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Jordan Beale was born in Franklin, VA on 10 January
1797 to Robert and Holland Brewer Beale of Newport Parish, Isle of
Wight County, VA. Jordan's father, a distiller and merchant, died in
the latter half of 1797 before Jordan was one. When Jordan was five,
his mother married Jeremiah Bradshaw on 4 February 1802. In 1803,
Holland's half-brother, Willis Langford, was appointed guardian for
Jordan and his older brother Willis by the Isle of Wight County, VA
Court. Jordan's sister Elizabeth remained with her mother and
step-father Jeremiah until she married in 1820.
Jordan and his older brother Willis moved to Northampton County, NC
before 1810 and were instrumental in settling the village of
Potecasi on Potecasi Creek. Jordan married Rachel Lassiter about
1819 and their union produced six daughters, Angeline, Elizabeth
Byrd, Eveline, Mary Anne, Elizabeth Cornelia and Henrietta, and two
sons, Willis M and Ferdinand Cortez. Jordan married Elizabeth Martin
Copeland, widow of Thomas L Copeland, on 29 March 1842, and they
raised three sons, Robert Israel Beale, who became an attorney and
Justice of the Peace, Dallas Martin Beale, later a Potecasi merchant
and U S Postmaster, and Jordan's youngest child, John Randolph. From
1879 to 1891, Robert and Dallas edited and published from Potecasi,
The Roanoke Patron, a newspaper that reported local, state and
national news. Jordan's sons, Willis, Robert and Dallas, served as
privates and officers in the N C militia and in CSA infantry,
cavalry and light artillery units.
Jordan was the first US Postmaster for Potecasi, appointed 5
December 1839, and was postmaster until his death. Jordan became a
small planter, a Potecasi merchant, an attorney-at-law and served as
a Justice of the Peace for Northampton County. Jordan donated land
for construction of the second Baptist Church building in Potecasi.
His estate included 1,410 acres in Potecasi. He died at his home
three days before Christmas 1857. His obituary was published in the
North Carolina Biblical Recorder and can be found in The Z. Smith
Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University. Jordan was buried in the
small family cemetery on his Potecasi farm with his family from his
second marriage. His two-story, wooden clapboard frame house in
Potecasi stands and is used as an office for a local grain storage
company. Additional information on Jordan's family can be found in
Footprints in Northampton, copyright 1976.
Sources: Isle of Wight County, VA court records, Northampton County,
NC court records, The Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest
University, Civil War records, Footprints in Northampton, 1976, and
many family cousins and fellow Web genealogy researchers. The
photograph of the oil painting of Jordan Beale is courtesy of the
Honorable W. H. S. Burgwyn, Jr, of Woodland, NC. Compiled by
Robert Allen Beale, 3rd great-grandson of Jordan Beale,
who now resides in VA. |
