Tulare County Biographies

JOHN F. JORDAN

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
     The prominent citizen of Tulare county whose name is above and whose 
residence is at No. 108 West Center street, Visalia, is a son of Frank and 
Alabama (McMicken) Jordan, natives respectively of Illinois and Alabama, and he 
was born in eastern Texas December 10, 1850. His father had settled there early 
and had been for a time manager of a plantation near Shreveport, La. In 1854 he 
came to California as a captain of a train which included seventy-four families, 
whom he brought through safely overcoming many difficulties by the way. Locating 
within the present borders of San Benito county, he became a stock-dealer and 
hotel keeper, and in 1858 he made his Tulare county, where he brought his family 
in 1860. He prospered as a stockman, traveling extensively in the prosecution of 
his business and died at Visalia in 1878, in his sixtieth year, his wife having 
passed away while the family was in San Benito county. He won the credit to 
which every self-made and is entitled of having begun with almost nothing and 
achieved good financial success. He was a citizen of much public spirit, 
influential in the councils of the Democratic party. 
 
     Of the four sons and three daughters of Frank and Alabama (McMicken) 
Jordan, John F. Jordan was the fifth in order of birth and he was four years old 
when he accompanied his parents on their memorable overland journey to 
California. After having completed his studies in the Visalia public schools, he 
became a student at Heald�s Business College, San Francisco, from which 
institution he was duly graduated in February, 1875. Soon after his return to 
Visalia, in that year, he was appointed deputy postmaster of that city, and in 
1876 was appointed deputy sheriff. He was elected in 1879 county auditor of 
Tulare county, in which office he served with great credit for five years. 
Later, in 1884, he engaged in the abstract business, in 1892 incorporating the 
Visalia Abstract Company, in which he is now a director, being formerly its 
secretary and general manager. The knowledge he has acquired of land titles in 
Tulare county is the result of years of study and experience and it makes his 
advice along these lines of the greatest practical value. At the same time it 
should be noticed that his work as secretary and manager of this enterprise, is 
no indication of the extent of his activities. In June, 1912, he became 
president of the Citizens� Bank of Visalia, at which time he retired from the 
management of the abstract business. He assisted in organizing the Kaweah Lemon 
Company (Inc) of which he is secretary and which owns three hundred and seventy 
acres in the foothills east of Visalia. He is a director in the Encina Fruit 
Company and has much to do with the development of its lands, which include four 
hundred and forty acres, two miles north of Visalia. In the organization of the 
Visalia Fruit & Land Company he was prominently active and he is secretary of 
the Lemon Cove Ditch Company.   
 
     The lady who became the wife of Mr. Jordan was Alice L. Neill, a native 
daughter of California, and they have tree children: Ethel V., wife of William 
B. Rowland: Ray F. and Neill J. Mr. Jordan affiliates fraternally with Lodge No. 
128, F. & A. M., of Visalia; Chapter No. 44, R. A. M.; Commandery No. 26, K. T., 
of which he is recorder; Scottish Rite No. 9, of which he is treasurer; and 
Islam Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of San Francisco. He has been a local 
leader of the democracy, was a delegate to the state convention of his party in 
1904 and at one time served on the county central committee. He also served n 
the city council of Visalia for eight years. It goes without saying that in 
every emergency his fellow citizens have found his public spirit equal to and 
demand upon it. 
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 331, 332, 335