Continued from Part 2…
The Jordan Motor Car Company began without a factory. In Detroit, chief engineer Russell Begg developed a body to wrap around a six-cylinder Continental engine. Finally Ned paid $50,000 for a five-acre site in Cleveland, and by early July 1915 Jordans were coming off the line.
Jordan quickly recognized the closed car market and added a sedan and coupe in 1917. By 1918 he was building 5000 cars a year, heady business for a small independent in those days. Plant space was expanded, bonuses paid. Then in April 1919 came the first Jordan Playboy. Hardly anybody noticed at first—but Ned was inspired:
Dancing one night at the Mayfield Country Club, Cleveland, with a real outdoor girl, Eleanor Borton.…
Continued from Part 1…
Edward S. Jordan was born in 1882, the only boy in a family of six, in the lumber town of Merrill, Wisconsin: talkative, brash, a little bit rude, with heaps of determination but little money. He wore white spats and bright ties and well-tailored suits, but he wasn’t a huckster. He had style, like the cars he built and the words he wrote.
Working his way through the University of Wisconsin as a newspaper reporter, Jordan discovered a talent for words. His sales and advertising know-how was learned with the help of two people: his mother and John Henry Patterson.…
