The Jordan Story

Recollections

Scholdberg/Jordan Descendants

Recollections of Herbert Arthur Jordan

As follows are recollections of Herbert A. Jordan, known to me as Grandpa Jordan and to his friends as Herb. Contributions to these recollections were made by: Elizabeth Jordan, his wife; his three sons, Harold, Herbert (Herb), and Edward (Ed); Herb's wife Dorothy; Ed's wife, Jeanne; and his grandson, Dave.

The Early Years

Herbert O. Jordan was born July 24, 1898 at 1453 Fillmore Street in Chicago. The middle initial "O" probably stood for Oscar, which was his father's middle name. By 1917, Herbert was using the middle initial "A" for Arthur, one of his brother's names. Possibly the reason he changed was that in 1911 his mother left his father and it was up to Herbert and his mother to take care of the young Jordan family. So perhaps Herbert just wanted to disassociate his name from his father's.
My dad, Edward C. Jordan relished in telling a story about his father, Herbert as a young boy traveling a long way with his family to Wisconsin. The Jordans were returning to Chicago in an old Model T and there were seven flat tires. They had to stop every few hours to jack up the car and put on another patch. My grandmother, Elizabeth M. Jordan remembered that her husband Herbert told her that he once visited his great-grandmother Elizabeth Steward in an old people's home. He remembered it being a long trip and it was near a big river. It is possible these were the same trip. Elizabeth Steward died in her 80s at Dane County Poor House in Wisconsin on 12 April 1908. It is possible James Oscar Jordan took Herbert up to visit at the old people's home in Verona in 1907-08. Young Herbert would have been 9 years old. My parents visited Verona, Wisconsin in the late 1970's and took a picture of an old nursing home by a river that seemed to my dad to be reminiscent of the old people's home he remembered from the story. So it is possible all of this just might connect into a single story.
After his mother filed the complaint against her husband in November 1911, young Herbert had to quit school to work to help support his mother, Margaret and the other Jordan children, Francis, Ed, Charles, and Art. Assuming this was in 1912, Herbert would have been about 13 years old and had just finished grade school. Young Herbert learned to play the drums and accompanied his mom, while she played the piano at vaudeville and the local silent movie theaters, called nickelodeons.
When he was an older teen, Herbert participated in the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament. The Golden Gloves were amateur boxing matches sponsored by the Chicago meat companies in the stockyards. Herbert worked for Morris Meat Company in 1916 and 1917. My dad recalled that he boxed with "Terrible Terry McGovern," the Lightweight Champ of 1915. Herbert was about 17. Years later, in the 1950s, my cousin, Ray Ulrich and I attended the Golden Gloves Tournament with Ray's dad who worked at the Armour Meat Company.
Herbert Jordan met Elizabeth Page at the Morris Meat Company where she was a cashier. The Morris Company was a huge company in the Chicago Stockyards.
Herbert and Elizabeth were married on August 21, 1918 at St. Raphael's in Chicago during a leave from the Army.
After the marriage Herbert was to go overseas with his unit, but he got very sick from the flu and almost died. The flu that year was the “Great Influenza Epidemic” of 1918, which killed millions of people. I recall hearing that he was sick for six weeks and by then the war was over. He was then discharged, so he never had to go overseas.

The 1920s and 30s

Throughout his life, Herbert had many jobs from bookkeeper to streetcar motorman to mailman to hamburger restaurant owner to builder.
My dad, Ed recalled that when he was a kid the family would buy a live turkey at Thanksgiving. When the day arrived, his dad would chop off the turkey’s head in the basement. That’s the way it was done in the old days.
Herbert was a streetcar operator during the 1920s. One day he hit an unruly passenger with the big iron pole the operators used to control the car.
John Page brought his son-in-law, Herbert Jordan, into his construction business for short time. They called it J/P Construction for Jordan/Page Construction. One of their specialties was putting basements under existing houses. This involved jacking up the house, using teams of horses to drag the dirt out, and then building a foundation under the lifted house. This was probably a part time effort for Herbert as he always had other jobs such as a streetcar driver or mailman. Herbert learned his carpentry skills through working with his father-in-law. Later in life, Herbert went into the home contracting business in California.
My dad recalled that his father started a couple of hamburger stands in the late 1920s or early 1930s. One was at 69th and Halsted and the other was at 63rd and Ashland. Son Harold recalled that his father ran a bookie business in the back of the restaurant where there were numerous telephone lines to make the bets. Harold also recalled that the 63rd and Ashland hamburger restaurant was jointly operated with his dad's brother Eddie. Herbert claimed Eddie "robbed him blind" in the operation of the business. Later after his divorce, Eddie took his kids to California.
Harold, my uncle and the oldest child recalled he would accompany his dad in his drives around Chicago. Herbert liked to talk and be around people. He was interested in politics and Harold would help him decorate the car for the campaigns. My dad recalled that his father would take his paycheck to the bar and buy everyone a round of drinks and then come home without enough money for the week.
My dad always said his family moved 17 times when he was a kid. He would say, "We were always one step ahead of the bill collectors." The Jordans were poor and it was tough times during the "Depression." Grandpa Jordan couldn't or wouldn't pay the bills. Instead he used what money they had to get a new place, pay for a while, then hold back until they got "kicked out." The family used to move a piano each time but finally got tired of moving it so often and left it behind.

The California Years

By the early 1940s, the boys (Harold, Herb, and Ed) were out of high school and working. Times were still tough so Herbert Jordan and his brother Chuck left Chicago for California to seek work. Grandma Elizabeth stayed behind in Chicago with the three boys. Herbert's mother, Margaret Graham lived in the Los Angeles as did his sister Frances, and brother's Ed, and Art. He got a job in a Defense Plant and there is a picture showing him and his brother, Art in front of 6324 Klomp in North Hollywood in December 1942. Herbert completed his Social Security Application in Chicago on October 10, 1942 and stated his address as 6834 S. Throop. Thus he must have left for California between October and December 1942.
My dad recalled that while his dad was in California during 1942-43, he would call home collect and then talk endlessly, leaving a big bill for the three boys to pay. Telephone rates at the time were extremely high compared to wages so I'm sure it was a big burden, especially if the talk was about nothing much.
My mom, Jeanne believed that Herbert was not only looking for work in California but planned to start a new life for himself there with our without Elizabeth. He may have decided the boys were old enough to be on their own and that he had fulfilled his responsibilities. It is also likely there was a struggle between him and his wife as to where to live, with his relatives being in California and hers in Chicago and maybe he just needed to get away for a while to sort things out.
Over the winter of 1942-1943, though Grandma Jordan slipped and fell and broke her leg on the Chicago ice. Grandpa Jordan blamed the boys for not taking care of her but with his son Herb in Officer's Candidate School and with Ed's pending enlistment, he realized he needed to come back to Chicago to take care of her. Jeanne heard that when he came in on the train it was so crowded because of the war and all the soldiers that he had to sit on his suitcase the whole way.
In April 1943, Grandpa Jordan, Harold and my mom took my dad to the bus station for his trip to San Antonio to start Army Air Cadet training.
Sometime in the next few months, as my mom tells it Herbert and Elizabeth reconciled and she reluctantly agreed to move to California with him. Her relatives including her parents, brothers and sisters were all in the Chicago area and I'm sure she wanted to stay. Perhaps though she had no real choice as two of her boys were in the Armed Forces and Harold was engaged to be married. Herbert was a difficult man to be with as he was loud, gruff, and controlling. Elizabeth was quiet, pleasant and easy to be with and it must have been a difficult decision for her to leave behind her parents, brothers and sisters and sons and go off to California. Later though two of her three children settled in California. And between having her children and grandchildren around and the excellent weather she did come to like it there. She went on to live a long life and died there at age 91 in 1987.
As best as can be determined, Herbert and Elizabeth left for California in the late summer or fall of 1943. Herb and Ed were away and Jeanne recalls that her fiancé, Ed had her go over to the Jordan's home at 6934 S. Throop to save a few prized possessions before his family threw them out as it was too expensive to take a lot of things across the country. Jeanne recalls retrieving Ed's guitar, a leather jacket and few mementos.
About 1945, Harold and his fiancée called off their engagement and Harold moved to California to be with his folks. He later married and raised a family there.
After Ed joined United Airlines in 1945, he was able to obtain yearly free passes for his parents. Herbert and Elizabeth used to fly to Chicago from Los Angeles on the old prop planes to visit several weeks every year. They visited us at 83rd Street in Chicago and later in Evergreen Park. This way they were able to visit their sons Ed and Herb and their families and also Grandma's brothers and sisters. I can still remember when Grandpa visited in Evergreen Park. He would stay in the back bedroom with me. Could he ever snore! The walls would rattle.
Even in the 1950s, Grandpa Jordan was still trying to keep one step ahead of the bill collectors. When you called them on the phone, it was necessary to let the phone ring twice, then redial. One time when I was with my dad in California, we wanted to call to get together. Unfortunately we were in a motel room without direct dial phones. I remember how my dad patiently explained and re-explained to the operator how she had to call twice.
In the mid-1950s son Herb and his family moved to California.
Grandpa Jordan built houses in California in the 1950s and 60s. For a while, he built them one at a time and did reasonably well. He did all the carpentry including making the kitchen cabinets. However, sometime in the late 1950s, he decided to build several houses at once. Unfortunately when he couldn’t sell them quickly, he lost his working capital and couldn’t meet expenses. To try to avoid bankruptcy, he flew to Chicago, using his annual airline pass to ask for loans from the banks and from the relatives. He tried to borrow five hundred or thousand from everyone he knew. I recall that he needed about $20,000 to get out the jam. I believe dad lent him $1000 and we never saw it again and I think he lost most of the houses on foreclosure to the bank.