To the family -- if you do not see a family member listed. Email me with the infomation for member to be added
Twins Born August 20, 1913
Virginia, Died Sept 8, 1913
Finetta, Died Sept 10, 1913
MORE STORIES
The Headless Dog
" An unknown soldier was supposedly buried at this place in Deatsville we called ghost hollow. They say where the man was to have been buried, they couldn't find his body. There was this dog that didn't have no head that used to walk up and down the road at night. They say his ghost is in that old dog."
"One night daddy (Robert Richie) was at Buster's house. On the way home every time he made a step behind him with each step he made. Daddy was so afraid, he picked up a hand full of rocks to throw at the ghost and came running down the road home. Terrified..! the rocks still clutched tightly in his hand."
"One night my brother (Charlie) was coming around the side of the house and thought he saw a ghost. He yelled, Aunt Mirah is coming to get me. He took off running fast, and so far through the fields...nothing stopped him until he ran into a fence."
"It was getting about dusk one evening and my cousin Lewis asked us to go to his house for a meal. He said his mother invited us...but he was just afraid to walk through ghost hollow by himself. We didn't know until we got through ghost hollow and he told us...just joking, we aren't having dinner! It was getting dark now, so we had to walk back through the hollow. On the other side a car load of gypsies pulled up and said let's get them kids. We started running fast. Mama told us keep running. Don't stop. I lost my hat and got a thorn stuck in my foot. But we all kept running until we got home.
My Grandma (Mary Lewis Ritchie) told me stories about how times were when she was in slavery. She had marks on her back, they were deep scars that covered her entire back. She told us how they beat her, she showed us the marks on her back many times. I remember them well.
She also told us that she saw her mother being sold when she was a little girl and how she cried. She never saw or heard from her mother again.
My Grandma (Mary Lewis Ritchie) worked hard. She helped raise us when mama died. She used to work also at the house doing cooking, cleaning and laundry. I can remember walking up to the house one day and she ran me away saying "Girl don't you come up here while I'm working."
The Richie family (John, Robert, Roscoe, Virgie, James, Thomas) used to attend the Samuels Church when they were children. A one room grade school house was located on the property were they also attended.
The Richie's later in life would bring their families back to the Church for Annual Basket Meeting in August. Morning Church Service would be held then a big dinner would be served in the school house. Food was plentiful. Fried chicken, ham, greens, beans, tomatoes, potato salad, home made bread, pies, cakes and cobblers, cold drinks, just to name a few of the food items. For those who arrived late Mr. Jim Stoner would go around the picnic grounds and collect the offering for the church. It was a festive time and families would spend the entire day.
After eating, the men would gather together and share "those other drinks" with each other. Sometimes families would walk over to the Richie homestead (an old burned out house) . The land around it had lots of berries and fruit trees. Around the bend was the homestead of Grand Ma's. Although none of the structures were there, the Richie's took pride in telling and showing their children their home place.
