California Biographies, Santa Cruz County.
ALBION P. JORDAN. 

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

Source:
History of Santa Cruz County, California 
Pacific Press Publishing Company
San Francisco, Cal. 1892
By E. S. Harrison 

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

ALBION P. JORDAN. 

Several generations of the Jordan family lived and labored in the east, and one of its leading members, Capt. Peter 
Jordan, a shipbuilder by trade and a manufacturer of lime, served with distinguished gallantry as a captain during the 
war of 1812. Albion P., a son of the brave captain, grew to manhood at the old eastern home and there learned the 
lime business, also the trade of an engineer. Coming to California in 1849, at the age of twenty, he secured employment 
as engineer on a steamboat plying from Sacramento to San Francisco. While thus engaged he worked with another en- 
gineer, I. E. Davis. By accident they learned of a place where lime stone could be found. This Mr. Jordan's partner 
tested by burning it in the furnace of the steamboat engine and it proved to be of fine quality. The importance of the 
discovery was great. Previous to this no lime had been found in the vicinity of San Francisco and to ship it from 
the east was too expensive, so that the two young men realized that their discovery would bring them a fortune, if rightly 
managed. Resigning their positions, they started to walk to the lime deposits. The journey was exhausting and the 
weather very cold, but hardships could not daunt them. Immediately after their arrival they built a kiln at the foot- 
hills near Redwood City and there manufactured the first lime used in the state. San Francisco furnished a convenient 
market and the extensive business brought wealth to the two partners. Removing to Santa Cruz in 1853 they engaged 
in the same business until 1864, when the failure of Mr. Jordan's health caused him to sell his interest to H. Crowell. 
Thereafter Mr. Jordan lived retired from business cares until his death, which occurred November 14, 1866. His partner, 
I. E. Davis, died September 25, 1888, having been spared to enjoy the fruits of his energy and wise judgment. 

The marriage of Albion P. Jordan took place March 4, 1859, and united him with Miss Mary E. Perry, a native of 
Falmouth, Mass., but after 1853 a resident of Santa Cruz. Her father, John B. Perry, came to the west in 1850 and em- 
barked in mining, but the failure of his health caused him to remove to Santa Cruz. Building a house, he sent back east 
for his family, who joined him in 1853. For many years he followed the carpenter's trade in the village and surrounding 
country, and many of the buildings which he erected in Santa Cruz and vicinity are standing at the present time. He also 
drew his own plans to work from. His family comprised his wife, Elizabeth (Green) Perry, and three children, Mary 
E., Charles C. and Alphonso B. When the daughter was fifteen years of age she taught a private school in the front 
room of her father's house and had about twenty-five pupils. Later she was engaged as assistant to Mrs. Eliza Farnham 
in teaching the first public school in Santa Cruz. By her marriage to Mr. Jordan three children were born. The 
eldest, Mary E., died at the age of two and one-half years. 

The younger daughter, Marian A., Mrs. Herbert E. Cox, passed from earth at the age of thirty-eight years, leaving 
an only daughter, Gertrude J., who died August 12, 1902, at the age of sixteen years and ten months. The only son, 
Peter A. Jordan, now vice president of Dodge, Sweeney & Co., wholesale commission merchants, also importers 
and exporters of San Francisco married Blanche Hartwell, and has the following children, Loraine, Albion P., Marian 
E., and Hartwell, who are receiving the best advantages their home city affords.