Jordan was born in Danville, Maine, on October 13, 1822.[2] He was a son of Benjamin and Lydia (née Wright) Jordan and, through his father, was directly descended from the Rev. Robert Jordan, a clergyman of the Church of England who came to America and settled in what is now the state of Maine in about the year 1640.[1]
After his father died young, leaving his mother in charge of several children, Jordan was sent to live with a neighbor on their farm where he learned to farm, saving up enough money to leave Portland and move to Boston at age fourteen.[1]
Jordan clerked for two years in the dry goods store of William P. Tenney & Co. before working for another merchant named Pratt. At age nineteen, one of Boston's leading merchants, Joshua Stetson, "appreciated his ability, and offered to assist him in starting business on his own account."[1] At twenty-five he sold his thriving store and went to work for J. M. Beebe, who taught him "not only a practical knowledge of the principles, methods, and in the management of a great business enterprise, but of the system which Mr. Beebe had perfected only after twenty-five years of close and assiduous labor and study."[1]
Jordan's son, Eben D. Jordan Jr. (1857-1916), was a major Boston arts philanthropist who played an influential role in the establishment of the New England Conservatory and the Boston Opera Company.[5]
On January 13, 1847, he married Julia M. Clark (1825–1897), a daughter of James and Elizabeth (née Raymond) Clark.[2] They had five children:[1]
James Clark Jordan (1850–1910), who married Helen L. Stevens and Jeannette Amanda Stiles;[6] he developed Jordan ParkinSan Francisco.[7][8]
Julia Maria Jordan (b. 1852), who married Herbert Dumaresq in 1873; he was a cotton manufacturer and who later became a partner in Jordan, Marsh & Company.[9]
Eben Dyer Jordan Jr. (1857–1916), who married May Sheppard (1861–1920), a daughter of Joseph Buzby Sheppard, in 1883.[10]
Jordan died on November 15, 1895, at his residence on Beacon Street in Boston.[1][12] The Eben Jordan House is located on 46 Beacon Street in Beacon Hill, Boston.[13] In 2000, a petition to grant landmark status to the interior was submitted to the Boston Landmarks Commission; as of 2022, the request is still under study.[14] His daughter Alice Foster built All Saints' Church, Brockhampton as a memorial to her parents; completed in 1902, it was the work of the Arts & Crafts pioneer W. R. Lethaby.
^The Boston Daily Globe (October 14, 1896), Memorial to Eben D. Jordan. Employes of the House He Founded Join in Honoring the Famous Boston Merchant., Boston, MA: The Boston Globe., p. 5
^Boston Landmarks Commission (May 17, 2024). "EBEN D. JORDAN JR. HOUSE"(PDF). Office of Historic Preservation City of Boston. p. 19.
^of 1870, Harvard College (1780-) Class (1905). Secretary's Report: no. VIII. Riverside Press. p. 59. Retrieved 22 April 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
