The Spider, The Fly, and Ritchie Grocer

Ritchie Grocer opened in 1886, according the OCHS Quarterly, Dec.2015. It was incorporated in 1903, per Morrison/Eppinette book (OCHS Quarterly) - Thank you to Teresa Harris.

This business was founded by John C. Ritchie and his business partner Abe Lazarus. It became a wide-spread grocery empire and headquarters eventually relocated to El Dorado and had operations in Texarkana and north Louisiana.

Ritchie Grocer in El Dorado.

Thomas Goss Dansby, Sr. was a wholesale grocery salesman who found employment with this enterprise after the Depression and moved his family to El Dorado from Ft. Smith. The family lived there until Betty graduated and moved to Little Rock for nursing school. The rest of the family moved to Camden and Goss, Sr. continued in his employment with this firm. Goss, Jr. (Buddy) enrolled as a junior in Camden High School.

Goss, Jr. and his mom and dad had an apartment in the Elliott House on Washington Street. He quickly became one of the most popular boys in the school. His good looks and charm were not lost on Margaret Horne, though she was a year older.

As fortune played out with the 1941 Camden Lumber Company fire, Margaret and family were displaced, living with Aunt Alice Gordon Lide on Washington Street. Their home was being refurbished, repaired, remodeled after it and others were damaged when sparks fell all over the Jackson Street houses and on those in close proximity. Luckily, the Court House was spared.

The story goes like this: Goss walked home from working at Patrick's Drug Store one day; the Spider lured the Fly onto the front porch.
As they say, the rest is history.

The House on Harrison Street is the family saga and launches during the Camden Daffodil Festival, March 11-12-13, 2016.