HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



475 



grave yard of St. Thomas's Protestant 

 Episcopal church in Alexandria township, 

 near where they lived. Catharine Eckel 

 was born in Bedminster township, Bucks 

 county, December i, 1750. Her father, 

 Heinrich Eckel, with his wife Susanna and 

 his mother Catharine Eckel, came to Amer- 

 ica from Hannan on the Main, in Hesse, in 

 the ship "Ranier," Captain Henry Brown- 

 ing, arriving in Philadelphia from Rotter- 

 dam, on September 26, 1749. He settled 

 in Bedminster township, on land surveyed 

 to Chief Justice William Allen, which the 

 latter later conveyed to him in fee. He 

 died in Philadelphia on his return from a 

 visit to his relatives in Germany, in the au- 

 tumn of 1764, leaving children, Henry, 

 Catharine and John. The children of Fred- 

 erick and Catharine (Eckel) Jordan were; 

 John, the grandfather of Dr. John W. Jor- 

 dan, born September i, 1770; Frederick 

 Jr., born August 27, 1772; Catharine, w'ho 

 died young, and Henry. John and Henry 

 lived and died in Philadelphia. 



Frederick Jordan, Jr., the great-grand- 

 father of A. Hayes Jordan, was but twelve 

 years of age at the death of his father, and, 

 his mother dying two years later, he was 

 left to the care of his maternal uncle, 

 Henry Eckel, then a farmer and tanner m 

 Bedminster , township, Bucks county, re- 

 moving later to Springfield township, where 

 he lived to an advanced age, dying in 1839. 

 Frederick Jordan, Jr., learned the trade of a 

 tanner, and soon after attaining his ma- 

 jority established himself in business in 

 Philadelphia, being senior member of the 

 firm of Jordan & Foering, Third street, near 

 Race, tanners and leather merchants. This 

 firm did an extensive business for several 

 years, shipping their product to Europe and 

 distant ports of the United States, but lost 

 heavily in the trying times preceding the 

 second war with Great Britain and failed 

 financiall}^ Mr. Jordan then removed to 

 near Coopersburg, Lehigh county, where he 

 soon recupterated his shattered finances and 

 became a considerable landowner and a 

 prominent man in the community. He was 

 one of the commissioners who laid out Le- 

 high county, March 6, 1812, and held toi 

 several years the office of justice of the 

 peace. He was tw'ice married, first on April 

 4, 1797, to Catharine Hartzell, daughter of 

 Paul and Catharine Hartzell, of Rockhill, 

 Bucks county, and second to Catharine Stet- 

 ler, of Lehigh county. Paul Hartzell was 

 a tanner in Rockhill township, and died 

 there in 1806, leaving a large family, Cath- 

 arine Jordan being his eldest daughter. 

 Paul w^as a son of Henry Hartzell, the pio- 

 neer ancestor of the Hartzell family of 

 Bucks county, a large landowner and prom- 

 inent citizen. ]\Iany of his descendants 

 have become eminent business and profes- 

 sional men. The date of the death of Cath- 

 arine (Hartzell) Jordan and that of the 

 subsequent marriage of Frederick Jordan 

 to Catharine Stettler have not been ascer- 

 tained further than that the first Catharine 

 was living at the death of her father in 



1806. Frederick Jordan died in Upper Sau- 

 con, Lehigh county, February i, 1861, ana 

 his wife Catharine died February 18, 1847. 



Henry Jordan, eldest son of Frederick 

 and Catharine (Hartzel) Jordan, and the 

 grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 

 was born in Philadelphia in 1800 and died 

 in Lehigh county in 1876. He married El- 

 len Stahr, of an old Bucks county family 

 and German ancestry, and followed the life 

 of a farmer in Lehigh county. His chil- 

 dren were : William, late of Coopersburg^ 

 deceased ; Catharine, who married Louis- 

 Seiger; and Mary, who married Owen 

 Seiger, both of whom are deceased; James, 

 still living on the old homestead ; Frank 

 and Milton, of the firm of Jordan & Bro., 

 carriage manufacturers of Coopersburg; 

 Alexander S., deceased; and Frederick, ot 

 Coopersburg. 



Dr. Alexander Jordan was the fourth son 

 and sixth child of Henry and Ellen (Stahr) 

 Jordan, and. was born in Lehigh county,^ 

 April ID, 1839. He was educated at Muh- 

 lenberg College, Allentown, and later stud- 

 ied medicine and graduated from the med- 

 ical department of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania in the class of 1861. He first set- 

 tled at Coopersburg, where he practiced for 

 a short time, locating later at South Beth- 

 lehem, from w'hence he removed to Riegets- 

 ville, Bucks county, in 1866, practicing his 

 chosen profession at the latter place with 

 eminent success until his death in Novem- 

 ber, 1900. During the war Dr. Jordan 

 served for two years in the Union army as 

 assistant surgeon in the general hospital. 

 He married, July 4, 1861, Amanda Weikel, 

 daughter of Charles and Annie (Taylor) 

 Weikel, of Springfield township, where she 

 was born in 1840. Charles Weikel, father of 

 Mrs. Jordan, was also a native of Spring- 

 field township, Bucks county, where he died 

 in 1S52 at the age of about forty-five years. 

 He was a son of Samuel Weikel and a 

 grandson of Peter Weikel, who settled in 

 Springfield township in 1772 and died there 

 in 1830 at an advanced age. Samuel Wei- 

 kel, grandfather of ]\lrs. Jordan, was twice 

 married and had fourteen children, all o^ 

 whom grew to maturity and left families. 

 His many descendants are now scattered 

 over several states of the Union, though a 

 number of them still reside in Bucks coun- 

 ty. Dr. Alexander S. and Amanda (Wei- 

 kel) Jordan were the parents of three chil- 

 dren : Minerva A., Lillie C. and Alexander 

 Hayes. Dr. Jordan w'as an active and prom- 

 inent member of the Masonic fraternity, be- 

 ing a past master of Prosperity Lodge, No. 

 567. He was also a past grand of Peace and 

 Union Lodge, L O. O. F., of Riegelsville. 

 He was affiliated with the German Reformed 

 church, and politically was a Democrat. 



A. HAYES JORDAN was born and 

 reared in Riegelsville, Bucks county, and 

 obtained his elementary education at the 

 Rieglesville public schools and Reiglesville 

 Academy. He later took a classical course 

 at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, 

 graduating in the class of 1890 with the de- 



