MOPIKE: Jordan/Todd family researchers I have transcribed this as it is not in History of Pike Co. MO. 1883. Hope it helps someone. Lorraine Llewellyn Rare Books at Springfield, Green Co. Mo. Library "PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD., of Marion, Ralls and Pike Co. Mo. MR977.835 P pages 413-414 JAMES C. JORDAN, on of the leading farmers and stock-raisers of Pike County, is descended from one of the most prominent and one of the oldest families of this section. He is a native of this State, and was born in the same house in which he now lives. His sons, who are now at home, make the fourth generation of the family who have cultivated the soil of this state. James C. Jordan was born March 21, 1841, and was the elder, and now survivor, of two children granted to his parents, JAMES A. and JULIA A. (SMITH) JORDAN. James A. Jordan, father of our subject, was anative of South Carolina and was born 1805. He was three years of age at the time his parents came to Missouri, where he grew to mature years, and during his active life cultivated the tract of land on which his father located after coming here. He was a man of sterling character, greatly honored and respected for his upright and worthly life, and died in June, 1859, aged fifty-four years. Grandfather John C. Jordan, Sr. was one of the fist to make his home in Missouri. Of Irish descent, he was born about the year 1765 and came with his family to Missouri in 1808, stopping for a time where now stands the City of St. Louis. Here he was offered land for one dollar and a quarter an acre, but not thinking the location a desirable one, he declined to invest and came on to Pike! County, where he purchased later five hundred acres, for which he paid one dollar and a quarter per acre. On this farm he and his sons and grandsons have lived and reared families. Soon after his arrival here he, with twelve other families, erected a fort in order to protect themselves against the depredations of Indians; it was built directly in front of the old T.C. Isgrig Place. An Elm still stands to mark the spot, from under which flows a stream of water which supplied the inhabitants of the fort with this necessary beverage. On March 30, 1813, a brother of John C. Jordan, Sr.; together with one of his sons, left the fort to perform work on the farm. In crossing a gully on their way to the field the father's horse shied so violently as to throw him, but on investigation they found nothing but the trunk of a fallen tree. On their return home at night, however, they we both shot by Indians hidden behind this same tree. The shooting was heard at the fort, and a relief party went to their assistance only to find them both dead and the father scalped. The son had remarked before leaving home that morning that he wanted his hair cut, for if the Indians captured him he did not want to be scalped; his mother accordingly did as he wished and cut his hair close to his head. After acquiring a fair education in the pioneer schools, our subject devoted himself to work on the home farm. His father died when he as eighteen years of age and, being the only son, the work of caring on the place fell upon his young shoulders. In the fall of 1862 his mother was married to MR. WASHINGTON WATTS, after which they rented the home place and moved to a farm seven miles from Clarksville, our subject still making his home with his mother. She died in May, 1864, and the following spring James C. returned to the homestead and resumed its management, since which time he has made it his home. He married in 1864 to MISS SALLY W. TODD, the daughter of F.C. TODD and MARY A.(BUFORD)TODD, natives of the Blue Grass State. The daughter grew to a noble womanhood, and since coming into our subject's life has shed sunshine and happiness all about her. To them have been born three children, namely J. LILLIAN, wife of W.A.DUDLEY, a promising young attorney of Ellsburg, Li! ncoln County, this State; WILLIAM F. and JAMES M., aged respectively twenty-six and twenty years, who are unmarried and at home, assisting in the management of the home farm. In the spring of 1862 our subject enlisted in Company A, Pike County Battalion, Enrolled Missouri Militia, which was under the command of Capt. W.C. ALLISON. He served until the later part of 1883, during which time, though he participated in no active engagement, he had several very narrow escapes. On one occasion he was fired upon from ambush while standing by the side of a horse, the bullet passing within an inch of his body and killing the horse. Mr. Jordan is a Democrat in politics and never loses an opportunity to vote in favor of that party's candidates. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church finds in him one of it's most active and consistent members. At all times and at all places he has shown himself to be a loyal citizen and is therefore well regarded by his fellow citizens. Transcribed by Lorraine Llewellyn April 2002 Researcher of: Todd Family's