The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1952-01-11
JORDAN
Continued from Page One)

MIN to carry on the arduous and
complicated duties of the highway
Craftsmanship. His department now
is maintaining $4,000 miles OF
roads. It is keeping $4,000 employ
ees busy. In addition to its high-
way program, the Commission al
so includes the vast state prison
system. The job of chairman in
this day and time requires a man
who can give business like, states
manlike attention to thousands of
details as well as to hundreds of
major projects. Such man is DR..
Jordan.
AS son,of the late Rev. Henry
Harrison Jordan, young Henry
grew up in Methodist parsonages
all over North Carolina. "When
we moved to new town." he re-
calls, "Charlie, Everett, Frank and
/ had to fight the neighborhood
kids once or twice to let them
know we weren't sissies. That's
pretty good training. We learned
to take care. of ourselves"
Chairman Jordan was referring
to his brothers. Charlie is Duke
University's vice-president in
charge of public relations. Everett,
a successful textile industrialist,
is chairman of the State Demo
cratic Executive Committee. Frank
is pastor of the First Methodist
Church of Shelby.
Henry Jordan was born on Au-
gust 81, 1898, in Ramseur where
his father, the Methodist parson,
rode a horse called "Joe". Com
menting on a speech DIR. Jordan
made in Randolph County last
year, v C. Marley of the Ashe-
bOrO er-Times recalled those
old days:
DIR. Henry was born just around
the corner in the old Methodist
parsonage while his father (.
was our pastor. / remember well
his coming to our home down in
the country, riding old Joe, a fine
bay horse. I rode behind him from
church and thought Joe was the
latest horse / had ever seen.
The preached must have visited a
lot for they didn't pay him but
about 80 dollars a month and you
couldn't feed a horse very high on
that. He was a good preacher, and
his SON is making US a good High
way Chairman, fair and straight
and honorable. We would be bet
ter off with more Henry Jordans.
Mr. Marley's observation on the
integrity of Henry Jordan is no
more exaggerated than his COM
mentary on the meagerness Of
Methodist parsons salaries in the
old days. Some of the Highway
Chairman's closest friends have
made the observation that they
never "heard anybody say any
thing bad about 'Dr. Henry or
ever knew anybody who didn't like
him."
In the current Tar Heel politi-
cal picture, that statement means
considerable. 1t indicates a lot
about the personality and charac-
ter of the man Governor Scott
chose to administer his important
$20O,O0O,O0O bond issue program.
AS for education, young Henry
Jordan saw the inside of many
North Carolina public schools. He
remembers schools in Marion, Le-
noir and Morganton among others.
In each locality the elder Henry
Jordan served his church, leaving
reservoirs of friends and pleasant
memories for his son. Young Hen
ny went to Rutherford College
(now Brevard) before leaving for
Emory and Henry College in Vir-
ginia to begin his higher educa-
ton. Later he attended Emory
University in Atlanta, Ca, where
he received his training to become
a dentist.
After graduating from the den
tai school, he went to Belmont and
settled down to 20 years of admin
istering to teeth. While there, he
courted and married Mary Ruth
Rankin Of Gastonia and probably
would be there today except for a
serious illness which sent him to
the hospital for many months.
When he recovered, he found it
possible to break away from the
deadly routine of going to the Of
fee every morning. That was in
1910. His brother, Everett, had en-
tered the textile business in Ala
nance County and found that bus
mess to his liking. Brother Henry,
seeing an opportunity to enter a
new field, decided to take the same
plunge. With his brothers. help, he
purchased an old mill beside the
Deep River at Cedar Falls in Ran
dolph County. The war demand for
textile products made this move
an immediate success. At present
the Highway Chairman is presi-
oG Al