Biography - Cyrus Jordan
CYRUS
H. JORDAN. Elsewhere in this volume is given a biographical sketch of two of
the brothers of our subject with an outline of the family history, therefore
we will confine ourselves in this account to the personal history of our
subject. He is a resident in Pitman Township, Montgomery County, having a
fine farm on section 24. Although a native of Maryland, the major portion of
his life has been spent in the locality where he now resides. During the
years that have elapsed since he reached a thinking age, he has seen many
changes, not only in the country but in the state of society and in
political reform.
Our subject spent most of his early manhood days in Greene County, this State, and while still a lad became familiar with everything pertaining to agricultural work, that having been his calling all his life thus far. It was he who broke the first sod on his father's farm in Harvel Township, and for six seasons he ran a breaking plow, making ready for cultivation about three hundred and sixty-five acres of raw land each season. He is not a man who would hesitate to undertake a hard or disagreeable task, knowing it to be to the advantage of the country or himself. Many are the pioneer scenes which he recalls, some tinged with humor and others pathetic in their hardship.
The original of this sketch received his knowledge of book lore and the principles that have aided him in his mental development in a log schoolhouse in Greene County. The conditions under which he studied Lindley Murray, the speller and the old arithmetic, were such as to show that he appreciated the expected result, for certainly there was no comfort in the process of acquiring it. The benches were merely slabs held up by wooden pegs. There were no desks and no windows, the light coming from an opening made by the cutting out of a log. However, Mr. Jordan eagerly seized upon every literary production that came within his reach, and many were the nights that he read by the light of the blazing logs in the fireplace. It is not always the man who has attended college who has the best education, but rather he whose mind seizes upon truth and turns it to his own advantage.
Our subject has served in several official capacities. He has been Road Commissioner of Pitman Township, and was one of the first School Trustees. He is independent in his political ideas, voting for principle rather than party. His fine farm comprises five hundred and eighty-five acres of land, where he raises most of the cereals that form the staples of life. He also has some good stock, for which he finds a ready market, and his operations in dealing in stock are quite extensive, as he buys and ships to Eastern markets.
Mr. Jordan was married December 4, 1857, to Miss Jane B. Hankinson, a native of Ohio. Of eight children born of this union only one son survives, Fremont. March 29, 1882, our subject married Miss Clara Hawley, who died June 15, 1890.
Extracted 29 Nov 2016 by Norma Hass from 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record of Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, pages 144-145.
