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!

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