Livery owner raised family atop Mississippi River bluff

Ann Lear of Hannibal, a Jordan family descendant, said that according to family lore, this is a circa 1861 photo of the Jordan family house, perched upon the Mississippi River bluffs south of Hannibal. On the porch, her great-grandmother, Anna Jordan (1861-1904) is identified as the baby being held by a family slave. This photo was given to the current owner of the property, Dr. George Kerkemeyer, during the 1980s by Anna Jordan Smiley’s granddaughter, Nancy Jane Neale (Mrs. E.V.) Schneider (1931-1997).

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Harvel Jordan was among Hannibal’s early and most prominent livery operators, moving to town from Monroe County, Mo., in 1847.

He was born in Bedford County, Va., 1815, to Lee M. and Rhoda Jordan. The family relocated to Monroe County in 1831.

Harvel Jordan bought out the established business, the Brady House Livery Stable on Main Street, in September 1847, which was previously owned by Messrs. Bridgford and Campbell. The livery was located below the Brady House hotel at Main and Center streets.

(In 1852 the Brady House was operated by Capt. A.S. Robards of Kentucky.)

In 1859, Harvel and his brother, Jonathan Jordan, lived at 75 Bird Street. Jonathan was associated with the saddlery business, while Harvel devoted his career to the livery business.

In late June 1860, Harvel purchased a farm located in Township 57, Range 4, Section 34, previously owned by Simeon C. Garrett, and later by his brother, Jonathan M. Garrett.

Upon this property long stood a large federal-style house. It was estimated by the late Scott Meyer, long-time co-owner of River City Restorations, to have been built in the 1850s. The calculated date is based upon the style of “period saw curves on the floor joists,” according to Dr. George Kerkemeyer, current owner of the acreage upon which the house stood. Remnants of the house - as described in last week’s edition of this column - are still part of the existing landscape.

It is unclear under whose land ownership the house was constructed. But a family photo that  Nancy Neale Schneider (1931-1997) shared with the current property owner, Dr. Kerkemeyer, after he purchased the property in 1985, dates the house to 1861, when the Jordans lived there, or earlier.

According to family lore, a woman seated upon the front porch in the photo is a slave, who is holding an infant, Anna Jordan (1861-1904). Anna is the daughter of Harvel Jordan (1815-1900) and Lucy A. Jordan (1818-1894).

Anna Jordan Smiley is the grandmother of Nancy Jane Neale (Mrs. E.V.) Schneider (1931-1997) who gave the copy of the photo to Dr. Kerkemeyer.

(Dates based upon Ancestry submissions)

The Jordan farm

The property remained in the Jordan family for some four decades, until after Harvel Jordan’s death in 1900. In his will, Harvel Jordan left the property to his two surviving daughters, Henrietta Jordan Darlington (1849-1926) and Anna Jordan Smiley (1861-1904).

Harvel Jordan’s two surviving sons-in-law were named as executors of his estate: Reuben C. Darlington (1842-1903), married to Henrietta Jordan Darlington; and Robert J. Smiley (1858-1931), married to Anna Jordan Smiley.

The Smileys were presumably living on the Jordan farm in 1900, when Harvel Jordan died. By 1901, they had relocated to 1009 Bird St., and later to 1001 Bird. Mr. Smiley had long been associated with the cigar industry, and in 1901 and 1903 he was employed as a traveling salesman for the Holmes-Dakin Cigar Co., 123-125 S. Main.

According to a newspaper account, in January 1905, the Settle brothers, George T. (wife Leonra A.) and John W., prominent saw mill men, relocated from their previous home at St. Mary’s Avenue at Bradley Place, to the Harvel Jordan farm 1 1/2 miles south of Hannibal, east of Fulton Avenue.

In 1906, John Pratt purchased the property.

Others owned the property in the interim. Dr. George Kerkemeyer bought the property from Ray E. and Imogene McCullough, in 1985.

The house was dilapidated, but still standing, at the time of the Kerkemeyer purchase.

Mrs. Smiley

Ann Schneider Lear of Hannibal, great-granddaughter of Anna Jordan Smiley, said the family legend is that Mrs. Smiley was a “quite a horsewoman. She fell while jumping, and that led up to her death.” Mrs. Smiley died Jan. 4, 1904, at the age of 43. She left three children: Eula Lee Mainland, 1896-1959; Gladys Ethelyn Neale, 1898-1990; and Ralph Jordan Smiley, 1891-1936.

Early owners

Simeon V. Garrett, born about 1827, had a short-lived residency upon the land located a mile and a half south of Hannibal, the acreage abutting the northern boundary of Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Township 57, Range 4.

He, his wife, Martha, and their daughter, Lucy E. Garrett, moved from New York during the late 1850s, in order to make Hannibal their home.

In March 1859, Garrett and his wife purchased 40 acres of land from John P. Devereux for $5,500. Devereux, a St. Louis attorney, was well known in Hannibal, and advertised for business in the April 7, 1859 edition of the Hannibal Weekly Messenger. References for Devereux were offered by others in the legal field: Judge Helm; J.P. Richards Esq.; M.P. Green Esq.; B.N. Crump, Esq.; and G.W. Hawkins, Esq.

The Garrett family’s short residency upon this land located on the Mississippi River bluffs wasn’t without strife.

On June 14, 1859, S.C. Garrett advertised in the Hannibal Daily Messenger, “Cow lost. Strayed or stolen from me, about the 5th inst., a light red cow with a white stip in her face, no marks.”

He reported that the cow was last seen near the adjoining farm to the north, owned by R. Westfall. 

He offered a suitable reward for the cow’s return.

Then, on June 25, 1859, he dropped by the Daily Messenger office, sharing  “some very fine cucumbers,” grown upon his farm south of Hannibal. “Mr. Garrett has been furnishing cucumbers in the City Market for nearly a week,” the newspaper reported.

By mid August 1859, he offered: “for sale, at a bargain. 6 acres of corn, 5 acres of potatoes, 1 acre of melons; 1 acre of cucumbers; 2 acres large white beans; 1 acre of cabbage; besides a garden of vegetables.”

With tensions flaring during the days leading up to Civil War hostilities, Harvel sold the land to his brother, Jonathan M. Garrett, who in turn sold it to Harvel Jordan on June 11, 1860, for $5,000.

By the time the 1860 census enumerator came to call, the Garrett family was resettled in Greig, Lewis, New York. They added a young son to their family, Vincent Lewis Garrett, born in 1859, in New York, according to his 1931 death certificate.

1860 census

The Jordan family, the 1860 census:

Harville (stet) Jordan 45, livery keeper

Lucy Ann Jordan 42

Sarah H. Jordan 19

Virginia Jordan 16

Henrietta Jordan 10

Marietta Jordan 10

Milton Jordan 13

Amanda Jordan 4

Anna Jordan 2

Mary Lou Montgomery, Suburban Newspapers of America Editor of the Year, Dailies, 2010, retired as editor of the Hannibal, Mo., Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on amazon.com by this author include: “The Notorious Madam Shaw,” “Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri,” “Hannibal’s ‘West End,’” “Oakwood: West of Hannibal,” “St. Mary’s Avenue District,” and “Live, on stage in Hannibal 1879: ‘H.M.S. Pinafore.’” Montgomery can be reached at montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com