Bio of JORDAN, Walter B. (b.1847), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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Vol III, pg 515-517
WALTER B. JORDAN
Walter B. Jordan, a typical early pioneer of the Northwest, was born in
Rich-land, Iowa, on October 8, 1847. Born on a farm, he was reared as all boys
in this walk of life in those days were. At the early age of twelve years he had
the prize ox team of his section. This shows the type of farming that a boy had
to follow in his day, so far from the present tractor and other conveniences of
agriculture of this date. While farming, he attended the country schools,
receiving the aver­age education that these institutions gave.
At an early age he started out to make his own way in the world. His initial
step into business was in Chicago, where he took a position in a dry goods
house. He soon returned to Iowa, however, and entered Mount Pleasant University.
After a course of study there he started in business at Ottumwa, Iowa, where he
remained for some time. His brother-in-law, A. C. Leighton, an Indian or post
trader in the west, suggested that he come out with him and enter this line of
business on the then virgin plains of North Dakota.
Mr. Jordan, having married A. C. Leighton's sister, Mary Emily Leighton, went to
Fort Buford, North Dakota, and with another brother-in-law, Mr. Joseph Leighton,
became post trader at said Fort, under the firm name of Leighton & Jordan. This
last firm became very prominent in the early history of merchandising on the
frontier, becoming nationally known. In connection with their business they ran
a line of steamboats on the Yellowstone & Missouri. In this fleet was included
the famous steamers "Bachelor" and "Eclipse." On the latter boat a well known
character of the west acted at one time as captain, this being Captain Grant
Marsh, an early steamboat man, who is known through the volume called, "The
Conquest of the Missouri," by the author Hanson, the material for this book
being furnished by Marsh. Marsh was also captain on the "Far West" in 1876, and
after the battle of Little Big Horn, brought the wounded and the Indian Curly to
Fort Lincoln.
Mr. Jordan, during his business life at Fort Buford, introduced the harvester
and windmills and other modern inventions, up to that time unknown to his
community, and among the Indians he became known as quite a sage because of
these marvels. Mr. Jordan remained at Fort Buford until 1882, when he went to
Miles City and opened up a branch of the firm of Leighton & Jordan there. This
was before the advent of railroads and the conduct of the business was through
wagon trains and steamboats. This business at Miles City became the birthplace
really of the business in which Mr. Jordan and family are now engaged in
Minneapolis.
While at Miles City, Mr. Jordan organized the First National Bank, which became
one of the strongest financial institutions of the west. He also engaged in the
cattle business to a very large extent, in which his son, W. A. Jordan, joined
him when the latter first entered business partnership with his father. Mr.
Jordan also built an extensive irrigation plant in the Tongue River valley,
which is at pres­ent known as the Tongue & Yellowstone River Irrigation Project.
Mr. Jordan and sons still own an extensive ranch of about sixteen thousand
acres, a great part of which is irrigated property, thirty-five miles north of
Livingston, in the fertile Shields River valley.
Mr. Leighton died about 1886 and Mr. Jordan became the sole owner of the firm,
and in 1901 took his sons, W. A. Jordan and W. B. Jordan, Jr., into partnership
with him.
In 1898 Mr. Jordan purchased the assets of the bankrupt firm of the
Tarbox-Schlicht Shoe Company and was engaged in the manufacture of shoes with
his brother, W. G. Jordan, until 1903, when he and his brother retired from the
shoe business, Mr. W. G. Jordan negotiating for the purchase of the old
established firm of Anthony Kelly & Co., wholesale grocers of Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Mr. W. B. Jordan entered this purchase with Mr. W. G. Jordan and on
May 23, 1904, opened up in the wholesale grocery business in Minneapolis, under
the name of W. B. & W. G. Jordan, the partner, W. B. Jordan, Jr., coming to
Minneapolis to represent W. B. Jordan in the new firm.
During his business life Mr. W. B. Jordan has engaged largely in real estate
transactions in various parts of the country, farm lands in Kansas and Iowa and
industrial tracts in Chicago, Illinois, to say nothing of Minneapolis real
estate, and in the course of these transactions spent a great deal of his time
in St. Paul, Minnesota, where in fact, he was located with his family from 1884
until the death of his wife on February 15, 1890, becoming a member of the
Minnesota Club in its early life, and so associated in business and daily
intercourse with the old guardsmen responsible for the early history and growth
of St. Paul. He also became engaged in the electrical business, he and his
brother, W. G. Jordan and sons owning and operating the Northwestern Electric
Equipment Co. of St. Paul, which company was sold out in 1910 to the General
Electric Co., Mr. W. A. Jordan, who was representing W. B. Jordan in the latter
company, coming to Minneapolis and entering into the active management of W. B.
& W. G. Jordan, wholesale grocers, with W. B. Jordan, Jr., Mr. W. G. Jordan
having retired from active management of the latter business in 1910.
Another incident in W. B. Jordan's life, of interest to the Northwest, was his
financing and assisting one Jean Legare, when the latter went into Canada and
brought "Sitting Bull" and his warriors back to the reservation after their
rebellion and flight into Canada. This, after the British government became
insistent that they be returned.
As already stated Mr. Jordan married, in 1871, Mary Emily Leighton. This
marriage took place in Ottumwa, Iowa. Four sons were born to them and one
daughter: Wm. A. Jordan, the eldest; Stella Jordan, who died in infancy; Walter
B. Jordan, Jr.; James Leighton Jordan, who died in 1896; and Marcus Odell
Jordan, now with the Power Equipment Co., another business owned and operated by
W. B. Jordan, W. A. Jordan and W. B. Jordan, Jr.
Mr. Jordan has always been an ardent sportsman, both hunting and fishing
extensively, indulging in these sports whenever taking time from his business,
this being his chief recreation. He is a member of the Minneapolis Club and the
Minikahda Club.
William A. Jordan, the eldest son, was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on January 30,
1874, and moved to Fort Buford with his father when he entered the post trading
business in 1876 at that place, later moving to St. Paul, where he attended the
public schools and graduated from its high school, after which he went to
Montana and entered the cattle business and continued on with Mr. Jordan's
various business associations from that time. W. A. Jordan married Sara Marshall
Gilman of Sioux City, Iowa, and to them were born three daughters, Mary Leighton
Jordan, Katherine Jordan and Margaret Jordan. W. A. Jordan continued
uninterruptedly in business until the World war. He volunteered in the First
Officers' Training Camp at Fort Snelling and after securing his commission,
served during the entire duration of the war and. until the latter part of 1918,
retiring as a major in the United States army. Mr. Jordan is a member of the
Minneapolis and Minikahda Clubs.
W. B. Jordan, Jr., was born at Fort Buford, on March 9, 1879, going from there
to St. Paul and attending the public schools there, and upon the death of his
mother continuing his education in the Ottumwa, Iowa, schools, where he lived
for eight years with his grandmother, Mrs. W. A. Jordan. Subsequently he
enrolled in Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, where he was graduated
in 1900. After leaving school he went to Miles City and entered into partnership
with his father and brother and in 1904 came to Minneapolis, where he has been
since. Mr. Jordan is a member of the Minneapolis Club, Minikahda Club,
University Club of St. Paul and the Lafayette Club of Minneapolis and is also a
member of the Consistory, Scottish Rite Masonry and Zuhrah Temple of the Shrine.
On the 30th of April, 1913, W. B. Jordan, Jr., married Sara Wingate of Kansas
City, Missouri, to whom one son has been born, Walter B. Jordan, III.
Marcus Odell Jordan, the youngest son, was born in St. Paul, on July 9, 1884,
afterwards going to Ottumwa, Iowa, where he entered the public schools. From
here he attended St. John's Military Academy at Delafield, Wisconsin. He has
been mainly in the electrical business, and also preferring outdoor life, has
been in the State Forestry Division of Minnesota.
When the World war broke out he volunteered and went with the first troops to
France, going with the Twenty-sixth Engineers, serving through the entire war in
France. He was gassed in the Argonne, but through his work in the Forestry
Division has almost completely recovered in the northern woods from this
affliction. He is at present associated with the Power Equipment Co. of
Minneapolis and is unmarried.