IN THE EARLY DAYS - C.B. JORDAN

JORDAN, THOMPSON, MOAD, HALE, VANDERPOOL, ONEY, STANLEY, BANTA, DANCER, SMITH, MOORE, RICHARDS, EAST, LOE, HASTINGS, PORTER, FULLERTON, MORRISON, DAWSON, BURTON, ROBB, YOUNG, HALLEY

Posted By: Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert (email)
Date: 11/12/2001 at 18:46:01

Decatur County Journal
April l8, l907

A Former Decatur County Resident Tells
Interesting Bits of the Early
History of the County.

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- - -
C.B. JORDAN, a former resident of Leon,
writes the following interesting
letter to the Editor of the JOURNAL, from
his present home in Enid,
Oklahoma:

Enid, Oklahoma, April 3, l907.
By some means I am in possession of your
38th anniversary number of May
4, l905, and in reading the data
historical of Decatur County, I notice
a few errors and a few omissions, and as I
was there when the county was
born, I concluded it would be a pleasure,
to myself at least, to make a
few corrections. While it is true many
who would enjoy reading it have
passed to the great beyond, some of their
children might enjoy reading
it. First I notice that the name of S.S.
THOMPSON should be SAMUEL C.

Speaking of the first term of court, of
which DANIEL MOAD was clerk, I
will never forget seeing him use the
county seal for the first time.
There was no frame or lever about the
seal, simply the brass circle. He
smoothed a piece of a log in the wood pile
with an ax and placed the
paper thereon, then placed the brass piece
only containing the letters
thereon, then struck it with the ax to
make the impression.

ELIJAH B. HOLE should be ELIJAH B. HALE.
Of course all old settlers
know that JOHN JORDAN was my father and
CHARLES JORDAN was his brother.
The name of ANTHONY VANDERPOOL should
appear in the early history, he
being a Baptist Minister and a brother of
JOHN.

Next we will enter the county seat
question. Your statement is, the
commissioners selected the east l/2 s.e.
qr. and the w. l/2 of the s.e.
qr. of Sec. 27, Tp. 69, R. 28. The land
man would simply say the se qr.
of the section. Of course R. 27 is west
of Decatur City. Much of the
election of re-location I remember
distinctly; the general advertised
understanding up to within 48 hours of the
date of the election was,
that two points only were to be voted on:
one was the point at Decatur
City, then there was a strong element who
were going to vote for a point
at the center of the county and about 48
hours prior to election day,
JOHN VANDERPOOL, WILLIAM ONEY, HIRAM J.
STANLEY, DR. THOMPSON and my
father, JOHN JORDAN, all being interested
east of Little River, counted
noses and they believed that they could
defeat both the other places by
a little quick work, and locate the county
seat on the high prairie east
of Little River, so they selected three of
their number with good horses
and saddles and ordered them to see every
voter east of Little River and
east of range 25, south of Little River,
between that and election
morning and tell them about this game, and
swear them not to let anyone
west of the same lines know a thing about
it, but to go up early the
morning of the election and vote for a
point named Independence.
Decatur City did not hear of it until the
next day. My memory is that
it carried by 8 votes over all others.

Now to Lamoni; you have your date l880 as
being the year that the first
representatives of the Church of Latter
Day Saints arrived. I left that
country in the year l875, and MR. BANTA as
President of the colony,
accompanied by MR. DANCER as Vice
President, purchased the first land of
(can't read) me, as agent of the land that
the church bought, they
having made purchases of other agents who
had no authority to sell, and
returned to Leon expecting some deeds to
have been there, but not one
deed had arrived; then they came to my
office and I assured them if they
bought land of me that the deed would
come, except in case the owner had
died since my authority. The third day
after they gave me some money,
two deeds arrived by mail, and they were
so well pleased they made my
office their headquarters until I had sold
them something over $ll0,000
worth. I found them a nice set of men. I
think the JOE SMITH of mormon
reputation has been in my office several
times. MR. BANTA delighted in
being called a mormon.

Now as to changing the name from
Independence and from South
Independence to Leon; I was at that
meeting, and GEORGE L. MOORE, at
that time a merchant in partnership with
SETH RICHARDS, was empowered
fully by the meeting to select some
suitable, short name and he selected
Leon. The present generation do not know
how awkward that name seemed
to be at first. The first house you spoke
of, built by THOMAS H. EAST,
was built before the town was located and
was just immediately south of
the present Methodist Church, between that
and the alley, if there is an
alley there. The shool house that MRS.
DELILAH LOE thinks was a mile
east of town, in '53, was in the east edge
of LEFFLER's Addition; if my
memory is right, the teacher's name was
HASTINGS. Along about those
years there was a school taught in what
was known as the old Blair Court
House Building, by JOSEPHUS C. PORTER, who
nearly scared me to death for
whispering to my girl; but the first
school was taught in a log house on
what was known later as HURST's Store
corner, by HUMPHREY FULLERTON, a
brother of MRS. F.F. THOMPSON, and one
term by CARRINGTON S. PORTER.

Under the caption of the Leon Abstract
Books, I must beg to have a
correction made. Under your statement you
say that CHARLES B. JORDAN,
of Enid, Oklahoma, started the Abstract
Books, and the clerical work was
performed by ALBERT HALE; I wish to state
that the real blank books that
were up to date, were bought and commenced
at a date (which I have
forgotten) by GEORGE BURTON and J. BARR
MORRISON; about the same date
and unknown to either party ALBERT HALE
and W.E. DAWSON purchased a set
of blanks of another book firm, all of the
blank books arriving in Leon
at about the same time. If either had
known of the other's action there
would have been but one set purchased.
Soon the former firm disagreed
and quit work; soon thereafter I bought
BURTON's interest, without
consulting MR. MORRISON. About the same
day, WILLIAM H. ROBB bought MR.
MORRISON's interest, without consulting
MR. BURTON, so unknown to each
other, the firm of JORDAN & ROBB was
established. Later, I purchased
MR. ROBB's interest; I worked steadily
along for three years in my
books, employing ALBERT HALE to complete
the last record book, I paid
him $5.00 per day; it took twenty days in
which to complete them up to
date. You will find that set of books
mainly in my hand writing. After
a time DAWSON and HALE did not hitch good
and MR. DAWSON coaxed me to
buy MR. HALE out, which I did, and later I
bought MR. DAWSON out. This
set of books were mainly in MR. HALE's
hand writing, but I never used
them, as they were not up to date.

I notice in the same issue, in a letter
from MAJOR J.L. YOUNG, he
charges GEORGE A. HALLEY, an attorney of
Leon in those days, of being a
Presbyterian Minister. What preaching he
did was at home to his wife
and son. Perhaps I have wearied your
patience, and I will close.

With best wishes for the old home place, I
am respectfully,

C.B.
JORDAN.

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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
November 8, 200l