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Eben Dyer Jordan

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Eben Dyer Jordan Sr.
Born(1822-10-13)October 13, 1822
Danville, Maine
DiedNovember 15, 1895(1895-11-15) (aged 73)
Boston, Massachusetts
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder of Jordan Marsh and The Boston Globe
Spouse
Julia M. Clark
​
​
(after 1847)​
Children5
Parent(s)Benjamin Jordan
Lydia Wright Jordan

Eben Dyer Jordan Sr. (October 13, 1822 − November 15, 1895) was an American business executive, best remembered as the co-founder of the department store chain Jordan, Marsh & Co. with Benjamin L. Marsh in 1841.[1]

Early life

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Jordan was born in Danville, Maine, on October 13, 1822.[2] He was a son of Benjamin and Lydia (née Wright) Jordan and, through his father, was directly descended from the Rev. Robert Jordan, a clergyman of the Church of England who came to America and settled in what is now the state of Maine in about the year 1640.[1]

After his father died young, leaving his mother in charge of several children, Jordan was sent to live with a neighbor on their farm where he learned to farm, saving up enough money to leave Portland and move to Boston at age fourteen.[1]

Career

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Jordan clerked for two years in the dry goods store of William P. Tenney & Co. before working for another merchant named Pratt. At age nineteen, one of Boston's leading merchants, Joshua Stetson, "appreciated his ability, and offered to assist him in starting business on his own account."[1] At twenty-five he sold his thriving store and went to work for J. M. Beebe, who taught him "not only a practical knowledge of the principles, methods, and in the management of a great business enterprise, but of the system which Mr. Beebe had perfected only after twenty-five years of close and assiduous labor and study."[1]

In addition to co-founding the department store chain Jordan Marsh with Benjamin L. Marsh in 1841, Jordan led a group of businessmen in founding The Boston Globe in 1872.[3][4]

Personal life

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Jordan's son, Eben D. Jordan Jr. (1857-1916), was a major Boston arts philanthropist who played an influential role in the establishment of the New England Conservatory and the Boston Opera Company.[5]

On January 13, 1847, he married Julia M. Clark (1825–1897), a daughter of James and Elizabeth (née Raymond) Clark.[2] They had five children:[1]

  • Walter Jordan (1848–1854), who died young.[1]
  • James Clark Jordan (1850–1910), who married Helen L. Stevens and Jeannette Amanda Stiles;[6] he developed Jordan Park in San Francisco.[7][8]
  • Julia Maria Jordan (b. 1852), who married Herbert Dumaresq in 1873; he was a cotton manufacturer and who later became a partner in Jordan, Marsh & Company.[9]
  • Eben Dyer Jordan Jr. (1857–1916), who married May Sheppard (1861–1920), a daughter of Joseph Buzby Sheppard, in 1883.[10]
  • Alice Madeline Jordan (1863–1935), who married the Rev. Arthur Wellesley Foster in 1885; as a wedding present Jordan gifted them Brockhampton Court, near Fownhope in Herefordshire, England.[11]
Stained-glass window by Christopher Whall to the memory of Dyer, at All Saints' Church, Brockhampton, Herefordshire

Jordan died on November 15, 1895, at his residence on Beacon Street in Boston.[1][12] The Eben Jordan House is located on 46 Beacon Street in Beacon Hill, Boston.[13] In 2000, a petition to grant landmark status to the interior was submitted to the Boston Landmarks Commission; as of 2022, the request is still under study.[14] His daughter Alice Foster built All Saints' Church, Brockhampton as a memorial to her parents; completed in 1902, it was the work of the Arts & Crafts pioneer W. R. Lethaby.

Descendants

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Through his son Eben Jr., he was a grandfather of Robert Jordan (1884–1932) and Dorothy Jordan (d. 1976),[15] who married Monroe Douglas Robinson (1887–1944),[16] a son of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson and Douglas Robinson Jr. and grandson of Douglas Robinson Sr. and Theodore Roosevelt Sr. Robinson was a nephew of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and a first cousin of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Eben D. Jordan Dead. Senior Member of the Firm of Jordan, Marsh & Co., of Boston. Millionaire, Once A Penniless Boy. Architect of His Own Fortune. Ranked Among Public-Spirited Citizens and Representative Men" (PDF). New York Times. November 16, 1895. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  2. ^ a b Rand, John Clark, ed. (1890). "Jordan, Eben Dyer". One of a Thousand . Boston, MA: First National Publishing Company. pp. 346–347.
  3. ^ "History of the Boston Globe". northeastern.edu. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  4. ^ The Boston Daily Globe (October 14, 1896), Memorial to Eben D. Jordan. Employes of the House He Founded Join in Honoring the Famous Boston Merchant., Boston, MA: The Boston Globe., p. 5
  5. ^ Boston Landmarks Commission (May 17, 2024). "EBEN D. JORDAN JR. HOUSE" (PDF). Office of Historic Preservation City of Boston. p. 19.
  6. ^ of 1870, Harvard College (1780-) Class (1905). Secretary's Report: no. VIII. Riverside Press. p. 59. Retrieved 22 April 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Anderson, Ted (June 11, 2020). "Inside the most expensive listing in San Francisco's ritzy Jordan Park". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  8. ^ Kastler, Deanna L. (1993). "Laurel Heights: Unfinished History". FoundSF. The Argonaut, Vol. 3, No. 1, Winter 1993. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  9. ^ Times, Special to The New York (24 March 1955). "HERBERT DUMARESQ, 104; Retired Partner in Jordan Marsh of Boston Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  10. ^ Herringshaw's American Blue-book of Biography: Prominent Americans of ... American Publishers' Association. 1915. p. 412. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  11. ^ "Arthur Wellesley Foster with the hounds outside Brockhampton Court". herefordshirehistory.org.uk. Herefordshire History. 6 June 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  12. ^ "WILL OF THE LATE EBEN D. JORDAN; A Valuable Estate Given to the Merchant's Widow and Children". The New York Times. 20 November 1895. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  13. ^ "166 Marlborough". backbayhouses.org. Back Bay Houses. 27 July 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  14. ^ "List of all submitted petitions and status". The City of Boston. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  15. ^ "Robinson, Dorothy (Jordan), d. 1976. 3 letters; [1927] & [n.d.]., 1927 | HOLLIS for". hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu. Harvard Library. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  16. ^ "MONROE ROBINSON, WAR FINANCE AIDE; Head of Office Here, Cousin ot President's Wife, Is Dead-Good-Will Ambassador". The New York Times. 9 December 1944. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  17. ^ Downes, Stephen (2016). The Szymanowski Companion. Routledge. p. 180. ISBN 9781317014447. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
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