 photos and 12 recipes.
    Today our little shrunken family will meet for lunch together. Several of this group I have not seen since the 1983 get-together: Martha Ellen, Frances White, Susan and her husband Henry.
    We'll take lots of pictures and enjoy our time together with fond memories and a salute to our grandmothers who were sisters: The Gordon Girls - Alice, Susie, Janie, Frances, and Mildred.  Their brother George will be included in stories when our cousin Jean is remembered.

"Just as I have told these."

After combining the research from Mother and Nana, after sorting photographs and digging deep into memory banks, I spent several days in Camden conducting research on different trips.

I've been the grateful recipient of treasured memories from cousins - archives carefully packed and mailed to me for insight. I returned the goodies after scanning and photographing the contents. What a journey! At least 18 months in the making, The House on Harrison Street is launching at the Camden Daffodil Festival.

I am retired after over forty years in public education as an English and journalism teacher and school administrator. My passion for education traces to my great-great grandfather, Thomas Bullock Gordon, and to his son, my great grandfather Charles Thomas Gordon.

The strength to navigate life reaches back to all the women named Jane: Jane Elizabeth Tooke Gordon, Jane E McBride Campbell Ritchie, Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon, and even to a little-known aunt Janie Gordon. Infant Jane Horne, too.

In Sunrise in a Lemon Sky which I self-published in 2014, I hoped for partial anonymity by choosing the pen name E. J. (Ella Jane) Gordon.That degree of privacy never materialized, so I embraced the events, summoned strength, and told my story with candor.

So also did I research the shaded details of the Ritchies and the Gordons. I finally learned the truth and it cemented my admiration for the families included in the family history The House on Harrison Street.

As I told my own story, I have also told this one.

The House on Harrison Street will be available at the Camden Daffodil Festival on Friday and Saturday, March 11-12, 2016. The cost of the 8 x 10 size paperback is $20. The 208 page saga contains a full bibliography, end notes by chapter, and an index. A CD to accompany the book will be available. It contains more pictures and documents. Cost of the CD is $10.

Historic Houses on Tour during Daffodil Festival

The HOUSE ON HARRISON STREET was razed in 1959. The connection with the so-called "Maud Crawford House" on Greening is through Walter P Ritchie who built the house. The Ramsey House is connected through the Martha Virginia Ritchie. The Gordon house was built by George R Gordon.

Hope to see y'all at the Great Hall at UMC on Friday and Saturday. I'm NOT hosting the drop-by on Friday evening - too much going on for everyone!

Ramsey-McClellan-Pryor House

The Ramsey House  - Also known as Ramsey-McClellan-Pryor House - Many lovely, elaborate parties were held during Margaret Ramsey's youth. A popular socialite, Margaret was close in age to her cousin Mildred Gordon. Martha Virginia Ritchie (Stanley) Ramsey was Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon's sister and Margaret Ramsey's mother. The family called Mrs. Ramsey Cousin Mattie or Aunt Mattie.
Margaret Ramsey's half-sister was Marian Ramsey Brown (married W.W. Brown).Margaret Ramsey's tragic death is explained in the chapter about oil in South Arkansas and it involves Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Brown, Josephine Gaughan, and Anne Brown who were taking a lovely Sunday afternoon drive.

Gordon-Zoerner House

The Gordon House  -  Also known as Zoerner House or former Methodist Parsonage - Built by Geo. R. Gordon, brother of the Gordon Girls, son of Charles T. Gordon and Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon. He worked with his uncle George L Ritchie in Ritchie Supply. Geo. R. Gordon served as Mayor of Camden and as Ouachita County Judge.
The house was built in early 1920's and stands today after several remodels. After Geo. R. Gordon died, Emma Sue Gordon rented out rooms and created apartments to supplement her income. One of the roomers was Miss Eppie Gardner, one of Camden's well-known teachers.
The Methodist Church later owned this house as its parsonage and my classmate David Ivey had the pleasure of living there in the mid-1960's.

Both the Ramsey and the Gordon houses are open during the Camden Daffodil Festival.

Ritchie-Crawford House - Built by Walter P Ritchie at the height of the oil boom,it was mortgaged heavily during the Great Depression. When the bank took the house, Clyde Crawford bought it and he and his wife Maud lived there. Maud Crawford, the first and only female lawyer in Camden, mysteriously disappeared in March of 1957, from that house. My grandmother used Mrs. Crawford as her attorney as did several of Mildred's "ice cream and coke float," Lawrence Welk watcher friends. Many Camden families were connected to this mystery.

Telling Everything You Know

Mother, Thomas Gordon, and me

So when I told her I was embarrassed at school, Mother said, "You did not have to raise your hand at all, Margaret Jane. Just because someone asked did not mean you had to tell. Keep your hand down. Don't tell everything you know!"

In the case of the family history, I've told nothing that did not fill in the gaps between already known truths. The answers I found while talking to my cousins, the tidbits I've unearthed through research have added clarity to a cloudy story.

I'd always wondered about nuances surrounding the Gordons and the Ritchies. What I discovered brought it all into perspective for me. Sharing these stories is meant to preserve a heritage in Camden, a town I've always called "home."

While Mother may be saying once again, "Margaret Jane, you did not have to tell everything you know...," I'm trying to convince her that by sharing these stories, I'm keeping our family heritage alive, making sure our history is recorded for future generations. We are just like every other family with hidden, rarely mentioned truths; our skeletons now have been set free to dance.

The House on Harrison Street will be available at the Camden Daffodil Festival on Friday and Saturday, March 11- 12, 2016. The cost of the 8 x 10 size paperback is $20. The 208 page saga contains a full bibliography, end notes by chapter, and an index. A CD to accompany the book will be available. It contains more pictures and documents. Cost of the CD is $10.

I'll be at The Great Hall (UMC) - staying dry! See you there.
TOO MUCH GOING ON - no drop-by on Friday evening.

Money and Mayhem

Here's the truth. Where a man's treasure is, there his heart resides, also. So said somebody, at sometime. T. B. Gordon found peace in serving one Master and never sought wealth at the expense of honor, truth, integrity. T. B. Gordon and his son C. T. Gordon provided honorable role models for the family but with little practical or financial savvy.

The catch-phrase "Follow the Money" was popularized in 1976 with the movie All the President's Men, about the Watergate scandal. To find the truth, Woodward and Bernstein followed the money.

The phrase "Show me the money" came into American pop-lingo after Cuba Gooding, Jr. said it to Tom Cruise in Jerry McGuire.

Money.It's all about mayhem. Ouachita Valley Bank, Annuities with loans against them.The Great Depression, Bank failures, losses beyond calculation. At long last, I learned what happened.

Daffodils Weather the Flood

Margaret in 1927 (approx) - Ouachita River

The forecast for the Daffodil Festival Weekend looks wet.

Wet may be an understatement.

To quote one of the river watchers, "The Ouachita goes where it wants to go. The people who live in the flood-prone areas know this. They've lived with it for their entire lives and know what to do."

 Forecasts suggest that Sandy Beach will be "inundated" as will the River Walk area at the foot of Washington Street. Those of us who have lived in Camden, high above the winding river, have watched this river flood time and time again.

Whatever the case, the weekend will be interesting. The organizers always have plans B and C for the Festival.

Hwy 7 north of the Ouachita River bridge, I think.

Children gather upstairs in Ramsey Hall

                The Camden High School Class of 1966 celebrates its 50th year in 2016 - 50 years since one lovely evening in May we walked across the stage set up on the football field at Coleman Stadium.

Included in the book The House on Harrison Street 

is this photo: FRONT ROW: starting three from the left - Donald Robert Davis, Margaret Jane Dansby, Jeanette Fooks, skip, Frances Ellen Purifoy, Bill Morrison, Jimmy Stinson, and C. R. Magness. Other children from earlier classes are seated behind us: Linda Dawson, and Susan Burnham to name a few. 

                      When we were mere babes, this Sunday School photo was taken. It was discovered in Frances Usrey Hamel's collection and shared with me by cousin J. Cooper Usrey. Little Tattee is pictured in the back of the large meeting room where we heard Bible stories that came to life on felt story boards with cut-out characters and landscapes.

                        There we learned hymns of the faith that my Little Tattee played on the upright piano. It was probably all she could do to keep from making them "honky-tonk!"

                        After the general gathering in Ramsey Hall, we divided into small groups based on age, sometimes also separated Boys and Girls. One of my teachers was Mrs. Howard East and I'm sure I disappointed her when I struggled to memorize the Ten Commandments.

Ramsey Hall is the education building to the left.

The House on Harrison Street launches this weekend at the Camden Daffodil Festival, March 11-12-13, 2016.

She could spit watermelon seeds like a champ.

      Sunday dinners: grandmother at the head of the table, taking such a long time to eat that no one thought dessert would ever be served. A generous-sized monogrammed linen napkin spread across her lap, Mrs. Horne "patted her food," never took too much into her mouth, chewed with her mouth closed, and covered her plate with her hand as she shook a liberal amount of salt onto everything. Never did she make a clinking sound with her spoon against the glass as she stirred plenty of sugar into her iced tea. She sipped soup from the side of the spoon's bowl without slurping.


This same lady ate squirrel brains with scrambled eggs for breakfast and could spit watermelon seeds like a champ.

The House on Harrison Street will be available at the Camden Daffodil Festival on Friday and Saturday, March 11-12, 2016. The cost of the 8 x 10 size paperback of is $20. The 208 page saga contains a full bibliography, end notes by chapter, and an index. A CD to accompany the book will be available. It contains more pictures and a few documents. Cost of the CD is $10.

I'll be at the Great Hall Friday and Saturday afternoons and at the Ramsey House and the Gordon House in the mornings; that's the plan, anyway.
Friday evening 6-8PM, I'm hosting a drop-by at the Holiday Inn.

Meet the Gordon Sisters: Alice, Susie, Janie, Frances, and Mildred

Susie Gordon Ritchie

Alice Gordon Lide

Janie Gordon (upper left). Mildred with Margaret, Charlotte and Elinor

Frances Gordon Usrey

Mildred Gordon Horne