Re: Joshua Jordan - Butler County, Alabama
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In reply to:
Joshua A. Jordan - Pike & Crenshaw Cos AL
Ensley Seay 4/30/04
Patsy,
Did you ever identify the different Joshua Jordans you were researching in Alabama? One, Joshua W. Jordan, came to Greenville (Butler County, Alabama) in the 1860s where he died in 1886. He was born about 1815 in North Carolina, according to the 1870 and 1880 Butler Co. censuses, and was not only a Methodist minister but had been a solider and a circus clown. Quite an interesting character!
In "History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida," Marion E. Lazenby wrote of Rev. Jordan:
“J. W. Jordan was a most unusual man – ‘in many respects a great man.’ The writer of his memoir thus tells of him: ‘Plow boy, comic actor, house painter, Mexican soldier, sinner convinced of sin – sinner, by faith in Christ born to God – eloquent minister of Christ, itinerant preacher, superannuated preacher – sick and suffering -.’He died with a torturous cancer, loved and ministered to by a host of friends, thousands of whom, including this author’s mother, who at the time lived in Greenville, affectionately called him ‘Father Jordan.’ He married 1865, Mrs. Esther McCarter of Montgomery, who died about 1892.”
If you have more information on Joshua W. Jordan or the Jordans in general and would like to share data with the Historical Society, do let me know.
Regards,
Annie Crenshaw