Triumph and Tragedy in the life of Dr. Seth N. Jordan

SOURCE: Triumph and Tragedy in the Life of Dr. Seth N. Jordan by Linda McCardle. Muscogiana Journal, Spring 2023, Vol. 1.

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Seth Jordan was born in Sparta, Georgia, on March 29, 1852, the youngest child of Sylvester and Rachel Gunby Jordan. By 1852 the Jordan family included five sons and one daughter, all educated in private schools in the area. At the beginning of the Civil War, Seth’s eldest brothers Robert, William, and George (G. Gunby), immediately enlisted in the Confederate Army. Only George would survive the conflict. Seth and his older brother Oscar were too young to enlist. After completing studies locally, Seth began attending Washington and Lee College in Lexington, Virginia, after the war and later became a lifelong member of the Chi Phi Fraternity.

During Seth’s college years the Jordan family moved to Columbus following their son G. Gunby Jordan, who had found a position in the wholesale grocery business and was beginning to make a name for himself in the Columbus business community. He would eventually become involved in the Eagle and Phenix Mill, serving as treasurer, become the president of Eagle and Phenix Savings Bank, and establish several railroads in the area.

In 1872, Seth graduated from Washington and Lee College (image below) with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He applied for a passport and went abroad to study medicine. He entered the Medical Department of Polytechnic University in Hanover, Germany, but only remained there a few months. He then applied and was accepted into the University of Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, founded in 1409. At the time Jordan was attending the university, it was one of the elite institutions in the fields of science and medicine.

Jordan found time during his years studying abroad to travel. Several letters to the Columbus Daily Sun appeared from him describing his adventures during that time. In 1875 he traveled to Strasbourg, France (located on the French-German border), and visited Strasbourg Cathedral. He described climbing up the 466-foot-high tower and viewing the magnificent landscape below. He went on to describe the astronomical clock in the tower. Jordan was also fascinated with the foods eaten by the citizens of Strasbourg. He described how pate de fois gras was made by raising geese with three-to-four-pound livers. In another letter he described a visit to Baden-Baden, a resort town in Germany. He remained abroad for three years pursuing a medical degree.

After completing his training, Jordan returned to Columbus a worldly, well-educated young physician. He began his medical practice here in 1877. He opened an office on the second floor of the Burrus Building on Broad Street (SE corner of 12th Street). The building location would become home to Third National Bank/CB&T/Synovus and now City Hall.

In April of 1878, Dr. Jordan received an invitation to serve a residency for six months at the Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Columbus Daily Enquirer-Sun reported that after only a few weeks serving at the Charity Hospital he was named “Chief of the Clinics” and had complete charge of seventy-five patients. The article went on to tout his “thorough European education coupled with large experience in German hospitals” as a reason for his success. After his residency in New Orleans, Jordan returned to Columbus and resumed his practice.

Jordan’s early practice exposed him to unusual conditions and frequent emergencies. In 1879, he attended a child born with only a thin, transparent membrane covering the stomach and organs, a case reported throughout the South. He was also called to victims of shootings and other violence, including stone mason Henry McCauley, who died after being shot during an argument over a tombstone epitaph.

SE Corner of 12th Street and Broadway

In a growing industrial city, Jordan regularly treated knife wounds, gunshot injuries, and accidents involving workers in mills, foundries, and railroad facilities. Drawing on this experience, he published “Accidents to Operatives in Cotton Mills” in The New York Medical Record in 1880.

On April 5, 1881, Jordan married Minnie Battle, the daughter of Henry W. and Margaret Moore Battle. The wedding took place at the First Baptist Church, followed by a reception at the Battle’s home. The couple made their home on First Avenue (1200 block and later in the 1400 block) in Columbus.

In 1884, Jordan found himself examining a fifteen-year-old girl with “miraculous powers.” On April 11, 1884, Miss Lulu Hurst, the “Georgia Wonder,” performed at the Springer Opera House in Columbus. Her performance exhibited her physical strength by having several men hold an object such as a chair or pole. She was able to move the object with a very light touch. It was reported that she had developed her physical strength after an electrical storm. Her act caught the attention of Jordan and two other Columbus physicians, George Grimes and Carlisle Terry. They met Miss Hurst after her performance. They purchased a new umbrella and experimented with her for four hours. After the examination, Jordan stated that Miss Hurst possessed a “unique and extraordinary force.” All the doctors present agreed that Miss Hurst was not a fraud but possessed some extraordinary—and they assumed occult—power. Jordan’s observations were published in newspapers throughout the South. After her retirement, however, Hurst wrote a biography in which she claimed her feats were made possible not by anything supernatural but merely an application of body mechanics using the principle of the lever and fulcrum.

Throughout the 1880s, newspapers praised Jordan’s surgical skill, while medical journals carried his writings. In 1884, he successfully removed a fifty-seven-pound ovarian tumor from Mrs. Edith Davis of Columbus and later published a detailed account in the Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal. His 1886 pamphlet “Special Surgery” addressed operations with cocaine, skin and sponge grafting, and cotton-mill accidents, drawing on cases from his own practice.

One of Jordan’s most remarkable operations was reported by the Columbus Enquirer-Sun in 1887. Using a procedure rarely performed in the United States, he treated two young men whose feet required partial amputation. By preserving and repositioning part of the heel bone and tissue, he created a weight-bearing stump that allowed each patient to walk after healing. Jordan described the technique as grafting one tree onto another.

Jordan also treated victims of industrial disasters. After an 1888 boiler explosion at the Eagle and Phenix Mills, he cared for superintendent Abram Blakeley’s burns. In 1889, he treated fireman Walter Mahone, who had been badly burned while rescuing workers after a train wreck near Columbus. When a wound on Mahone’s shoulder and back failed to heal, Jordan successfully used small pieces of skin from the patient’s arm to graft over it.

An update on Dr. Jordan placed in the May 22, 1889 issue of the Columbus Enquirer-Sun.

Though Jordan was a very serious physician and surgeon, he took time out of his busy schedule to participate in professional organizations and local charities. On February 16, 1888, the physicians of Columbus met and organized the Muscogee County Medical Society. Jordan was elected president of the society. In January of 1889 he was asked to serve on a state committee that would help establish an institution to care for men with alcohol and opiate addictions. The group recommended treating the addictions as a disease rather than labeling the condition lunacy. The committee determined that the patients should be placed in a separate facility, preferably in north Georgia.

By May of 1890, Jordan was working as physician for the Georgia Midland Railroad and served as president of the Board of Health for the city of Columbus. His responsibilities included the sanitation of the Columbus area. He monitored the conditions of the city streets in Columbus and the city’s waste disposal problems. On August 10, 1890, Jordan proposed that the city create a department to be known as the Board of Vital Statistics. The appointed person to lead it would be responsible for keeping an account of the number of births and deaths occurring in Columbus each year. The proposal passed and the board was created.

Meanwhile, Jordan continued to be interested in bringing the latest advances in medicine to his patients in Columbus, even as he dealt with his own health issues. In February 1891, Jordan received a vial of Koch’s Lymph for the treatment of consumption (tuberculosis) and lupus. The lymph was described as an amber colored, syrupy, liquid developed by German physician and scientist Robert Koch. Jordan told the Enquirer in an interview about the product that he had several patients anxious to try the treatment. A few days later he received a syringe, designed by Koch. On February 16th the Union Springs Herald reported that Jordan’s patients treated with Koch’s Lymph were having good results. Jordan continued to battle his own health issues the year after first working with Koch’s device, though. In May of 1892, the Savannah Morning News reported that Dr. Seth Jordan of Columbus had sailed on the steamboat Kansas City to seek medical treatment in New York. By late summer Jordan was back in Columbus and had resumed his practice.

In 1893, Jordan suffered another bout of health issues. A small article appeared in the Columbus Enquirer in February of 1893 reporting that he had been seen “out and about” after a severe attack of rheumatism. He presumably returned to work for a short time, but, unfortunately, fell ill again a short time later. An article appeared in the Columbus Enquirer on March 3, 1893, stating that Jordan had just returned home from New York where he spent several weeks in the hospital receiving treatment for rheumatism.

At the beginning of 1894, Jordan became involved in a much-publicized legal case. A man named John Garlington had been accused of assaulting an eight-year-old girl in her home on March 30, 1892. Garlington was a boarder in the home at the time. After Mr. Garlington’s arrest he was unable to post the $6,500 bail ordered by the judge and remained in the Columbus jail. His case was tried in court in 1893 but resulted in a mistrial and his bail was reduced to $5,000. Garlington again proved unable to pay the bail, but authorities gave him permission to return to his home. His second trial began on January 29, 1894. On February 3, Jordan was called to testify as an expert witness for the defense along with several character witnesses. On February 8, after sixteen hours of deliberation, Garlington was found not guilty and released.

Shortly after the Garlington trial ended Jordan closed his medical practice due to health reasons. He moved to South Dakota for a short time, presumably on the assumption the climate there would ease his rheumatism. On August 8, 1894, he filed for divorce from Minnie Battle Jordan (then living in Atlanta) in Brookings, South Dakota. G. Gunby Jordan testified in his brother’s behalf. Though Minnie Jordan protested the divorce proceedings, the court awarded Jordan the divorce. Minnie did not receive alimony.

In August 1894, a short notice appeared in the Columbus Enquirer-Sun stating that Jordan was opening his Columbus office again. He was soon back to his previous activities. In October 1894, Jordan published a brochure entitled “Contributions to Operative Surgery.” The brochure contained a series of articles on the rare operations Jordan had performed and was distributed to the members of the Muscogee County Medical Society.

In 1895 Jordan received attention in the Columbus Daily Enquirer-Sun several times for his success in the removal of tumors. In March he removed a tumor from the head of Henry Copeland, a traveling salesman from New York. Then in May he successfully removed a facial tumor from a young lady and an eye tumor from Shelby Compton. Both patients recovered well.

On March 25, 1896, the Columbus Enquirer-Sun stated that the paper had received a private letter from Jordan. He reported that his health had improved. In his search for relief from acute rheumatism, he had traveled widely over the past few years, and was currently staying with his friend, Dr. Coglan, near Mobile. A few days after that notice, on March 30, 1896, the New Orleans Times-Democrat ran an article stating that friends and family were concerned about the disappearance of Dr. S. N. Jordan of Columbus. He had been missing for several weeks. He had been traced to Mobile; his baggage having been found on the steamboat Nettie Quill. The captain stated that Jordan had boarded his boat but got off at Montgomery Hill and never returned.

On April 18th, the Montgomery Advertiser reported that Dr. S. N. Jordan of Columbus had been spotted in Bay Minette, Alabama, near Mobile. There had been an active search for him ongoing for some time. According to several newspapers in Alabama and Louisiana, a concerted effort to locate Jordan, involving bulletins sent to numerous police stations, was well underway at the time of this appearance in Baldwin County, Alabama. A man fitting Jordan’s description had walked up on the porch of Mrs. Gertude Smith’s home and asked for a drink of water. After drinking the glass of water, he thanked her and walked off. When she realized it might be Jordan from newspaper articles she had read, she called out his name, but he kept walking. She went back into her house and called the authorities, but they were unable to find the man.

On June 5, 1896, an article appeared in the Nashville Tennessean stating that a skeleton, thought to be that of Dr. S. N. Jordan, had been found in the woods twenty miles north of Mobile. The doctor’s brother, G. Gunby Jordan, was able to identify his brother because of the clothes, gold watch and other personal objects found. His brother stated that Jordan’s prolonged illness had resulted in the use of opiates to relieve his pain. Jordan’s remains were returned to Columbus and interred in Linwood Cemetery on June 9, 1896. He was only forty-four.

His obituary and tribute by the Muscogee County Medical Society provided testimony to the achievements of the doctor during his relatively short life. “Though the circumstances of his death were tragic, he was cultivated, studious and brilliant, standing on the pinnacle of his career. He was wonderfully gentle and was a friend to all. He was well read and a brilliant conversationalist. His legacy is honored by the many publications he left to his profession.”