OBITUARYof THOMAS JORDAN in the Vincennes, (Knox County Indiana)
Western Sun, August 22, 1835.
(Communicated) DIED--On Monday the 17th instant, at his residence in
this county, aged seventy years, THOMAS JORDAN, Esq., an old and
highly respectable citizen of our county. Thus it is that one by one
the pioneers of the West are departing; "the places which once knew
them know them no more forever;" and generation after generation is
springing up to supply their places, and are traveling onward to the
"same bourne" their fathers have gone before them. The biographies of
these men, the relicks of days gone by, would be interesting. Their
history is the history of the West. Mr. Jordan came to Vincennes with
Colonel Clark* when he captured the "post". (February 1779) He was
present at the time when Hamilton and his garrison were surrendered.
He came here, when from Pittsburgh to St. Louis all was a wilderness,
with the exception of some few garrisons and trading posts. What a
change in one man's lifetime! Imagination can hardly realize it. Yet
Mr. Jordan has witnessed it all. Respected, beloved and lamented,
"full of years" he has departed, respected by all who knew him, and
with the full assurance that the reward of "well done good and
faithful servant," will be his portion hereafter.
I thought this was such colorful example of writing in the nineteenth
century that others might enjoy reading it. He was my wife's 3rd
greatgrandfather. He left his wife home with ten children and went off
to fight the Indians at the battle of Tippecanoe. HLauber.