Caldwell County MO Archives History .....THE PICKELLS AND JORDAN FAMILIES IN HAMILTON IN SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES 1934
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com August 29, 2008, 5:05 pm

THE PICKELLS AND JORDAN FAMILIES IN HAMILTON IN SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES
	Narrator:  Mrs. Hattie Jordan, 79, of Hamilton, Missouri

	Jordan the Piano and Organ Man
	The Old Phoenix Hotel

     Mrs. Jordan is the widow of William Jordan, a Hamilton Merchant over 
fifty years ago and the daughter of George Pickell and Rebecca Miller of 
Lancaster County Pennsylvania.  Her father was a brother of Wm. Pickell and 
her mother was a sister of Mary Miller his wife.  Thus Mrs. Jordan is a double 
cousin of Wm. Pickell aged 88 of Hamilton.  Her father lived one half mile 
from Bart in Lancaster County Pennsylvania and after his death the Mother and 
children moved to Lancaster City.  In 1872 the family came to Hamilton.  Her 
brother George was already here on a farm near Nettleton.  Three brothers out 
of five lived here - George, who later quit farming and became town marshall; 
Wm., a produce dealer; and Ben, who was in a music store with her husband.
     Her mother rented the last house on Bird Street north side now owned by 
George Bretz and later bought the little house east of Seth Young's house.  
Mrs. Jordon lived there till her marriage.  After she became the wife of Mr. 
Jordan, they lived in with Aunty Smith (who used to be a well known Bible 
teacher here) in the house still known at the Aunty Smith house.  There her 
daughter Mrs. Maud Turner was born.
     Mrs. Jordan was a Davy Ferguson pupil, in the old north brick school.  
Some of her class mates were:  Addie (Martin) George, Wilda Rohrbough, Genoa 
and Mattie Claypool (Aunts of Mrs. Mollie Wines).
     Her husband Wm. Jordan was a lawyer by study, passing the Ohio 
Examinations 1878.  But because of his health he came to Hamilton in 1880 and 
began to sell pianos and organs.  He and she used to ride around the country 
and leave an organ in a home on trial for a week or so in hopes of a sale.  He 
had his own brand of organs, The Jordan Organ.  Mr. Jordan owned the old 
Phoenix Hotel on Main Street and had his show rooms there for a while.  This 
building was the only three-story building ever erected in Hamilton.  It was 
once the Kelso building.  In the late seventies Mr. Jordan rented the whole 
building to the Harvey family who kept a Dry Goods Store on the ground floor 
had their living rooms on the second floor and their sleeping rooms on the 
third floor.  Later the Harveys built a brick directly across the street and 
lived above the store.  This was about where the Lindley building is.
     The Jordans owned quite a frontage on north Main in the eighties, from 
the present McMasters through the site of the Missouri Store.  After her 
husbands death, Mrs. Jordan sold the old buildings to Finis Martin who tore it 
down and built two houses in town out of the lumber.
     Interviewed  April 1934. 


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/caldwell/history/other/pickells48gms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mofiles/

File size: 3.4 Kb