Scarlett's Staircase World

While Margaret never luxuriated in a life-style of wealth, her life was rich beyond measure. Her husband never purchased cousin Mattie's mansion on Cleveland Avenue at Graham Street.

The colonial revival home served as fodder for escapes into fantasy, a Scarlett staircase world.

DUCK!

Goss and Margaret Dansby 

His love for her overcame whatever she could throw his way, including a rolling pin and a high-heeled shoe.

"What a gal!"

Horne's Drug Store and The House on Harrison Street

Corner structure became Horne Drug Co.

Mildred Gordon met Claude Horne, I believe, when both were attendants at her sister's wedding: Frances Gordon married James C Usrey. Mr. Usrey, a pharmacist, surely knew Mr. Horne, also a pharmacist. Mib must have caught Claude's eye. "Don't you know? She's the youngest of the most eligible Gordon Girls!" They married April 17, 1917.

Fancy remodel in 1949

Horne Drug Company was established in 1923 and the first store was located at the corner of Adams (once called Main Street) and Jefferson. Later the Company became Horne's Drug Store. Soda Fountain and all, it was remodeled in 1949.

New building in 1953, owned today by Camden UMC

In 1953, Horne's Drug Store moved to the lot behind The House on Harrison Street and the modern full-line drug store was built there. At the same juncture, Thomas Gordon Dansby was born, Janie Gordon, and Frances Gordon Usrey died. Claude had died in 1950.

Goss Dansby managed the business and he and Margaret made the decision to move to her childhood home and help her mother. I'd been born while they lived in the garage apartment, so to me, living in The House on Harrison Street was home. Walk right out the back door and over to the drug store. The decision was monumental.

Thomas Gordon Dansby and Dad, Goss Dansby 

Parts of their stories are told in The House on Harrison Street which will be launched during the Camden Daffodil Festival, March 11-13, 2016.

Head-Strong and Beautiful: Scarlett has nothing on Margaret

Scarlett with the Tarrelton Twins

Margaret H Dansby

She wanted to be Scarlett O'Hara...with modern conveniences.

The classic Gone With the Wind was purchased by her mother and given to her to read when she was a teen, 1939.

After the first "fiddle-de-de," she was never the same.

5 Points and a Confession - Let's Be Clear

                                                        The House on Harrison Street:

1. Stand Alone - Each chapter can stand alone. That makes reading two or three chapters at a time easier. No one should plan to read the whole thing at one sitting (208 pages - 8x11). There is no test! haha You can even read Part III first, if you are more interested in 1901 - 1959.

Red River Campaign

Rev.War Soldier Thomas W Gordon

2. History- I used US History (well-known events) to put family history into perspective. Think of the United States Centennial (1876) and you'll have the year C.T. Gordon wed Ella Jane Ritchie!

3. Conversations - Each of the three parts contains hypothetical conversations and stories that are, indeed, creative. It happened just that way in my imagination. The facts are there, creatively told. You'll read phrases that let you know it's supposition. The conversations are meant to breathe life into stale dates and names on a time line.

4. Three Parts -

Mildred G Horne & Susie G Ritchie

    Part I contains early family history relative to colonial America and the Revolutionary War, early years in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.
    Part II contains references to family life in the mid-1800's, moves into Mississippi and south Arkansas. Arkansas during the Civil War is described and family life is highlighted until 1890 (approx).
    Part III begins at the Turn of the Century and contains stories relative to the Gordon-Ritchie family members on whom I could gather information.

5. Redundancy - As I began this project, I had difficulty keeping these family members correctly identified. Same names, same initials. Same names that skip a generation and use II and III to keep the child separate from the uncle or grandfather. J.C. Ritchie could be several different people.
I reiterated facts and dates within stories to provide clarity for me, hopefully for others. Now that I've lived closely with these folks for 18 months and read Parts I and II several times, I realize I belabored some points.

Jane

Bonus: Confession - I believed my parents had chosen "Jane" as my middle name because it was quick and easy after a long, complicated name like "Margaret." Then, I learned the story behind my name.  Betty Dale Willis and I began to use our middle names in a quiet rebellion in the 4th grade. I also used "Jane" because my mother was "Margaret." No one in the late 1960's was going to use the Camden-Southern-Double Name convention. You'll meet these women when you read The House on Harrison Street: Jane Elizabeth Tooke Gordon, Jane E McBride Campbell Ritchie, Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon, Janie Gordon, and Jane Horne.
                                                                                         

The Church, The Courthouse, and The House on Harrison Street

1931 - The Tornado.
           The Methodist Church.
           The Ouachita County Courthouse.
           Deaths, Massive Destruction, Miracles

           The fear Mother experienced that December midnight when she was 6 years old grips me as I recall the details she shared- the things she saw during that dark, savage night. The rampage left by the first tornado ever to hit Camden brought shock as "the pride of Ouachita County" and the Methodist Church were gutted. On the other corner, The House on Harrison Street remained, providing safety and sanctuary for the family.

The story is shared through Ella Gordon's words.


             The new courthouse that graces the corner in Camden today, built under the leadership of County Judge George R Gordon, was completed in 1933. Upgrades and interior remodels have come, but it's obvious, based on the close quarters and crowded rooms, that the structure is valued more for its history than its functionality.
             Surrounded by the pecan trees planted on the lawn by the Gordon family that lived across the street, the Court House served as a backdrop in many family photos.
              This Gordon family story is woven into the fabric of Camden history.

The House on Harrison Street - March 11-12-13, 2016 - to be launched at the Camden Daffodil Festival.

What Lies Beneath

NOT the actual pin - I can dream, though.

      The gift to her mother, a pin of considerable worth and beauty, rested inside its original box, on Jean's desk. Complete with enclosure card and engraving, perhaps a wedding token, an anniversary gift, the gift upon the birth of a child, it had dulled over the decades. "All my love, George."

Sold from the daughter's estate, the gift's extraordinary value reduced to the pittance of cash it brought.

The potential for disaster lurks below the surface. It's rarely seen.We, like those keeping watch in the murky night on an icy Atlantic, see only the tip of the iceberg. We rarely know the whole story.

The back story of the George R Gordon family is one that weaves its tragedy through the facts in The House on Harrison Street. Emotion spills like once dammed tears staining a favorite dress front. Anger, depression, and desperation disguised the characters in this family drama making them unrecognizable as their lives spun in disarray.

Read their tragic story throughout the latter portions of The House on Harrison Street - to be launched March 11-12-13, 2016 - Camden Daffodil Festival

Ritchie Supply and Warehouse becomes Gordon Supply - in The House on Harrison Street

              George Ritchie Gordon, honor graduate from Vanderbilt University, worked with his uncle George Louis Ritchie in the Ritchie Supply and Warehouse located at the foot of East Washington at the Ouachita River.

Credit to OCHS posted photos

        George Louis Ritchie 's store, the 1858 Warehouse he built, lasted into the late 1950's until it burned. It was a substantial building; even the structure's bricks  were made on site by slaves. It was the largest and most prominent business in Camden at the time, boasting a basement, main floor, and upstairs attic area.

        George L. served in the Army of the Confederacy and upon his return, lived at the Ritchie House, his mother's boarding house. He operated his own business and assisted his mother, Jane E Ritchie.

      Later, George L. created an upstairs apartment for himself at his Warehouse and Supply store. Downstairs, around the free-standing stove, the men of the city gathered. George L became a noted cotton buyer, financier, and a man of considerable wealth. George R Gordon worked at his side.

(Documents about the Warehouse, his apartment, and other genealogical materials are included on the CD, available separately as an ancillary to The House on Harrison Street.)

                When George Louis Ritchie died in 1913, his estate was substantial. Men jokingly remark that because he never married, he had money. An entirely different story surfaced while researching US Census records and listening to cousins' reports of the beautiful woman he really loved.

             At his uncle's death, George Ritchie Gordon assumed management and ownership of the Ritchie Supply and Warehouse and the business became known as Gordon Supply.

              How this all played out is one for the books - most notably the family history saga I penned.

The House on Harrison Street contains these stories. The book will be launched during the Camden Daffodil Festival, March 11-13, 2016.

Shattered Lives

After the boom and the accompanying bust, George R.Gordon's life turned upside down; the bottom dropped out of the US economy and those with much to lose, lost it. 

Worse than financial disaster, his emotional world shattered, resulting in a million shards that maimed family to such a degree that they became unrecognizable.

George R Gordon and the Italian Renaissance House

George Ritchie Gordon was named for Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon's brother - George Louis Ritchie.

George R Gordon became the Golden Boy. He was the living son among five daughters born to Ella Jane and Charlie Gordon. Their first child, a son, Thomas Bullock Gordon II (known as Little Tommy) died as an infant. The daughters were Alice, Susie, Janie, Frances, and Mildred. They adored him, supported him, risked reputation for him.

George R Gordon married Emma Sue Thomas, daughter of the Methodist preacher. Family lore indicates sister Alice introduced the couple.

Early in their marriage, they lived with his mother, Ella Gordon. That was sometime after 1913 when the larger home was built, the one most of us remember at 134 Harrison Street.

After the birth of George's and Emma Sue's son Charles Thomas Gordon II (Thomas) and daughter Jean Gordon, they moved to the Ritchie house on Washington Street (the one with all the porches). How long they lived there is unknown but long enough for Emma Sue to make a few pointed comments about "those ridiculous porches."

Early in the 1920's, presumably 1923, George R Gordon built the Italian Renaissance home on Washington Street which, during the 1960's, served as the parsonage for the Methodist Church. Original photos of this home are included in the book The House on Harrison Street.

This downstairs living areas of this house will be open during the Camden Daffodil Festival, March 11-12, 2016.

Multiple stories surrounding George R Gordon and the combined Gordon-Ritchie families with all the tragedy, trauma, and the triumph are shared in The House on Harrison Street which will be launched March 11 - 13, 2016, during the Camden Daffodil Festival.

Ella's Vision

"She'll grow from this," thought Ella of her daughter Mildred. "More heartaches will come, but she'll be stronger for it. There will be more children, more joy, perhaps even another Jane somewhere down the line."

When Claude and Mib buried their first born, their daughter Jane Horne who was named in honor of Ella Jane Gordon, little did they know that, indeed, another Jane would have a story to tell.

Family Ties Weave, Loop, Bind During Daffodil Festival

Julia Sonora Ritchie was an older sister of Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon. Julia Sonora married E. S. Greening, but she died as a very young mother, presumably of meningitis, though it was called "brain inflammation" in the death records.

When she died, leaving E. S. Greening as a widower with very young children, the family combined with the Lides, related to the Greenings also through marriage.

Only through research, walking through Oakwood Cemetery, and by reading Josephine Taylor's compilation of information about graves in the cemetery did I learn more about Julia Ritchie and husband E. S. Greening.

Visiting with Kathy Boyette and studying archived documents at OCHS stimulated my curiosity. It's taken over 18 months to pull all the documents together.That's after pulling out all of mother's research as well as documentation from my grandmother and cousins. I opened boxes Mother had saved, labeled, and secured with shipping tape.

Inside one large box inside the garage storage closet, I found a Mrs. See's Candy box. Opened, it revealed a lady's fan, several of Nana's handkerchiefs, and a portrait of both C.T. Gordon, Nana's Papa, and one of George L Ritchie, Nana's Uncle George. No candy, fortunately. I'd never seen these photos and could not believe how I discovered them.

At the summer writers' retreat at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer House and Education Center just north of Rector, where I currently live, I began to tie my own research and stories together. Taking information about creative non-fiction to heart, I attempted to breathe life into the characters and have them speak their own tales.

The House on Harrison Street is a family saga of the Gordons and the Ritchies and how it links with the history of Camden. The book will be launched during the Daffodil Festival, March 11-13, 2016.

Oil!

However beautiful the sound of a rumbling and gushing oil well might be, whatever the people said about the slick, inky rivers that covered the landscape, tragedy accompanied that ecstasy.

Even in 1956, as James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, et al, starred in GIANT, the oil industry continued to be volatile.

My cousins and I have come to joke about becoming oil barons because the divisions that have occurred over the generations have diminished the mineral return check to far less than the annual taxes.

Pam and I wonder "Where is Rhett? Scarlett will have to visit him in the 'horse jail' in order to pay the taxes." We take turns wearing the green curtains!

The Gordons never came into wealth, however, especially not from oil.

Read about how oil changed south Arkansas and its families forever. Of note would be the families associated with three Camden young  ladies - Margaret Ramsey, Josephine Gaughan, and Anne Brown.

The House on Harrison Street will be available at the Camden Daffodil Festival on Saturday, March 12, 2016. The announcement as to where my booth will be located will be made soon. 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 documents. Cost of the CD is $10.

Ramsey-McClellan-Pryor House Open during Daffodil Festival

     The Ramsey-McClellan-Pryor House will be open for the Camden Daffodil Festival (Friday and Saturday, 9-4 according to the Camden Daffodil Festival Web Site.
     Mother always wanted Daddy to buy that house for her. Whether she had Scarlett Staircase Dreams or was just partial to old family homes is up for debate. Daddy was savvy enough to waltz around this "money pit." He knew it would take far more than our finances would allow for the house to return to its glory days and Camden is surely grateful to all the families who have seen its beauty and have vowed to preserve it.
     Martha Virginia Ritchie (sister to Ella Jane Ritchie Gordon) married second Walter King Ramsey. He was a widower and she'd lost her husband, Mr. H. Stanley, former principal of the Boys High School. Both had children from the previous marriages, including "Sister Marian."
     Sister Marian married W.W. Brown. That's another story.
     Margaret Ramsey,one of Aunt Mattie and W.K. Ramsey's children, was close to my grandmother's age and her first cousin. Mother told me that Margaret Ramsey often hosted galas at the mansion on Cleveland Avenue. Miss Ramsey met with a tragic death which is key in the story entitled "OIL!"
     The House on Harrison Street contains multiple references to the Ramsey-McClellan-Pryor House and to the stories about the people who lived and loved there. The family saga (Gordon-Ritchie) will be launched at the Camden Daffodil Festival, March 11 - 13, 2016.

The Love of Language: The Flower Parade by C. T. Gordon

C. T. Gordon was especially well-known for his oratory skills, made possible by a superb delivery style, creative and clear word pictures, command of the language with well-established classical allusions.  He left no doubt as to his mental capacity as he entertained crowds with speeches of grandeur and brilliance. His manner suggested that he delighted in delivering the speech as much as he did in writing it.  The crowds thrilled to his style and good humor, sharing in what few could equal: eloquence and intelligence.

C.T. Gordon  Home is in the background, the original House on Harrison Street

Included in The House on Harrison Street is a portion of one of Professor Charles T. Gordon's speeches entitled "The Flower Parade."  The document was discovered during research at the Ouachita County Historical Society, saved inside one of Mrs. Sifford's scrapbooks. I can hear his delivery, just by the placement and choice of words. Though I never knew him, nor did my mother know him, I've always admired his character and his incredible intelligence.

The portion that was published in The Camden News transports the reader to a time when lofty principles and classical allusion were praised and appreciated.





The House on Harrison Street will be available at the Camden Daffodil Festival on Saturday, March 12, 2016. The announcement as to where my booth will be located will be made soon. 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 documents. Cost of the CD is $10.

Gordon Sisters: Blood was always thicker than water

As complex as a love-hate relationship, sisterhood wraps every confounding emotion into one mighty battle for center-stage, regardless of what Louisa May Alcott told in her post-Civil War publication Little Women. Jo, Amy, Beth, and Meg March had nothing on Alice, Susie, Janie, Frances, and Mib Gordon.

Distinctively different in personality, but joined by a dedication to each other, the Gordon Girls were sisters in the truest sense of the word. While any of the sisters at any time could morph into what could be inspiration for the five Bennett sisters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, usually the sisters were an unmovable object gaining strength through their solidarity, regardless of the force swaying them to make a change.

Frances, Susie, and Mildred 

Sisters can be the strongest and most severe of rivals, but when push comes to shove, the Gordon Girls circled the wagons and took no prisoners.

The complicated relationships found in Pride and Prejudice have nothing on Camden, Arkansas connections as they play out in The House on Harrison Street: the Gordon-Ritchie Saga.

What Will People Say

She would have shaken her head, widened her eyes, put her hands on her ample hips and insisted, "It's not fittin'; it's just not fittin'; I tell you, Mr. Rhett, somthin' not quite right is going on in that big house with all the porches."

Had Butterfly McQueen watched the shenanigans of the Gordons and the Ritchies between 1899 and 1903, she would have had a few things to say. Trust me on this.

From Fair Verona to Peyton Place, even including the movie Picnic, "history of the nation is only the history of its villages written large." Or so penned Woodrow Wilson in 1900.

When convention says one thing and the heart says another, tongues wag.

Save Me From a World Without Coffee

During those horrid years of war, commerce came to a halt, except for absolute necessities.



COFFEE for me is an absolute necessity. I would not have made a good Civil War era southern belle without my morning coffee. Preferably brought to my bedchamber, as it is now, by my charming, oh so devilishly good-looking husband.

Two musts for beginning a morning: knowing you are loved and taking that first sip of freshly brewed caffeine.



To think that coffee, a vital drink of the masses, was substituted for with a concoction of sweet potato pressings and other vegetable juices.

                                                        Are. You. Kidding. Me.

Camden residents endured the War with bravery and gumption. Whether they had coffee was the least of their worries. The Camden Expedition and other events surrounding south Arkansas during this era are incorporated into the stories about the Ritchie men and the women left to defend the home front.

Of special note is the story of J. F. Ritchie, eldest son of John Calhoun Ritchie and Jane Campbell Ritchie, officer in the Capital Guard, severely wounded at the Battle of Murfreesboro.

The House on Harrison Street:  The Gordon-Ritchie Saga will be launched during the Camden Daffodil Festival, March 11-12-13, 2016 in Camden, Arkansas.

Ritchie Strength and Courage

A watershed moment came when John Calhoun Ritchie was stricken by a sudden and incurable illness weeks after moving into the city of Camden. He died in early 1861, leaving his wife Jane E Ritchie with one son, John Campbell, at home (age 14), and four daughters:  Frances Alabama, Julia Sonora, Martha Virginia, and Ella Jane (age 4). Her older sons, James Franklin and George Louis, had arrived in Camden earlier and were already making names for themselves through Frank's law practice and George's various endeavors, the most successful being the building and operating of Ritchie Supply and Warehouse..

As war drew nigh, both James Franklin Ritchie and George Louis Ritchie enlisted in the Army of the Confederacy.

Follow the story and learn about strength from the Ritchie Family, now led by matriarch Jane E McBride Campbell Ritchie; in the Gordon-Ritchie Saga, she is the original "single mom."



The House on Harrison Street:  The Gordon-Ritchie Saga is told as creative non-fiction. It
contains stories, conversations, tidbits and morsels to answer lingering questions. Some questions, however, have no answers.

Book Launch:  Camden Daffodil Festival - March 11, 12, 13, 2016

The Spittin' Image of Her Daddy

I may have seen his photograph once.  Hanging on a wall in Ruston, Louisiana with all the other good-looking Ritchie men. Seeing his photograph again after so many years gave me pause. He was a very handsome man. The kind I'm drawn to - dark hair and eyes, a look in those eyes that proclaims knowledge, strength, and serious business. His youngest daughter was my great grandmother. She was the "spittin' image" of her daddy.

He came out of South Carolina, the Abbeville District, Old 96, and was connected through marriage to the Caldwells and the Calhouns of that political hotbed.
His name: John Calhoun Ritchie. The surname could also be spelled Richey, as various spellings of the same name still revealed the same family. Naming conventions are important when tracing ancestry.

John Calhoun Ritchie married Jane E McBride Campbell. They had three sons and four daughters. Their story is remarkable as they carved their names into Camden and Ouachita County, Arkansas, history.

The House on Harrison Street:  The Gordon-Ritchie Saga is told as creative non-fiction. It contains stories, conversations, tidbits and morsels to answer lingering questions. Some questions, however, have no answers.

The book will be launched during the Camden Daffodil Festival:  March 11-12-13, 2016.

Outspoken Educator

Honor and Wealth; Integrity and Success
T. B. Gordon had plenty to say on the subject of truth, honesty, and corrupt practices in society.
He often penned an editorial for The Eagle (El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas).

Speak truth and act honestly under all circumstances - these concepts drove his choices, his decisions. Never would he say, "Make money honestly, if you can, but if you cannot make it honestly, make it anyhow."  He taught, "Riches acquired at the sacrifice of truth or honesty were a disgraceful curse."

Those persons involved in the calling of education are seldom thus engaged for the purpose of accumulating wealth.

The Jean McBride Mystery

More than one mystery surrounds Jane E McBride Campbell. A new one recently unfolded with no answers and plenty of questions.
Cousin  J. Cooper Usrey discovered a dusty volume of classic literature. The volume contains no copyright date in the now customary location but it was published in 1861. The illustrator is of significance- Gustave Dore (Google him): the volume is Don Quixote.

An inscription is contained within the book along with the signature of the owner of the book: Frances Usrey. (Frances Gordon Usrey or Frances Usrey Hamel?)

Many questions. No answers.


Can anyone find genealogical proof of a lady named Jean McBride Campbell, the lady who may have been married to John M. Campbell of Lincoln County, Tennessee, the man who  also married a lady named Amy in Dallas County, Alabama? This woman (Jean McBride) could be the mother of Jane McBride Campbell and Mahala Campbell Moseley, and several other older children who were born in Tennessee.

Everyone loves a good mystery. You have mysteries and unsolved riddles in your family and I have them in mine.

Check it out.
The House on Harrison Street:  The Gordon-Ritchie Saga is told as creative non-fiction. It contains stories, conversations, tidbits and morsels to answer lingering questions. Some questions have no answer.

The book will be launched during the Camden Daffodil Festival:  March 11-12-13, 2016.

Gordon Heritage Established Through Original Documents

To say I'm a hoarder would be unkind and somewhat of a bridge too far. Pack-rat, perhaps. Retired teacher in love with paper, today known as "hard copies"would fit.

Heritage-keeper sounds more akin to who I am. And, quite similar in nature to my mother and her mother who kept items of significance and passed them along to me with the admonition, "Don't lose this."

One of the items traveling the heritage road was a barely-holding-together manila envelope with my father's notations clearly visible. I tucked it away for safe keeping.

Inside that manila envelope of documents related to the Sue Gordon Estate was a smaller envelope with "Important" noting its value, the word with its underline was in my grandmother's handwriting. Therein: Original documents. Paper of worth: in original condition with official seal and beautifully flowing, hand-written land descriptions on multiple document dating to the mid-1800s. The original descriptions are contained on the original Land Grants belonging to Thomas Bullock Gordon, my grandmother's grandfather.

Land Grants west of the Mississippi River meant open opportunity for prosperity, away from the maddening discourse of divisiveness. For Thomas Bullock Gordon and Jane Elizabeth Tooke Gordon the promise of a new day and a new way urged them forward.

Accompanying the couple to Arkansas were her father and her brothers. It is unknown as to why her mother remained in Talbot County, Georgia.

Upon their two children born in Union County, Arkansas, the Gordon heritage in south Arkansas was established: Charles Thomas Gordon and Mary Sue Gordon.

The House on Harrison Street:  The Gordon-Ritchie Saga is told as creative non-fiction. It contains stories, conversations, tidbits and morsels to answer lingering questions.

The book will be launched during the Camden Daffodil Festival:  March 11-12-13, 2016.

Sweethearts: Thomas B and Jane E

Thomas Bullock Gordon counted his years as 30-plus, having no sweetheart, no lady-friend, no good woman anywhere in sight. One thing T.B. Gordon did possess, however, in addition to superior intelligence was impeccable connections. Methodist connections played a pivotal role within the Gordon family.

Read how Thomas Bullock Gordon and Jane Elizabeth Tooke became acquainted and how T. B. Gordon found favor in the family of James Jefferson Tooke, Sr. in Talbotton, Georgia.

The House on Harrison Street:  The Gordon-Ritchie Saga is told as creative non-fiction. It contains stories, conversations, tidbits and morsels to answer lingering questions.




The book will be launched during the Camden Daffodil Festival:  March 11-12-13, 2016.