Who is John P. Jordan, and what did he do?
No, really, what did he do?
I need to know.
There is a name that keeps popping up in my research…John P. Jordan. And let me tell you, he pissed some people off. How? I have no idea, but I can tell you that some of the most respected men in Scott County have things to say, and they put it down in writing. I have my notes about JPJ scattered across two counties, but I will be adding new notes and articles to this page as I come across them.
“John P. Jordan, all who ever dealt with him remember him. When last heard from, he was the dirtiest of a lot of rebel prisoners at Richmond.”
Nathan Knapp, 1876 Historical Sketch of Scott County
“The only man ever sentenced in Morgan County to behanged was George Gardner, who was indicted in Scott County in the year 1841, charged with the murder of Philip W. Nash at Exeter by shooting him with a shot gun. The case was brought to Morgan County for trial on change of venue. Gardner was tried, found guilty and sentenced to be hanged at Jacksonville on the 23rd day of July, 1841, but on the night before that day Gardner broke jail and made his escape. Some insinuated that he escaped through the front door of the jail although the jail was broken, Judge Stephen A. Douglas presided in the trial of the case. John S. Greathouse, State’s attorney, prosecuted and John P. Jordan of Winchester defended. I was in town that day to see the hanging but did not look at it.”
Judge Cyrus Epler