JAMES JORDAN is the youngest son of Patrick and Catherine Jordan, who cam to Peoria, Ill., when our subject was a child of one year. Their advent was made in 1853, and after living a short time in the city they removed to a farm in Limestone Township, where they resided until the death of the father. The mother then went back to Peoria to live with a married daughter, and now makes her home there. The father was killed on a bridge near his home by a runaway team, August 29, 1878, leaving a family of eight children, four boys and four girls, all of whom are now living. The mother is in good health at this writing, although she has reached the age of seventy-six years. 

The subject of this sketch was reared on the farm and received his elementary training in the district schools, finishing his education at the Normal School in Peoria, from which he was graduated in the class of ’73. For a short while he followed teaching, then took a trip to see the country, and in the course of his travels visited Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and all the States bordering on the Mississippi Ricer. He reached Texas without Mishap, and remained there two years engaged in the exciting sport of hunting buffaloes, which were at that time very plentiful. A few years later the business had ceased to be profitable, the herds having become small and widely scattered. In 1876 the country, as far as could be seen, was a vast treeless plain, and the ground covered in every direction by one large, moving mass of the shaggy creatures; two years later they had disappeared, and were, for that section of the country things of the past. 

Our subject returned home in 1878 a few months prior to his father’s death, and when that event occurred he, in company with his brother Patrick, took charge of the farm. They bought out the interests of the other heirs and divided the place between them, our subject taking the portion containing the family residence. Before the division the farm contained four hundred and thirty-two acres of land, which had been largely improved by the father during his lifetime. It was under a good state of cultivation, and has been further improved and beautified until it is now one of the handsomest places in the county. 

In 1881 Mr. Jordan took to himself a wife in the person of Miss Mary Tighe daughter of John and Catherine Tighe, natives of County Kilkenny, Ireland, and at the time of the marriage of their daughter residing at No. 115 Charlotte Street, Peoria, Ill. The family of Mrs. Jordan came directly from their native land to the city of Peoria about the beginning of the Civil War, and have resided there from that time to the present, with the exception of two years spent in Burlington, Iowa. The father died in April, 1890; the mother still lives in Peoria. The Jordans were originally from the same county in Ireland as the Tighes, but they tarried in Ohio for a number of years before taking up their residence in Illinois. Our subject was born while the family were living on a farm near Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. 

Mr. Jordan takes an active interest in all matters of political importance, and has done as much for the success of his party--the Democratic--as any man in the township. In 1888 he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of Highway Commissioner, and at the expiration of the term was elected to the place, and has been successively re-elected to the present time, a period of seven years. In 1890 he was further honored by the nomination of his part to the office of Supervisor of the township, and at election time his friends rallied to his support and triumphantly elected him. His conduct in office has been such as to call forth many encomiums from both friends and party opponents. He is gentlemanly in his demeanor, and makes many friends. He is on of the firm of Jordan Brothers & Swords, contractors and excavators of this city. He has an interesting family of five children, whose names are: Katie, Josie, Martin, Roger and Leo. They are bright children, and give promise of much future usefulness in the world. A fine portrait of this gentleman may be seen elsewhere. (page 735)