Sacramento County
Biographies
JAMES JORDAN
JAMES JORDAN, owner of the Eagle Ditch
at Michigan Bar, was born in England,
April 18, 1827, his parents being John and Louise (Brooker)
Jordan. The mother died about 1834 and in 1836 the father came to America
with eight children. He settled on a farm in the State of New
York, and in 1840 moved to Michigan,
where six of his children are still living, five being married. They are:
Caleb, with one son; Stephen married a Miss Perry, and has four or five
children; William is unmarried; Mary, now Mrs. William Loburn,
has a large family; Louise, now Mrs. Tyler, has some children; Annie, now Mrs.
Carpenter, is also the mother of some children. All are settled on farms
in Davison Township,
Monroe County, Michigan. The
father died there about 1879, aged eighty-three. The grandparents Jordan
and grandmother Brooker were
also long-lived folks. The subject of this sketch left Grand Blanc, Genesee
County, Michigan, where his father then resided, in November 1850, for California. He
came by the Panama route, and took the
Panama fever,
which nearly proved fatal. He was unconscious for fourteen days on the
voyage to San Francisco by the
Antelope, and on his arrival was sent to the hospital. When discharged he
was scarcely able to work, and did cooking for his board, and after ward was
paid $25 a month. In July, 1851, he came to Coloma, in El Dorado County,
and was quite successful in mining, in which he has been engaged directly, or
as owner of mineral lands and water privileges, with little interruption ever
since. He conducted a hotel at Coloma about eighteen months in 1853-‘54,
which he afterward rented to others for seven or eight years, and finally
sold. In 1854 he bought a mining claim, and in 1855 went into the mining
and ditching business, with good success right along. But the usual
fortune of miners was near at hand. He engaged with others in running a
tunnel at Kentucky Flats, near Mount Gregory,
in El Dorado County,
with an aggregate loss of $18,000, of which his share was about $2,500 and
eighteen months’ labor. This was in 1856-‘57. He then went to Gold
Hill and invested in a big bed-rock flume, which scarcely returned any net
gain. Meanwhile he was engaged in river mining in the summer months from
1856 to 1860, which he quit in 1861. In the high water of 1861-‘62 his
mining enterprises paid well. In 1862 he again went to Coloma, where he
bought a bar claim on the South Fork of the American River, for $90, out of
which he made $3,000 in five months. In the spring of 1863 he came to Michigan
Bar, on the Cosumnes, where he loaned money on stock
of the Eagle Ditch, the original cost of which, with the repairs, amounting
some years to $3,000, is estimated at over $60,000. He has been owner of the
property for several years, and leases water for mining and irrigating
purposes, besides supplying power for his grist-mill. He also owns 200
acres of mineral land, from which he gets varying returns. In 1871 and
1872 he prospected in Nevada, but
without striking anything of value. He was, however, let into some good
enterprises, only to find that the sellers were not the owners. Mr. James
Jordan is a member of the Masonic order, and was Senior Deacon in Nebraska
Lodge, No. 71, which used to meet in Michigan Bar, but died out some years ago,
when Mr. Jordan
joined the lodge at Ione.
Transcribed 9-20-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 762-763.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.