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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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JORDAN, FREDERICK ERNEST (1882-1971)

JORDAN, FREDERICK ERNEST, newspaper publisher and editor; b. Saint John, 10 Aug 1882, s/o James Gilbert Jordan and Mary Elizabeth Clarke; m. 1912, Harriet Leah (Paterson) Scovil, d/o Alexander W. Paterson and Mary Elizabeth Harding, and wid/o E. W. B. Scovil; d. Newcastle, 7 Feb 1971.

A graduate of the University of New Brunswick (BA 1904), Frederick E. Jordan worked on the staff of the Saint John Sun for two years. He was then engaged by J. Frederick Benson as editor of The Commercial. In 1908 he resigned and opened his own printing shop in Chatham.

In 1911, in partnership with Harry Brown, his shop foreman, Jordan began publication of the tri-weekly Gazette, "a paper dedicated to the best interests of the community with news items from an impersonal point of view." The Gazette was independent Liberal politically and was considered by some of its readers to be "the brightest and newsiest paper on the North Shore."

After Jordan & Brown dissolved in 1915 Jordan issued the paper on his own. In 1917 he renamed it the Chatham Gazette, which reflected the fact that, unlike The World and most other papers, its readership was largely within the town. Jordan was still its publisher in 1956, at which time it was a semi-weekly with a circulation of just over 500 copies - the least of any New Brunswick newspaper. James W. Clarke was in charge of it in 1961, just before it ceased publication. The printing plant and equipment were later acquired by the Commercial Press Ltd, which published The Commercial-World.

Jordan's wife, Harriet L. (Paterson) Scovil, was born in Chatham, where her father, Alexander W. Paterson, otherwise a resident of Saint John, was employed for a number of years as an accountant, and where he was co-publisher of The Gleaner with Matthew A. Tracey in 1876. During her married years in Chatham she played an active part in women's groups and Anglican church societies. There were no children named as survivors when she died in 1953. Jordan's death in 1971, at age eighty-eight, was reported to the vital statistics office by his housekeeper. Although he died in Newcastle, he had a Chatham home address.

Sources

[b/m] PPNB [d] official records / Advocate 2 Sep 1908, 21 Jun 1911, 14 Jul 1915; Atlantic Almanac 1961 (re. N.B. newspapers); Commercial World 26 Mar 1953; Fraser (C); Harper; Leader 10 Jan 1964; NB Almanac 1955-56 (re. N.B. newspapers); NB Newspapers


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