Early on, Madalene and Herbert S. Jordan realized they had a common focus in life which could easily be summarized as "Duty, Honor, Country and God." Integrity was the hallmark characteristic of them both. When commitments were made, they were honored. . . without hesitation. With marriage, the commitments were in the wedding vows, never to be violated, and in religion, the commitment was in the baptismal rite which, again, was never to be violated. For Madalene Marie Driscoll, her commitment to God was made as a baby through the promises of her parents and God-parents. All through her life, she was devoted to the Catholic Church, its teachings and its obligations. She spent much time in prayer, and whenever possible spent time in adoration before the Holy Eucharist. At location after location, Army post after Army post, she sewed cassocks and surpluses for the altar boys. Indeed in most posts from the 1930's on, her boys were altar servers. She was dedicated to reading scripture and religious books, attending novenas and prayed the rosary on basically a daily basis. She frequently went to daily Mass and was a dedicated parishioner in the chapels and churches wherever she lived. Priests treasured her ability to get things done. She always hoped that one of her sons would become a priest, but was pleased to have a nephew and brother who were priests in the Passioning Order, Father Godfrey Poage and Father Louis Driscoll. Herbert Spencer Jordan was raised as a Congregationalist, but following the marriage to Madalene he attended Catholic Mass with the family on special occasions. After their son Bert's sudden death in the Korean War in September 1950, Herbert began studying with a Jesuit priest and in 1951 became a Roman Catholic. He embraced that commitment with total heart and soul, and became a stalwart convert, frequently reading religious books and a lot of religious history. In prayer life, they really beca
MADE FROM THE RIGHT STUFF
AN ESSAY ON THE LIVES AND IMPACT OF COLONEL HERBERT S. AND MADALENE D. JORDANBy John Patrick Jordan Harvey Driscoll JordanAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 John Patrick Jordan, Ph.D. and Harvey Driscoll Jordan
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4389-7437-8Contents
Notes From The Authors...........................................................viiAcknowlegements..................................................................ixPrelude..........................................................................xiOut Of The Jordan And Driscoll Families..........................................1A New Life Together..............................................................13Advancing In The Military During The Great Depression............................19A Second Hawaii Assignment ... Aloha, Again!.....................................27Indiana Here We Come ... As The Nation Is Preparing For War......................31Transfer To The Finance Department And On To California..........................35December 7, 1941. The U.S. At War................................................43Duty Calls In War Time...........................................................49The Joys Of Returning Home From War..............................................55To Fort Mcpherson & Atlanta Via St. Louis........................................63Retirement From A Career.........................................................69Do You Know The Way To San Jose..................................................73Challenges Of The 1950'S.........................................................79Santa Rosa Calling...............................................................85The Final Calling From God.......................................................91A Lagniappe From Our Father......................................................95Synopsis Of Special Points About Herbert And Madalene Jordan.....................97About The Authors................................................................102
Chapter One
OUT OF THE JORDAN AND DRISCOLL FAMILIES
We are all, in large part, the products of our parents; made of their genes and formed by the memories and environment of our upbringing. What good fortune that has been for the four sons of Herbert and Madalene Jordan, Bill, Bert, Harvey and myself, John Pat! But as a background, let's look at some history.
Dad's father, W. N. Jordan, was the fourth son of Reverend William Harvey Jordan, D.D. who had been born in England in 1832. His wife, Maryjane Kirkpatrick Jordan, was born in 1833 as the daughter of Reverend John L. Kirkpatrick. Reverend William Harvey and Maryjane Jordan were married in the Methodist Protestant Church in Morgan County, Illinois. William Harvey Jordan was himself a Congregational Minister and became Chaplain for the 150th Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, and rose to the rank of Colonel in the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a Chaplain for Sherman's army on its march to the sea. During the war, the Regiment also fought at the battle of Chickamauga under the command of Major General Thomas. William H. Jordan lived in Illinois near Abraham Lincoln and was his intimate friend.
W. N. Jordan's first marriage was to Mary Ellen Jordan who died in child-birth along with their child. W. N. and Mary Ellen had lived in Holyoke, Colorado, but as his business failed there in 1891, W. N. returned to Iowa. He decided to go to the Law School at Drake University, having earlier been educated at a school in Adrian, Michigan.
His second wife, Mable R. McIntyre, was born June 18, 1864 in Neponset, Illinois, and married W. N. Jordan on January 1, 1891 in Iowa. Her father, Erastus McIntyre, was said to have the largest barn in Baxter County, Iowa, and had impressively good Percheron draft horses for farm work. Although Erastus prospected for awhile in the Sacramento area of California, he returned to Iowa, became Mayor of Neponset, and for twenty years was President of the School Board. He was known as "A Baptist and staunch Republican." The home in which she grew up possessed a strong Christian environment. She enjoyed Grinnell College where she graduated majoring in music. Her younger sister, Maud, did the same, both becoming the first women college graduates from their county.
After their marriage, they moved to Des Moines where part of the family income came from renting out rooms in their home to other law students, a technique often used to supplement family income. Times were indeed tough. The second son of William Newton Jordan and Mabel McIntyre Jordan, Herbert Spencer Jordan was born on March 5, 1895, in Baxter, Iowa. Dad reported watching his father cut out cardboard to put in his worn-out shoes as he had no money to repair them. Nevertheless, within seven years after receiving his law degree, W. N. became the County Attorney for Polk County, bringing him into the political world of Iowa.
W. N. Jordan is recorded to have distinguished himself as a speaker and trial lawyer. The Des Moines Daily News reports that later, as a candidate for County Attorney, "with a tremendous burst of speed on the home stretch, W. N. Jordan is beginning to show poise of winning in the pretty three-cornered race for the nomination for County Attorney." Indeed, he won the nomination and was elected County Attorney (local title for District Attorney). At the end of the nomination process, he was predicted to win in every precinct in Polk County which includes Des Moines. Quite an achievement!
While growing up with his family, Dad had an Irish Setter whose "call name" was Brownie. Dad always liked dogs but this male Irish Setter was the first dog that was "his." Little did he know how this opened a door that ultimately brought many Irish Setters into his family nearly a half century later. Dad was accustomed to having dogs around ... he loved dogs. In fact, when Brownie died, Dad arranged for the skin and coat to be made into a rug ... a treasured rug.
Dad entered Drake University in 1913 and decided to major in history, a subject he loved for the rest of his life. During his college years, he was recognized as an athlete, running track and playing football for all four years. He graduated in 1917, and with the entry of the U.S. into WW I he and his older brother, Russell, were selected for the Second Officer Training Camp in Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Apparently they were the only set of brothers in the Training Camp.
Shortly after completing Officer Training Camp, Dad became first the Supply Officer for the 154th Aero Squadron AERO, and spent a year in Europe, both in England and then France, where he ultimately commanded the Squadron. Although he was not qualified by the U.S. Army to be a pilot because of his poor eyesight, he arranged with British pilots to do some flying anyway. The biplanes had a terrible record of crashing, but Dad did not himself experience that. According to government records, the Squadron was especially responsible for repairing and maintaining aircraft in the area called the Zone of Advance. During his entire stay in France, his outfit was attached to the Camel Prescott Squadron near Paris, but he was only in Paris itself once! When the Armistice was signed in November 1918, what joy he felt in anticipation of finally returning home in January 1919.
Madalene Marie Driscoll was born on May 14, 1898, in Adair, Iowa, about 60 miles west of Des Moines. Her parents were John Henry Driscoll and Estella {Stella} Margaret Agnew Driscoll. Madalene's father, John H. Driscoll, although born in 1851 in Springfield, Massachusetts, moved west to Iowa with his dad, John (NMI) Driscoll, his mother, Mary Ellen Delaney, and his brother, Lawrence Driscoll, in 1856. Both his dad and mother were immigrants from Ireland. The immigrant John Driscoll became an engineer on the Hartford & New Haven Railroad in 1852 following 6 years as a fireman for the same rail line. After moving to Iowa, he became an engineer on the Rock Island Railroad. Mom says that her dad was present, perhaps as a fireman on the train, when the Golden Spike was pounded into the rail line at Ogden, Utah, in 1869, signaling the completion of the railroad across the U.S. from coast to coast. What a career! John H. Driscoll spent his career as a railroad engineer and was reported by Mom as having been an engineer on the railroad and for several years "made the run" between Iowa and Ogden, Utah.
Stella Agnew's family was what one called "Scots-Irish" because they came from Scotland to Ulster, Ireland in the early 1600's but found themselves in conflict with the Gaelic-speaking Irish. The family came to America in 1717 to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and a century later, Emmetsburg, Maryland. Stella's parents were both born in the Emmetsburg area. Her mother, Catherine E. Redmond was reared as an orphan by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's Sisters of Charity at Mount St. Mary's in Emmetsburg.
Although St. Elizabeth Seaton had died 13 years before Catherine arrived at the orphanage in 1834, her parents were both dead by the time she was 8 years old and she was placed under the guardianship of Father John McElroy of Frederick County, Maryland. Father McElroy placed Catherine with the Sisters of Charity. Catherine was 18 when she married John Agnew. The Agnews were known as one of the "first families" of Pennsylvania and Maryland. In 1852 John and Catherine relocated to a farm in Iowa near Davenport. Indeed, Mom's grandmother, Catherine E. Redmond Agnew had twelve children including Stella Agnew Driscoll, who was born in 1859. What a history Catherine had, educated by St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton's Sisters in Emmetsburg and what a family she had with John Agnew. Both John and Catherine are buried at the Catholic Cemetery at Holbrook, Iowa. The newspaper reported that "the name of Grandma Agnew will always be mentioned by those who knew her with the profoundest respect for her good works and Christian charity." This is the lineage that brought with it a long history of Roman Catholicism, and indeed provided the foundation for Dad's interest in Catholicism.
Back to Mom. As a daughter of John H. and Stella Driscoll, Madalene was the youngest of eight children (five of whom lived to maturity), so she had plenty of supervision, especially from her older brother, John A. Driscoll. About 1903, the family moved from Adair to Valley Junction (now West Des Moines) to be nearer to the Rock Island Line railroad facilities where Madalene's father worked as a railroad engineer, in those days a very prestigious and well-paying occupation. Remember, he came from a family of railroad engineers (father, brother and himself). Mom's dad was also a leader in the Brotherhood of Railroad Engineers, heading the Union for the Rock Island system. Recognizing that the Driscolls had immigrated from Cork, Ireland, only in the 1830's, so they were indeed examples of the "American dream" coming true.
On arriving at Valley Junction, one day Madalene, who was five years old at that time, decided to walk around the block ... indeed a big block. Unfortunately she became disoriented ... "lost," and began to cry. An adult asked where she lived. All she could remember was Valley Junction, Iowa, which, of course, was no help without an address. After checking with one of the neighbors, she was brought back to her home, frightened but not cowed!
Not too long after moving to Valley Junction, John H. Driscoll, who was rather well-to-do, built a lovely, large home on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines and that was where Madalene did most of her growing up. She attended Catholic schools through high school and enrolled at Drake University to become a teacher.
She had soft red hair, very white skin with freckles and was by nature vivacious. Her father used to say her hair "was not red, but a little bit sandy." She never in her life had a suntan ... only sunburn because of her extremely pale skin. And like Dad, Mom had blue eyes.
Mom and Dad met as students at Drake University in 1916. As luck would have it, Mom needed to write a paper for class, perhaps something in history. She was a Freshman and Dad was a Senior majoring in history, and he offered to help her write it. Love followed, but then came the beginning of the U.S. involvement in World War I ... the "World War." They postponed the idea of marriage until Herbert's military service obligation and especially the war were over. With Dad's return to the U.S. early in 1919, there was no need to wait. They were married on February 26, 1919, in the rectory of the Catholic Parish as Dad was not a Catholic ... and would not become one until 1951. This was how "mixed" marriages were performed within the Catholic Church at that time.
A NEW LIFE TOGETHER
Following their wedding, Mom and Dad returned immediately to the New York area where he was stationed with the Army on Governor's Island. He had only a very short "leave" to get married. New York City was a new environment for two mid-westerners; there were new accents, new neighbors, tall buildings and busy taxicabs. But the new family was eager to launch their life together. Typical of Dad, he wanted to stay in the Army long enough to see if he could be chosen to be a Regular Army Officer. Reservists were sent "pink slips" when they were no longer needed in service, and since the "pink slips" stopped coming without targeting Dad, he achieved his goal. However, he felt it was time to leave the Army and return to Iowa. Since his father and brother were lawyers, Dad began to study law at Drake, but soon found that it was not his "cup of tea." He went into life insurance and looked at other options, none of which were particularly appealing to him.
A few years later, in 1922, comparing assumptions, Herbert and Madalene each thought they had left the Army because the other one wanted to leave, only to find out that they both liked the Army life! By 1923, through a competitive examination which he chose to take in calculus, Dad returned to the Army as a professional Army Officer.
Happily, on January 17, 1922, their first child, William Spencer Jordan (Bill), was born in Des Moines. After they rejoined Army life, a second son, Herbert Lee Jordan (Bert), was born on October 20, 1925. At that time, Dad was stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Regiment, which had been at that location since 1824 and was an important post during the Indian Wars. Mom and Dad took leave of Fort Snelling to return to Des Moines for the birth of "Bert" as he was called ... to distinguish him from his Dad's name of Herbert (In adulthood, Bert changed it to "Herb.").
They soon returned to duty at Fort Snelling, a place of very cold winters. Dad often commented that the coldest he had ever been in his life was on Guard Duty at 40 degrees below zero in the Minnesota winter, even though they posted the guard with heavy clothing, wrapped leggings, boots, very heavy winter coats and heavy gloves. But being a traditional unit at a traditional post, posting the guard was part of the life. The buildings of Fort Snelling are still there and I've been there in recent years.
One experience left an impression with Dad all the rest of his life. His first Company Commander at the 3rd Infantry had a high opinion of himself and made it known that the Army consistently sent him the worst lieutenants for training. However, after spending some time under that Commander's "excellent" supervision, they all became superb in any way you wanted to measure them. So, initially, the Company Commander said to Lt. Jordan, "Your job Lieutenant is to find the buff strap" (a small leather strap worn over the left shoulder and arm pit). It was awarded only after a major inspection to the best Unit in the Regiment. When Dad was successful in this endeavor, instead of receiving praise from his Company Commander, he received a backhanded comment, "Lt. Jordan, now keep it!" As a result of that, Dad not infrequently used the phrase, "damning with faint praise," and made sure it wasn't part of his own lexicon.
On the 16th of June, 1927, Mom and Dad were delighted to welcome into this world their third son, Harvey Driscoll Jordan, at Fort Snelling. He and his brother Bert, less than two years older, soon became but a single word when the folks called them ... "Bert-and-Harvey" or "Bert-and-Harve." They did everything together ... played together, got in trouble together, shared rooms together ... indeed they grew up together, and at times even argued together! What a pair they were!
One of the real crises the folks faced was when Bert came down with scarlet fever at 2-1/2 years of age. Harvey was just a baby, and he and the rest of the family had to respect that Bert was quarantined, and the rest of the family had to wear masks any time they were near him. Because of the contagious nature of the disease, a nurse had to be brought "on board" at the quarters. In fact the nurse is reported to have said to Mom, "If you pull this off it will be the best thing you ever did!" Mom needed to be with baby Harvey and surely spent a lot of time in prayer. All survived the crisis, although many lives were lost that year as a result of this very serious epidemic.
Still a dog enthusiast, Dad took on the training of a large dog, wolfhound in size, maybe a large Airedale terrier, which was found by friends in the wilds of Canada. "Bo" was his name, and he became the defender of the Jordan children, scaring anyone who came close to them.
ADVANCING IN THE MILITARY DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Following six years with the vaunted 3rd Infantry Regiment in Fort Snelling, Dad received orders posting him to the 'Territory of Hawaii.' After those bitter Minnesota winters, that sounded great! Hawaii! Mom was excited and the boys joyfully felt that excitement. Moreover, the family was to get on an Army transport ship, the "Somme," in New York and go through the Panama Canal to Hawaii. Remember that the eldest of the three sons was only six years old (and the youngest was two!) ... what a thrill!
(Continues...)
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