| Issac M. Jordan "Energetic and Faithful to Every Task" May 5, 1835 - December 3, 1890 |
| Born: May 5, 1835 A.B., Miami University: 1857 A.M., Miami University: 1862 admitted to bar, Columbus, Ohio: 1858 attorney: 1858-90 Congressman, first dist rict of Ohio: 1883-85 orator, first and 15th Grand Chapters Died: December 3, 1890 Buried: Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio. |
| Perhaps the first thing to get straightened out about Issac M. Jordan is his middle name.
His baptismal name was Issac Alfred Jordan and he signed the original Constitution-Ritual of January-February 1856, "Ike A. Jordan." After graduating from college he practiced law with his oldest brother, Jackson A. Jordan, who usually signed his name merely as J.A. Jordan. To avoid confusing J.A. Jordan and I.A. Jordan, the change was made to Issac M. (simply the initial "M") Jordan-and so was continued the rest of his life. The parents of Founder Jordan were Amos and Sarah Smith Jordan. Their son Issac was born on a farm in Union County, Pennsylvania, on May 5, 1835, the youngest of 11 children. When the boy was only two years old the family moved to Springfield, Ohio. The 11 children all survived their parents and five of their sons, one after another, became successful lawyers. These lawyer brothers enter closely into Issac's story as their interest in him, and the associations he had with them, were direct influences on his career. The parents moved to West Liberty, Ohio, and with them the boy, Issac. West Liberty was the boyhood home of Benjamin Piatt Runkle. Two of our Founders thus met at an early age and formed a friendship that lasted through many episodes. From West Liberty, Jordan and Runkle together entered Geneva Hall, the Convenenter Acadamy at Northwood, Ohio, for the year 1853-1854. Thier work at Genevea Hall was completed at Commencement in 1854 and that fall the two entered Miami University. "My father," wrote Runkle, "a stern Presbyterian Elder, who approved of Jordan, took us to Oxford and placed us in a boarding house." Jordan seems thereafter to have made his home, when not in college, with his brothers in Dayton. Runkles' and Jordan's training in the literary societies at "Geneva" helped them get off to a good start in the then all-importatnt literary societites at Miami. Within a few weeks they were initiated into Delta Kappa Epsilon. Jordan was largely responsible for establishing Gamma Chapter at Ohio Wesleyan, in Delaware, Ohio. During the summer of 1855 in Dayton, he befriended quite a few Ohio Wesleyan students and prospective students. He did such a good job of "rushing" that summer that shortly after college opened in the fall, a petition was sent by the Ohio Wesleyan boys to Oxford (the first one in the Fraternity's history) and the chapter was installed before Christmas that same year. This was a tremendously important event, and as it turned out, it resulted in the very preservation of the Fraternity. Gamma took over as the parent chapter when Alpha went temporarily out of existence in 1858. As benefits his well remembered quality of high ambition, he authored the valued criteria for membership, articulated in 1884, which are now known as the Jordan Standard. Upon Graduating from Miami, Jordan began to study law in the office of his brothers, Jackson and Nathan, in Dayton. Part of the time during this period he lived in a small rear room of the office and did the janitorial work. He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and practiced law with his brothers in Dayton for about two years. In 1860 young Jordan decided that Cincinnati offered better opportunities for practicing law, and he moved there. He made good in Cincinnati and in due course formed a partnership with the Honorable Flamen Ball, who had been a partner of Salmon P. Chase until Chase had gone into President Lincoln's cabinet. Later, Jordan went into partnership with his two older brothers, Jackson and Nelson. For many years this firm, under the name of Jordan and Jordan, was a prominent one in Cincinnati. In 1882, Jordan ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket in the Second Cincinnati Distric. Although in a strong Republican district, Jordan was elected handily. Jordan's death on December 3, 1890, occured as he was leaving his offices on the third floor of Lincoln Inn Court in downtown Cincinnati. At the elevator entrance he paused and turned to greet a friend. Without noticing it the elevator went on up to the floor above, the door remamining partly opened. With his face still turned toward his friend and with his naturual quick movement, he stepped into the elevator shaft and plunged to his death. The tragedy created a shock througout Cincinnati. Among the many editorial tributes was the following from The Cincinnati Enquirer: "Probably no other man's death would have caused more general sorrow and regrets throughout the city. Insofar as the fate of a single individual could be considered, it was regarded as a public calamity-a great and irreparable loss to the community." Burial was made in Spring Grove Cemetary at Cincinnati. A Founders' Memorial Monument was dedicated in 1929 to Issac M. Jordan, the third Founder to enter the Chapter Eternal. |
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