The Jordan Story

James and Margaret Jordan Chapters

James and Margaret Jordan Family

by Dave Jordan

James Oscar Jordan and Margaret Jane Knowles married December 30, 1896 in Chicago. James was 28 and Margaret was 18. Rev. H. Frances Perry, a Baptist minister living at 513 62nd Street, perhaps from the Englewood Baptist Church performed the marriage. It appears that James moved from his family's West Side neighborhood in the Douglas Park area to 837 W. Garfield shortly after the marriage. This new locale is about a mile west of 5734. Wabash where Margaret's father William Knowles, stepmother, Sarah and siblings Muriel and Wilfred lived. A few months later on March 24, 1897, William Knowles, Margaret's father died of tuberculoses. He had been ill for some time. Later in 1897 James and Margaret moved back to the Douglas Park area to 1453 Fillmore to stay with James' brother and mother.

On July 24, 1898, their first child, Herbert Arthur Jordan was born and shortly afterward James, Margaret and young Herbert moved a couple of doors down the street to 1467 Fillmore where they had their own apartment. Meanwhile his mother, brothers and uncle moved to nearby 1153 W. 13th Street.

James and Margaret had five children, four boys and a girl. They were:

  1. Herbert Arthur Jordan, my grandfather, born July 24, 1898 at 1453 Fillmore Street in Chicago.
  2. Francis Florence Jordan born about 1900 at 1467 Fillmore Street in Chicago.
  3. Edward A. Jordan born about 1902 probably at 2100 Grenshaw Street in Chicago. It is thought that the middle name is Arthur.
  4. Charles J. Jordan born October 16, 1903 probably at 2100 Grenshaw Street in Chicago. It is thought that the middle name is Joseph, possibly after his g-grandfather Joseph Steward.
  5. Arthur S. Jordan born about 1904, possibly at 7412 Wentworth Street, Chicago

An attempt was made to find the birth registration for my grandfather, Herbert Jordan. Birth registrations were not required before 1916 in Illinois but sometimes a delayed registration is filed. Herbert filed a delayed registration in 1942 and that record was found. An attempt was also made to find Arthur S. Jordan's birth registration but no registration was found at all. Because there records were not usually filed in Illinois for these early years, it was decided not to pursue the birth registrations of the other Jordan children; however, they might be there.

One of the reasons the Arthur S. Jordan birth registration was of interest was the middle initial "S". It was hoped that it might be Scholdberg or Steward. It is not known why the family used the names Herbert, Arthur, Francis, Florence and Edward as none of these names are in the previous family history. Most likely the parents just liked the names or they were popular at the time.

Around 1904, the Jordans moved from the old neighborhood in the Douglas Park area to south of the stockyards closer to where Margaret's parents lived in the late 1890s. For a number of years beginning in 1907 they lived at 5746 S. State. However, also in 1907, James' mother and brother Charles left Chicago to live in Madison and it appears James joined them under the alias John. This may have been one of the rumored periods when James left his family for a while.

In 1910, James and his family moved to 7237 Vincennes. They lived there for two years and this was their home during the 1910 Census and the last home they lived as a family before the separation. The Jordans had two boarders when the census was taken. These were Muriel Woodbury and Robert Graham. Muriel was Margaret's sister who was then separating from her husband of five years Robert Woodbury. She would later marry William Leonhardt. The other boarder, Robert Graham, remained a friend to Margaret throughout the decade and they were eventually married in 1920 after a decade of hardship after her 1911 separation from James.

Notes
  1. Initial Web Publication Date: 9/16/2002
  2. Modified:
  3. Desktop Master file: Stories_Jordan