was captured by native pirates, and seven of the crew were murdered, when young Jones, from a position partially protected, picked off the pirates one by one, until he literally redeemed the lost ground, succeeded in driving them over the side, thus saving the ship.
Jordan, Eben Dyer, son of Benjamin and Lydia (Wright) Jordan, was born October 13, 1822, in Danville, Cumberland county, Maine. The Jordan family of this country trace their line to one progenitor, the Rev. Robert Jordan, a priest of the church of England, who came from England about the year 1640. For many years he held a prominent position in the region adjacent to Cape Elizabeth, and the early history of Maine shows him to have been a man able to conduct difficult enterprises, and to administer important trusts, at a time when the unsettled condition of the new country, the imperfect execution of the laws, and the terrors of warfare with savage Indians, were formidable obstacles to success. The line of descent is through Robert (1640), Dominicus (1664), Nathaniel (1696), Benjamin (1738), Ebenezer (1764), and Benjamin, who was born at Danville in 1786.
Mr. Jordan was left fatherless and penniless at an early age, and his mother being unable to maintain the large family of small children left dependent upon her, the lad was placed with a farmer's family in the neighborhood. He proved a smart, active, industrious boy. His life upon the farm differed not much from that of the ordinary youth who attends brief summer and winter terms at a district school of seventy-five pupils, ranging from five to twenty-one years of age. This limited schooling Mr. Jordan has supplemented in after life by hard experience, a wide range of reading, by extensive travel, and by personal contact with active and successful men in all the walks of business and professional life.
Just before he was fourteen years of age, Mr. Jordan made what proved to be an important decision in his life, by resolving to leave the drudgery of the farm and seek employment in Boston—that great centre which has for many years been the magnet to attract the farmer-boys of New England. With his small savings he came by boat from Portland to Boston, and landed in the city of his future renown and success with very little cash, but sound health, good principles, self-reliant habits, industrious and economic methods, and a desire to achieve results by honest toil. He showed good sense in embracing the first opportunity for employment that was presented, and went to work on a farm at Mount Pleasant, Roxbury, at four dollars per month. When he was sixteen, he entered the store of William P. Tenny & Company, Boston, remaining there two years, afterwards working for a Mr. Pratt on a salary of two hundred and seventy-five dollars per year. At nineteen years of age his energy, intelligence, and grit, attracted the attention of Joshua Stetson, then a leading dry-goods merchant in Boston. Through his kindness, Mr. Jordan started for himself in a small store at the
Eben D. Jordan.
corner of Mechanic and Hanover streets in that city. At that time the steamers from down East and the Provinces arrived early in the morning, and to capture the trade of the passengers, this enterprising young merchant was up and had his store open at four o'clock, doing quite a thriving business before breakfast. There was but one result from such devotion to business. His store became one of the most notable and popular on the street, and at the end of four years, the sales amounted to one hundred thousand dollars per annum.
Desirous of obtaining practical information in the matter of buying goods, of gaining a better understanding of the gen-
