Amelia Christenot Pendarvis Jordan

On January 8, 1894, Amelia Christenot married Charles Wellrose Pendarvis (1860-1903) in Dillon, Beaverhead County, Montana. She was 18 years old and he was 34, and they were both residents of Ruby Valley, Montana. This was his second marriage.

Henry Wellrose Pendarvis, son of Charles and Amelia, was born on April 30, 1894, in Ruby Valley, Montana. Their daughter, Audrey Eliza Pendarvis, was born on June 28, 1896. In the 1900 census, the family is listed in the South Butte Township of Butte City, Silver Bow County, Montana. Charles is noted to be a laborer.

Charles died on December 22, 1903, at Camp Verde, Yavapai County, Arizona. He died of heart failure preceded by typhoid fever, a bacterial infection due to a specific type of Salmonella. Typhoid is spread by eating or drinking contaminated food. He was laid to rest at Middle Verde Cemetery, near Camp Verde. A newspaper article notes that Amelia was having heart trouble at the same time.

School records show that Audrey and Henry attended a school in Camp Verde School District #28 in Arizona for some or all of the school years ending on June 30 of 1903-1905.

Amelia, 31, married Jasper Orville Jordan (1869-1949), 39, in Caldwell, Canyon County, Idaho, on February 1st, 1907. Amelia’s younger sister, Clemma (Christenot) Newton lived nearby, which may have brought the couple there. Amelia began using the nickname, “Mae”, which Jasper prefered over Amelia.

The first son of Jasper and Amelia, Walter Harrison Jordan, was born on April 22, 1908, in Whitehall, Jefferson County, Montana. The 1910 census finds the family living near Whitehall, in Renova, in the home of Jasper’s widowed father, Harrison Jordan, 85, who is listed as the head of the household. Jasper was 41 and the census taker wrote the code M1, meaning that his marriage to Amelia is his first. Amelia “Mae” is listed as daughter-in-law and is 33 years old, with son Walter listed as one years old. She was going by “Mae”. “Mary” is written in the census as her second name, which could be an error by the census taker.

Also in listed in the 1910 census, in the the household of Harrison Jordan (1825-1910) is William Harrison Mock, 33, noted as a grandson. His parents were William Taylor Mock (1849-1897) and Perneca Etta (Jordan) Mock Phelps (1859-1927). Perneca Etta was the third child of Harrison and Catherine (Tuttle) Jordan, and Jasper was the sixth. William Harrison Mock, Jasper’s nephew, would marry Audrey Pendarvis, Amelia Mae’s daughter, on January 15, 1913. The descendents of William and Audrey are both Pendarvis and Jordans.

Amelia Mae’s older children, Henry, 16, and Audrey, 14, are not listed as living in the Jordan household in the 1910 census. Henry was living in Whitehall as one of seven boarders residing with a large family. He’s listed in the census as a laborer in a railroad roundhouse and was not attending school.

As noted above, Audrey Eliza Pendarvis was married to William Harrison Mock on January 15, 1913. They were married in Pocatello, Bannock County, Idaho.

Jasper and Amelia Mae’s second son, Orville Kyle Jordan, was born on May 23, 1913, in rural Whitehall, Montana. It was noted on the birth certificate that Jasper was a rancher on his own farm. This is from a Standard Record of Live Birth that was filed in 1941 by Amelia Mae Jordan.

In 1916, Henry Pendarvis married Beatrice Angell in Butte, Montana. In 1917, he is listed as a Railroad Engineer and living in Piedmont, Montana, on his World War I draft registration card. Jasper, Amelia “Mae”, Orville, and Walter continued to live near Whitehall, Montana, and enjoyed visits from many familiy members.

The 1920 census lists Willam Mock, Audrey (Pendarvis) Mock and their four children as living on or nearby the same farm as Jasper and Amelia “Mae” in rural Whitehall. In 1922, Jasper took his family to Oklahoma to run a grocery store.

Amelia Mae’s mother, Martha Christenot, died on June 29, 1923, in Whitehall, Montana. The obituary states that Amelia “Mae” lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In a letter dated 1925, Amelia “Mae” wrote of the hard work running a store and how difficult it is to operate a store in a farming district as farmers only get paid once a year. There is mention of Oregon, where many of her sisters have already moved.

The 1930 census finds the Jordan family in Big Hill, Osage County, Oklahoma. Jasper, 60, was listed as a retail merchant. Amelia “Mae” is 54, Walter is 21, and Orville is 16 years old. By 1932, they have relocated to Portland, Oregon, and opened a grocery store. Many of her sisters had moved to Oregon during this time period. Records show that in 1935, the Jordans lived in nearby Scappose, Oregon, perhaps with Audrey.

Walter Jordan graduated from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) of Pasadena, California, with a doctorate in physics. He married Clara Jean Bardell (1906-1992) in Los Angeles, Califonia, on August 29, 1934. He taught physics at the University of South Dakota. He worked at the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during World War II. He was a consultant for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and taught nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee. Walter and Clara had one daughter, Ann Caroline Jordan, who was born in 1942.

Orville Jordan married Evangeline Mae Marcott (1912-2016) on June 5, 1937, in Portland, Oregon. She was from Scappoose, Oregon. In 1940, they lived in Portland and Orville worked as a laborer.. His World War II draft card of October 16, 1940, shows that Orville, 27, works at Moore Dry-Kiln Company and they lived at 6821 N. Wall Avenue in Portland. They would eventually have three daughters and one son.

Audrey (Pendarvis) Mock had divorced William Mock. The 1930 census shows her married to John Williams and living in St. Helens, Oregon, with her daughters Etta, Hazel, and Betty.

Death of Amelia

Amelia “Mae” (Christenot) Pendarvis Jordan, 83, died unexpectedly at the home of her daughter, Audrey, in Scappoose, Oregon, on May 13, 1959. She was laid to rest at the nearby Fairview Cemetery.