Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I, Part 18

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 858

USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I > Part 18

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(VIII) True, the eldest son of Samuel (3) and Betsey (True) Scales, was born January 20. 1830, and died July 27, 1892. He was a brickmason by trade, resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was a contractor and builder for many years. He was a member of various Masonic fraternities. receiving his degree of entered apprentice in Ami- cable Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Cambridge, January 14. 1865. In 1866 he became a member of Cambridge Royal Arch Chapter. In 1871 he took the degree of Royal and Select Mas- ters in Boston Council. In 1873 he became a Knight Templar in William Parkman Commandery of East Boston. He held the highest offices in these organ- izations, ending with that of eminent commander in 1879-80. He was in office thirteen consecutive years. and was acknowledged to be one of the most efficient presiding officers in the Masonic Orders. He married, October 4, 1853, Mary Bird Shattuck, of Burlington, Vermont, who died October 14, 1905. They had one son. Frank, born September 26, 1859: he resides in Cambridge: he married and is the father of three children: Marion Bird, Walter Francis and George Burton.

(VIII) John, second son and child of Samuel (3) and Betsey (True) Scales, was born October 6, 1835; was graduated from New London Academy in 1859; from Dartmouth College in 1863; he en- gaged in teaching from 1863 to 1882; he was editor and one of the proprietors of the Dover Daily Re- publican and Dover Enquirer (weekly) from 1882 to 1898; since then he has been engaged in literary work, and has published a volume of Historical Memoranda of Old Dover (New Hampshire), and various historical papers. . He has been a member of the Dover school committee several years; trus- tee of the State normal school. He is a member of the New Hampshire Historical Society; the New Hampshire Society Sons of the American Revo- lution ; the New Hampshire Society of Colonial Wars; Moses Paul Lodge, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons ; Belknap Chapter ; Orphan Council ; St. Paul Commandery. Knight Templar, and has . received the Scottish Rite to the thirty-second de- gree. He was united in marriage, October 20, 1865, with Ellen Tasker, of Strafford, born in Strafford. May 30, 1843, daughter of Deacon Alfred and

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Mary Margaret (Hill) Tasker, of Strafford. They have two sons: Burton True and Robert Leighton. (IX) Burton True, son of John and Ellen (Task- er) Scales, was born August 10, 1873; was gradu- ated from Dartmouth College in 1895; he was en- gaged in newspaper work for two years, then took up the teaching of music in the public schools of Dover. In 1898 he was appointed instructor in music in the William Penn Charter School for Boys in Philadelphia, which position he now ( 1907) holds. He is a fine bass singer and has had marked success as an instructor in music. He was united in marriage. September 15, 1900, with Kate Hubbard Reynolds, of Dover, daughter of Captain Benjamin O. and Martha (White) Reynolds. They have one daugh- ter, Catherine Bradstreet, born January II. 1903 ; and one son, Benjamin Reynolds, March 24, 1907.

(IX) Robert Leighton, son of John and Ellen (Tasker) Scales, was born June 10, 1880; was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1901 ; he was instructor in English literature and oratory at Dart- mouth from September, 1902, to July. 1904; he grad- uated from Harvard Law School in June, 1907. He is the author of a text book on Argumentation and Debate.

(VIII) George, youngest child of Samuel (3) and Betsey (True) Scales, was born October 20, 1840; was graduated from New London (New Hampshire) Academy in 1861, and was about to engage in the study of law when the Civil war broke out, and he enlisted in the First Company of New Hampshire Sharpshooters of Colonel Berdan's regiment. He enlisted in September, 1861, and served in the regiment in Mcclellan's campaigns in Virginia ; he was killed July I, 1862, at the battle of Malvern Hill. He was an expert marksman. He graduated at the head of his class at New London. He was very keen in debate, six feet tall, well pro- portioned: black hair and black eyes, with a fine looking head and features, genial in his ways and generally liked. He was a young man of great promise for a brilliant and useful career had he been spared in health.

JORDAN The progenitor of the numerous Jor- dan family was a very early settler in Maine. He was fortunate in his selection of a wife, in his business relations, and in most of the other affairs of life, and was the forbear of a race among whose members are many men of ability and distinction.

(I) Rev. Robert Jordan, the immigrant, was probably a native of Dorsetshire or Devonshire, England, where the Jordan name is quite common, and whence came many of the first settlers of Fal- mouth. It is probable that he came in 1639, in one of the regular trading vessels of .Robert Tre- lawney, merchant and landholder of Richmond's Island, then a part of ancient Falmouth in Maine. He was a clergyman of the church of England, a man of superior education, and as early as 1641. succeeded Mr. Gibson in his clerical capacity at Richmond's Island. For more than thirty years Rev. Robert Jordan occupied a large share in the affairs of the town and of the province. He was an active, enterprising man, and well educated. A]- though being a Presbyter of the Church of England, he came hither

affairs of as a religious teacher, the

in which he lived the world and the achievement of his ambitious de- signs appear soon to have absorbed the most of his attention, and to have diverted him from the exercise of his profession-a result originating and hastened doubtless by the hostility of the govern- ment. He and Rev. Richard Gibson were the pi-

oneers of Episcopacy in Maine, and though Mr. Gibson left the country in 1642, Mr. Jordan re- mained at the post of duty, and never relinquished his stand as a churchman or his professional char- acter. He was the soul of the opposition to Massa- chusetts, and a chief supporter to the royal com- missioners and the anti-Puritan policy. Owing to his religious affinities and associations he was an object of suspicion and hostility to the Puritan Gov- ernment of Massachusetts, who forbade him to marry or baptize. He paid no attention to this order and, continuing to discharge the duties of his office, the general court of Massachusetts ordered his arrest and imprisonment in Boston jail. This occurred twice, namely, in 1654 and in 1663. For a long time he was a judge of the court. Edward God- frey, the first settler of York, and for some time governor of the western part of the state, was long associated with Mr. Jordan as a magistrate, and speaks of him in a letter to the government at home, March 14. 1660, as having long experience in the country "equal to any in Boston:" and adds, "an orthodox divine of the church of England. and of great parts and estate." He began early to mingle in the affairs of the settlers, and in 1641 was one of the referees in a controversy between Winter and Cleaves.

Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear were granted land and trading privileges in 1631. In 1636 Mr. Trelawney alone is mentioned as pro- prietor of the patent, and on March 26, of that year he committed the full government of the plantation to John Winter who appears after that time to have an interest of one-tenth in the speculation, and a salary of fo a year for his personal care and charge. In 1645 John Winter died, and three years later his plantation and all its appurtenances were awarded to Robert Jordan, his son-in-law, as heir and administrator of John Winter. Winter had set- tled on Richmond's Island, and as agent for Tre- lawney kept a trading house, bought furs of the In- dians and dried fish upon the island, having at one time sixty men employed in the fishing business, and four ships which were loaded at the island with fish, oil, furs and pipe-staves for voyages to England and Spain. By his marriage with Sarah Winter. Mr. Jordan became one of the great land proprietors and wealthy men of the region; "a source of influence which he failed not to exert in favor of his church and politics." After 1648 he sold the property of Trelawney and settled the estate of Winter, and soon afterward settled on the main- land portion of the estate of Winter. The planta- tion there was called Spurwink, a name which has heen retained to the present day. It lies in Falmouth, now Cape Elizabeth. He resided there until the second Indian war of 1676, when he was compelled to leave and flee from the Indians. He left home hurriedly, and everything about his house was in flames before he was out of sight. He went to Great Island in the Piscataqua river (now New- castle), then part of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and there died in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His will was made at Great Island, January 28. and proved July 1, 1679. He had lost the use of his hands before his death. and was unable to sign his will. He left six sons, among whom his im- mense landed estate of ten thousand acres or more was divided.

Rev. Robert Jordan married Sarah Winter, daughter of John Winter, who survived him and was living at Newcastle, in Portsmouth Harbor, in 1686. Their children were: John. Robert, Do- minicus, Jedediah, Samuel and Jeremiah.

(II) Jedediah. fourth son and child of Rev.

les B london July 22, 1887,

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Robert and Sarah (Winter) Jordan, was born be- fore 1664, at Spurwink, now Cape Elizabethi, Cum- berland county, Maine; and died in 1735. He left Spurwink with his father's family on the outbreak of the Indian war in 1675, and settled at Great Island, now Newcastle, New Hampshire. He afterward settled at Kittery, Maine, which is shown by his having given his son Robert a deed to land dated at Kittery in 1726. In 1729 he made a will of which his sons John and Thomas were the executors. There is no record of the marriage of Jedediah Jor- dan at Newcastle or Kittery, as no records were kept at that early date. It is probable that his chil- dren were born in Kittery. One of his daughters was married there in 1724. His children were : Jedediah, Abigail, Keziah, Mary, Sarah, John, Thomas, and Robert. whose sketch follows.

(III) Robert, youngest child and fourth son of Jedediah Jordan, was born in 1704, probably at Kittery. York county, Maine. In 1726 his father conveyed land to him in Spurwink, where he after- ward lived as a farmer. He married, in Dover, New Hampshire, in 1727, Rachel Huckins, and they had twelve children: Robert, Edmund. Hannah, Abigail, Lucy, Sarah, Olive, Temperance, Rachel, Margery, Wealthy and Mary.

(IV) Edmund, second son and child of Robert and Rachel (Huchins) Jordan, was born at Spur- wink, in 1729.

(\') Benjamin, son of Edmund Jordan, was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, in 1760. He served one month as substitute for his father, in April and May, 1776. under Captain Ray in Colonel Fry's reg- iment, and again another month in the same capac- ity under Captain Remington, January, 1777. In February, 1777, he volunteered as fifer with Captain Roy for a month. He also served another month in April and May under Captain Bennett. In June, 1777, he enlisted for ten months under Captain Gibbs, Colonel Jolin Topham's regiment. When discharged in March 1778. he immediately re-en- listed for one year with Captain Traffern and was discharged in March, 1779. His service in the patriot army amounted to four years, and he was a member of the little band which made the daring capture of the British General Prescott on the Is- land of Rhode Island. He removed to Plainfield, New Hampshire, in May. 1780, and to Columbia in 1816, where he died in 1846. He married, May 15, 1780. Mary Walker, of Rehoboth, a descendant of "Molly Walker." She was born in 1760 and died in 1860. Each was at the time of death a pensioner. Their children were: Joseph, Mercy, Ruth, Mrs. Sweet. Mrs. Hadley, Johnson, Lyman and Polly. When the mother died she had seven children liv- ing, the youngest, Polly, heing sixty years old.

(VI) Johnson, son of Benjamin and Mary (Walker) Jordan. was born in Plainfield, New Hampshire, April 5, 1708, and died in Colebrook, August 16, 1873. In 1818 he settled in Colebrook, and spent the remainder of his life there. He was a farmer, a strong man physically-subduing forests and wild beasts with ahout equal facility. In re- ligious sentiment he was a Congregationalist; in politics he cast his lot first with the Whig party, and when that gave place to the Republican party with its broader views and intenser interest in hu- manity. he aligned himself with it. He married, in Colebrook, in 1822, Minerva Buel, born in Hebron, Tolland county, Connecticut, July 19, 1801, and died in Colebrook, March 13, daughter of Captain Benja- min and Violetta ( Sessions) Buel. She was a beautiful woman, lovely in character. refinement and disposition. She was a Congregationalist, and

departed this life in the triumph of a faith she long had cherished.

The Buel family was a noted one, of means. education and social standing, while the Sessions family was equally famed and artistocratic. They intermarried with the Bradleys, the Lords and others. Captain Buel removed to Colebrook in 1802. For several winters he taught school. He was a fine scholar for his day, and a most excellent gentleman. He was born August 20, 1767, and died in Colebrook, in 1826. His wife was born also in 1767. and died in Connecticut, in 1856. One of their daughters, Sharlie Maria, wife of Sidney Allen. died in Chelsea, Vermont. Another Abigail, mar- ried Daniel Egery, and went with him to Beloit, Wisconsin, where she died. The children of John- son and Minerva Jordon were: Julia, Mary Ses- sions Lord, Benjamin Buel, Malvina, Violetta. and Chester Bradley, whose sketch follows.

(VII) Governor Chester Bradley Jordan, the youngest and only surviving child of Johnson and Minerva ( Buel) Bradley, was born in Colebrook, October 15, 1839. He wrought on a farm until he was twenty-one, early and late for his father and others, going to the distant district school winters. When he became of age he went to the academy spring and fall, working for wages summers and teaching school winters until he had taught eighteen terms of district and private schools, including two terms as principal of Colebrook Academy. He graduated from Kimball Union Academy at Meriden in 1866, and previous to that time had served three years as superintendent of schools of his native town. In 1867 he was one of the selectmen and his party's candidate for representative. In March, 1868, he was appointed clerk of the Supreme Court for Coos county, took the office the following June and held it till October 23. 1874. He discharged his duties with so great fidelity and promptness that he received the unqualified approbation of the court and the lawyers, and when a change of parties in power came and a Democratic administra- tion demanded his removal, it was made over the protest of nearly every attorney in the county. Meantime he had been reading law and observing court and court methods, and after going out of office continued his reading in the office of Judge William S. Ladd, of Lancaster. Subsequently he finished his course in the office of Ray, Drew & Heywood, and was admitted to practice in the state courts in November, 1875, and in the United States courts in May, 1881. Mr. Heywood retired from the firm in May, 1876, and Mr. Jordan was admitted to the new office of Ray, Drew & Jordan. In 1882 this firm, by the admission of Philip Carpenter, became Ray, Drew, Jordan & Carpenter; later Drew, Jordan & Carpenter; then Drew & Jordan, next Drew. Jordan & Buckley, and now Drew, Jordan, Shurtleff & Morris. Mr. Drew and Mr. Jordan were fellow students in Colebrook. Stew- ardstown. and at Kimball Union Academy, room- ing together, boarding themselves and graduating together, and now for over thirty years they have practiced law together. In Volume IV of the work entitled "The New England States" it is said of Mr. Jordan: "Closely attached to his home life, in which he is especially happy, and loth to be separated for ever so short a time, Mr. Jordan early found himself becoming essentially 'the office man' of the several firms of which he has been a useful member. As a lawyer, therefore, he has devoted his attention to the duties of a counselor, and to the drafting of legal papers (in which he excels ). rather than to the trial and advocacy of causes. As-

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sociated in business with two such noted advocates as Hons. Ossian Ray and Irving W. Drew, and unwarrantably distrustful of his abilities in this direction, Mr. Jordan has seldom ventured into the field of advocacy. When, however, by reason of the illness or absence of his partners, or from other cause, he has been impressed into this service, he has displayed a power of forensic oratory which was a revelation to his professional brethren, and fur- nished an occasion of regret to his friends because he had not made it his life work. His style of address in the argument of causes is of the rapid, ardent, intense, almost vehement, character. His

apt and ready words follow each other in ceaseless and quick, succession, and go home with the force and precision, and rapidity of the Gatling's fire. And herein lies the secret of his power wilen hits voice has been heard in advocacy or defense of his political faith in the heated campaigns of the North country." "Following the bent of his early years, Mr. Jordan has sought and found relaxation from the burdens of a busy practice in historical and political reading and writing. * ** In 1870, amid the multitudinous duties of clerk of the court, he purchased the "Coos Republican," be- came its editor, and gave it high rank among the papers of the state. For many years he contributed political and historical articles to the "Boston Journal," "Concord Monitor," the "Statesman," and the local press. Few pens have been oftener or more potently wielded in defense of the Republican party of New Hampshire and of the Nation than Mr. Jordan's. The chief charm of his style is its per- spicuity and force; and so natural and easy to him are both the manual and the mental uses of the pen, that almost unconsciously-certainly without ef- fort-his facts array and arrange themselves in fetching and forceful order, and his first draft is almost sure to be the finished product. Epigrammatic, perspicuous and forceful in style, accurate in state- ments of facts, an adept in the graces of rhetoric, he has won an enviable reputation as a writer on current political questions. "For forty years he has written political matters for the press. But his writings have not been confined to one topic. He was the mover of the Lancaster town history, and he also wrote much and furnished much information for the 'History of Coos County.' He wrote an essay on the Life of Colonel Joseph Whipple for the New Hampshire Historical Society; and among his contributions to the Coos County work were biographical sketches of Hon. Amos W. Drew, Dr. Frank Bugbee, and Philip Jordan. For the Grat- ton and Coos Bar Association he wrote the bio- graphy of Richard Clair Everett, and other valuable papers."

At the remarkably early age of nine years MIr. Jordan began to take a lively and intelligent interest in politics, and from that time until now his interest in parties and party measures has never abated. In early life he espoused the Republican cause and has ever since been one of its most active supporters. His first vote in Colebrook was for Lincoln, and in Lancaster for Grant. In the fall of 1864 he pre- sided over the meetings addressed respectively by Senator Patterson, Senator Daniel Clark and the Hon. Walter Harriman. The famous joint debate of Harriman and Sinclair began in Colebrook, and Mr. Jordan presided. In Lancaster he was long time chairman of the town and county committee, and as such showed his ability as a leader by triumphs in hotly contested campaigns.

Atter a hard fight to redeem his town, in which his party had made a gain of over one hundred

Mr. Jordan was elected representative to the gen- eral court in 1880. This was his first term as a legislator, but such was his reputation as a fair- minded man and as a parliamentarian that he was chosen speaker by a very handsome vote. The house was a most able one, yet the speaker's keen- ness, accuracy of judgment of men and measures, alertness, sagacity and general efficiency were so conspicuous, his conduct of the business of the house so easy and expeditious, and his courtesy and fairness so universal that he received the warmest commendation not only of his own party, but of the leading journal of the Democracy in the state. In September, 1882, he presided at the Republican Con- vention in the great Hale-Currier campaign, when factional feeling ran high between the adherents of the rival candidates for the gubernatorial nomi- nation. It was a full convention, and three ballots were necessary before a choice was made. MIr. Jordan was then and there importuned to take the nomination from the floor, the delegates to drop the other candidates. This he refused to do, and by his tact and adroit management the work of the convention was successfully and harmoniously ac- complished.

In 1886 he was unanimously nominated in the Coos District, a Democratic stronghold, for state senator. He made a vigorous campaign, made a gain over his party vote of three hundred, but then lacked about one hundred of an election. In 1896 he was again unanimously nominated for that office, conducted a masterly canvass, and was elected by a majority about as large as his opponent's whole vote. At the senatorial caucus he was nominated with unanimity for president of the senate for the years 1897-98, and the following day was unanimous- ly elected-the two Democratic senators voting for him. The honor of an election to this office without a dissenting vote had not been given a candidate before in this state for more than one hundred years. Ile entered upon the discharge of his duties with a familiarity born of experience, and proved himself an ideal presiding officer. He also made an ex- cellent record as a debator on the floor. The re- election of United States Senator Gallinger came during this session of the legislature, and Senator Jordan was designated as the seventh and last speaker to present his name to the Republican caucus. His eloquent and polished speech was a glowing tribute to the character of Senator Gal- linger, producing a most favorable impression on his audience, which gave expression to its sentiments in wild enthusiasm.

Senator Jordan's successful career in politics. his distinguished ability, honorable conduct and long continued service in public life now began to cause him to be mentioned as a candidate for governor. Members of his party repeatedly approached him on the subject, but he constantly set his face against any movement to nominate him. In 1898 he was compelled three times to decline to take the nomina- tion before his party would accept his refusal. In 1900 the Republicans again urged him to accept a place on the head of the ticket, and he finally said that if the nomination could come unsolicited and unbought he would accept. it so came through, and by a magnificent convention which gave him all its votes but about seventy. The candidate then appeared before the convention, and in a graceful and telling speech accepted the nomination and ap- proved the platform. His canvass in the campaign that followed covered about a month, and during that time he made logical, forceful and winning speeches to large crowds. Election day came and

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at its close his majority was found to be nearly twenty thousand. In his town and county his vote was unprecedentedly large. He took the oath of office in January, 1901, and served two years. Dur- ing his administration he was always provident, economical, against unwise appropriations and ex- travagant expenditure. By a sagacious use of his influence, tact and legislative knowledge, he kept down useless appropriations by the legislature to the minimum, and guided both branches success- fully. His message was well received and most favorably commented upon. The old court was abolished and a dual court established with five judges on each bench. The ten judicial appoint- ments were all made by Governor Jordan. The court bill passed one day, and the judges were all named the next, and not a murmur was heard or a ripple felt. His choice had been so wisely made as to bring universal satisfaction to the citi- zens of the commonwealth. Justice Blodgett sub- sequently resigned, and it became the duty of the governor to name another chief justice and some one to succeed him on the bench. These appoint- ments were as well received as the first. Gov- ernor Jordan's aim and object was to afford the greatest good to the greatest number of his fellow citizens-to benefit the people to the furtherest prac- tical limit. In order to do this he put himself in touch with the colleges of the state, the Prison, the State Hospital, the Orphans' Home, the Industrial School -in fact with all the state's institutions and inter- ests. He familiarized himself with the duties of each department and commission or bureau, but he did not feel it his duty to visit all the fairs, granges and like exhibitions and organizations. He attended the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Veterans' Association, the State Grange, and the State Fair, the commencement exercises at Dart- mouth, the New Hampshire College of Agriculture, the St. Mary's School in Manchester, and visited St. Anselm's College, and at all these he addressed the students and faculties. He received the statue of Commodore Perkins on behalf of the state in an address on New Hampshire and the navy in the presence of many thousand persons. He also ac- companied President Roosevelt from Concord to the WVeirs, and delivered the address of welcome, and then attended him back to the State Fair at Concord. He represented the state at the Webster Centen- nial in Hanover, and then spoke of what Webster was to the state, before a most distinguished as- semblage. On this occasion the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the college: that of A. M. having been given in 1882, that of B. S. by the New Hampshire College in 1901.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I, Part 18

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 858

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 858