BIOGRAPHY: John JORDAN, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 308-9
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JOHN JORDAN, a grand-nephew of the celebrated General Jordan, of England, and a 
prosperous farmer of Richland township, is a son of Charles and Ann (Gibson) 
Jordon, and was born at Walsall, eight miles from Birmingham, England, February 
14, 1830. The Jordan family is a very old English family, and Charles Jordan was 
a native of Appleby, Derbyshire, England. He was a member of the Episcopal 
church. He followed farming in connection with running a large livery stable. He 
was a nephew of General Jordan, of England, who left an estate of sixty thousand 
pounds in France, and lost his life in that country in 1839, while looking after 
his uncle's property.
     Charles Jordan married Ann Gibson, who was a native of Peckleton, in 
Leicestershire, England, and an Episcopalian like himself. Mrs. Jordan died at 
Walsall in 1875, aged sixty-seven years. Her father, George Gibson, was likewise 
a native of Leicestershire, where he followed farming and lived a peaceful rural 
life. The Jordan and Gibson families in England were known as peaceable and 
industrious, a record that has been well sustained by their descendants in this 
and other countries.
     John Jordan was reared at his native place in the usual manner that English 
boys were, which consisted in careful training for agricultural or industrial 
pursuits. He received the limited education of that day that was imparted in the 
schools for the masses of the people, and at an early age went to work in the 
ore mines, where he became a subordinate overseer or assistant foreman. Then he 
was made charter master of mining under Thomas Hartland & Son, in Reedswood's 
colliery, and later held a similar position in the Deepmore colliery under John 
Bagnell & Son. After a number of years spent as a charter master in some of the 
leading and larger collieries of England he concluded to come to the United 
States, and in 1863 sailed for this country. After landing he came to Johnstown, 
where he was engaged in mining for seven years for the Cambria Iron company. At 
the end of that time, in 1870, Mr. Jordan opened a grocery store on Washington 
street, which he conducted until 1880, when he purchased a small farm of forty-
five acres in Richland township, on which he has resided ever since. He has from 
time to time made additions to this farm until it now contains two hundred acres 
of good farming land. The entire farm is underlaid with coal which has been 
leased by the Johnson Coal company at ten cents royalty per ton.
     On March 1, 1852, Mr. Jordan married Sarah Bird, whose parents were Joseph 
and Sarah Bird, of Walsall, England. Mr. And Mrs. Jordan have two children, a 
son and a daughter: George, now engaged in the mercantile business in Johnstown, 
and Harriet, wife of Alfred Slater, of Lorain, Ohio.
     He is a member of the Episcopal church, in which his wife also holds 
membership. Like most men who have won their own way in life, Mr. Jordan 
contended with adverse circumstances when starting to do for himself, but he has 
gradually reached success by perseverance and continuous industry.