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.