The Jordan Story

Joseph and Elizabeth Steward Chapters

The Joseph and Elizabeth Steward Family

by Dave Jordan

Elizabeth Holloway

Elizabeth Holloway was born in about 1825 or 1826, probably in Poplar, England a town in the borough of Tower Hamlets just to the west of central London. I say probably in Poplar, because that is what all her census records indicate; however, her obituary says she was born in St. Albans, England. St. Albans is a town about 30 miles northwest of London. Perhaps she was born there and came to Poplar as a very young child or St. Albans was a parish in Poplar.

Her father’s name was William Holloway and he was probably born about the year 1800. At the time of Elizabeth’s marriage in 1848, William was employed as a "trenail mooter." A trenail is a wooden pin for fastening together timbers for the old wooden sailing ships, and is sometimes spelled "tree nails". When below the waterline and wet the wooden pegs would swell thus assuring a tight fit of the timbers. The trenails needed to be brought to a standardized size so as to fit properly into pre-drilled holes. To do this "a ring gauge called a "moot" was used for checking the diameters of treenails. Hence the "trenail mooter" was the one who brought the trenail to the proper diameter with a moot, probably with a chisel, or mechanical grinder. I can visualize old William in a partially open-air company carpentry shop, with a carpenter's apron, a chisel in hand, pairing down a trenail. Surrounding him are hundreds of trenails in boxes waiting for him to take each one, size it with the metal moot and make modifications. Can't you hear the sounds of the shop and see the piles of wood chips on the workbench and floor from his careful work?

At this time, Elizabeth's mother's name is unknown as are any brothers and sisters. In the spring of 1846, Elizabeth Holloway at the age of about 20 became pregnant. She was unmarried and the society of the times provided a place for unmarried mothers to go. In Poplar, it was called the Poplar Union Workhouse. In prior decades each parish would take care of its old, infirm, and unwed mother's. But for some poor parishes the burden was too great so the concept of the "union" was born. Thus each town would have a common house, supported by a number of parishes and the government to provide lodging and support for the sick, the infirm, the poor, unwed mothers, and for those looking for work. These were commonly called Union Workhouses, probably because the focus was on finding work for the poor who would collect there.

On 27 February 1847, Elizabeth gave birth to a young girl who she named Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway. No father was listed on the registration. It appears that it was common at the time not to name the father on the birth registration when the child was illegitimate and there were no plans to marry. For the registration, the child was given her mother's surname and carried it throughout life, which is what Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway did, using the name Holloway as part of her name even when she was a Steward, Scholdberg and Jordan. It is not known how long mother Elizabeth was at the workhouse, but it was likely for some time before and afterward.

Joseph John Steward

Sixteen months after young Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway was born at the Poplar Union Workhouse, Elizabeth Holloway married Joseph Steward at St. Mary’s Stratford Bow. This was on 11 June 1848.

Joseph John Steward was born about 1825 in Poplar, England. His father was John Isaac Steward who was born about 1793-96 in the County of Norfolk. At the time of his marriage, Joseph was a rigger and his father John Steward was a shipwright. Rigging can be a variety of tasks such as fitting the rigging to the old wooden sailing ships or working with hoisting, tackle, cranes, pulleys, and scaffolds. A shipwright is a ship's carpenter and in John's case and Poplar's proximity to the dry docks he was probably involved in wooden shipbuilding or ship repair.

Joseph and Elizabeth Steward

One of our key issues is whether Joseph Steward was young Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway's father. Joseph and Elizabeth had a stable family after their marriage and from the data available it appears that Elizabeth Priscilla is treated as his own. On the key 1851 census, the one closest to their marriage in 1848, Elizabeth, age four, is clearly shown as daughter to the "Head" and not "adopted daughter" or "mother's daughter" or the like. And her surname is clearly Steward. Both these entries thus strongly suggest our Elizabeth was the daughter of Joseph Steward, the man Elizabeth Holloway married 11 June 1848, some 16 months after Elizabeth's birth. Later, Joseph and Elizabeth took her children in during the 1881 and 1891 census long after she had married. In fact, for the 1881 census, Elizabeth's children were referred to as grandsons in relation to Joseph Steward. Thus the data seems to strongly suggest that Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward was Joseph's daughter.

A year after their marriage, young Joseph John Steward was born on 18 June 1849 at 13 Williams Street in Poplar. Joseph John would be a Jr. since he had the same name as his father. Then on 27 February 1851, another son Charles Hooper Steward was born. This birth was at 12 Chrisp Street in Poplar. Although a random event, the 27th of February was the same date as Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway was born four years earlier. Young Elizabeth and Charles may have bonded by their shared birth date, as they remained close throughout their lives.

On the 19th March 1851, the family arranged for a triple baptism. On this day at All Saints, Poplar, Elizabeth Priscilla Steward, age 4, Joseph John Steward, almost 2, and Charles Hooper Steward, age 3 weeks were all baptized. The event seems to show a stable marriage and one in which Elizabeth Priscilla is again officially named a Steward and Joseph as her father.

Two years later on 23 August 1853, the third Steward son was born. He was named William Robert Steward. William was also born at 12 Chrisp Street in Poplar. William was probably named after his maternal grandfather William Holloway. The middle name Robert, though, is unusual for the family and may help link our Steward family to other Steward families. The Steward's last child and fourth son was Henry Steward, born 22 March 1858 at 3 Jeremiah Street in Poplar.

On 24 May 24 1867, Joseph and Elizabeth Steward's only daughter, Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward, married Knut Oscar Scholdberg at St. Mary's Stratford Bow in Poplar. Elizabeth was 20 years old. They established their own household and had their first child, Joseph Canute Oscar Scholdberg a year later.

By the 1871 Census, Joseph (age 45) and Elizabeth (age 45) had moved to 20 Wade Street, which was to be their home until 1893. Elizabeth had moved out with her marriage but the four boys Joseph (age 21), Charles (19), William (17), and Harry (14) still lived at home. Joseph and all the boys except William were stevedore laborers, probably at the nearby docks. Williams was a paperhanger. A stevedore is a person employed in the loading and unloading of ships.

By the 1881 Census, Joseph (age 55) and now employed as a dock laborer and Elizabeth (age 56) were still living at 20 Wade Street, but all their boys were out on their own. However, there were three grandchildren with them the night of April 3, 1881. The grandsons were Oscar Scholdberg (age 13), Charles Scholdberg (age 7), and James Jordan (age 1). These were their daughter Elizabeth's children from her marriage to Oscar Scholdberg and James Jordan. Neither Elizabeth nor her husband, James Jordan were in the household on census night. In England, people are delineated where they are on census night and not where they usually resided. Thus it is unclear if the grandchildren were just visiting or if their parents lived there also and went somewhere else that night.

"Dock labourers were employed casually by means of a "call-on" at the dock gates twice daily. There was a trade depression during the 1890s and men were called on or paid off at any time of the day. They were employed literally by the hour at a rate of 5d. per hour (4d. at Tilbury). In 1889 the docker's struck to get the "docker's tanner", i.e. 6d. per hour. The great dock strike began at the East and West India Docks on 14th August 1889 and ended on 15th September. The dockers got their 6d. an hour and 8d. an hour overtime. However, industrial unrest continued with blacklegs being brought in during strikes". [East of London Family History Society, Cockney Ancestor Publication No. 100, August 2003, extracted from Article by January Penney Page 13.] 5d. represents 5 shillings; a shilling being a twentieth of a British pound.

By the 1891 Census, Joseph (age 66) and Elizabeth (age 66) were still living at 20 Wade Street. On census night April 3, 1891, their son Harry Steward a stevedore laborer was there, and so was young James Henry Jordan, their grandson who was now age 11 and attending school. Again it is unknown where James and Elizabeth Jordan were. By 1891, grandson Oscar Scholdberg (alias James Oscar Jordan) had left for Chicago, but Charles Scholdberg Jordan was still in Poplar, just not at 20 Wade Street that night.

On 23 October 1892, at the age of 67, Joseph had a sudden syncope from heart disease and passed away. He had been married to Elizabeth for 44 years. He was working as a rigger. Throughout his life he his occupations, included rigger (1848, 1867, 1876, and 1892), laborer (1851, 1891), stevedore laborer (1871) and dock laborer (1881). But rigging appears to have been his favorite.

Their Steward Children

As for the four Steward boys, it is believed that the oldest boy, Joseph immigrated to America. It was said that he lived in San Francisco, but never kept in touch with the family and was not heard from after the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

The second boy, Charles Steward arrived in America about 1880, but may have immigrated to Montreal first. A Montreal Daily Star marriage notice announces a marriage on September 28, 1876 for Charles Hooper Steward, formerly of London and Miss Eveline Annie Mathers. Given the uniqueness of the name, it is likely this is our Charles Hooper Steward, though it would be useful to obtain the full certificate. Charles had at least one daughter, Alice who later lived in Chicago. Based on his arrival in both Montreal and the USA, Charles Hooper Steward appears to be the first Steward or Jordan family to immigrate to North America. Address data indicates, James Oscar Jordan was staying with him in 1890 in Chicago and possibly for years earlier.

No information is available on what happened to the third boy, William Steward but he is thought to have stayed in England. The fourth boy, Harry stayed in England and is thought to have been a Member of Parliament and to have had a son named Bill.

Off to America

Within a year after Joseph Steward's death, his wife Elizabeth, their daughter Elizabeth Priscilla Jordan, and two grandsons (Charles Jordan and James Jordan) chose to leave their ancestral home in Poplar to immigrate to Chicago. Husband James Jordan did not accompany Elizabeth and it is believed that she had again become widowed.

Elizabeth Jordan probably chose to immigrate to be with her son and brother Charles in Chicago. Both were working and sharing an apartment and Elizabeth probably had little money and had two teenage sons to care for. Elizabeth Steward probably chose to be with her daughter, although she had at least two sons in Poplar and two sons in America. Most likely it came down to being with a daughter all day long in her elder years rather than with a daughter-in-law.

Elizabeth Steward (age 67), Elizabeth Priscilla Jordan (46), Charles Jordan (19) and James Jordan (13) arrived in America on 18 August 1893 on the S.S. Britannic and then joined Charles Steward and James Oscar Jordan in Chicago. These two had been in Chicago for around a decade. Upon their arrival, they all took in the 1893 World’s Fair. They then all lived together and both Charles and James Henry got jobs.

At the time of their voyage, Elizabeth Steward was 67 years old; Elizabeth Priscilla Jordan was 46; and the two grandchildren, Charles Jordan and James Henry Jordan were ages 19 and 13.

For the 1900 Chicago census, Elizabeth Steward, now about 75, was living with her daughter Elizabeth Priscilla Jordan, age 53, her son Charles Steward, and her two grandsons Charles Jordan and James Henry Jordan at 1153 W. 13th Street in Chicago. They had pretty much stayed in the same neighborhood for years, occasionally moving up or down the block or crosswise to a side street. The only real change in the household was that James Oscar Jordan moved out with his marriage in December 1896, but he did live nearby in the same neighborhood, often on the same street.

Around 1904, James Henry Jordan moved to Madison and he was married in 1907. In 1907, the whole Jordan clan James O., Charles, and Elizabeth Jordan and Elizabeth Steward moved in with young James Henry in Madison and all the boys worked at the Northern Electric Company. Possibly jobs were tough that year in Chicago.

Elizabeth Steward who was in her young 80s was beginning to falter and about June 1907 she was put in the Dane County Poor House in Verona, a nursing home for the poor. She was senile and ill and 10 months later she died at age 83 on 12 April 1908 at the Dane County Poor House. She died of senility and pneumonia.

My grandfather remembered that he once visited his great-grandmother Steward in an old people's home. He remembered it being a long trip and by a big river. My grandfather, Herbert also remembered a long trip from Chicago as a young boy in and they had 7 flat tires. It is possible these remembrances are the same trip. Herbert would have been 10 years old in 1908.

Elizabeth lived a long life. Twice she was in the poor house. The first time was when she was young and an unwed mother and the second time was just before her death. In between, though, she had a long and successful marriage and raised five children. She is buried in an unmarked grave in Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin. But through this genealogy project her memory has been restored and while she is far away from most of her children and grandchildren we do know a little about her life and its ups and downs that helped us become who we are.

Notes

1. Initial Web Publication Date: 2/6/2003
2. Modified: 7/11/2004, 1/27/2005, 12/6/2007, 1/14/2008
3. Desktop Master file: Stories_Jordan