By Michael Swanger

 

When Virginia homesteader James Cunningham Jordan moved his family in 1846 (the year Iowa entered statehood) to their new property in an area that would later be named Walnut Township, located five miles west of Fort Des Moines No. 2 on the northern bank of the Raccoon River, he not only staked his family’s claim, but sowed the seeds for Valley Junction (now known as Historic Valley Junction), which blossomed into West Des Moines.

 

Over the years, Jordan would become a prominent and influential businessman, politician and abolitionist. He would first play a vital role in Des Moines, where he helped secure the railroad, relocate the state’s capitol, establish the State Bank of Iowa, create Iowa’s insurance industry and was elected to the Des Moines City Council, Polk County Board of Supervisors, Iowa Senate and Iowa House of Representatives. Eventually, he would platt and develop Valley Junction, where he brought the railroad to grow his cattle operation. His home would serve as a safe house for African-American slaves who escaped the South via the Underground Railroad.

 

No doubt, Historic Valley Junction, West Des Moines and aspects of Des Moines and Iowa might not exist as we know them today were it not for Jordan’s visionary leadership and his guiding principles of faith, hard work, capitalism, abolitionism and rugged individualism.

 

By name, Jordan has been commemorated in West Des Moines at the Jordan House, Jordan Creek, Jordan Cemetery, Jordan Creek Elementary School, Jordan Creek Park, Jordan Creek Town Center and Jordan Creek Parkway. Unfortunately, with the exception of public and school tours of the Jordan House — a museum where Jordan’s family once lived that now serves as headquarters for the West Des Moines Historical Society and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom — Jordan’s story is largely unknown to most Iowans, including thousands of new West Des Moines residents who have moved here during its recent population boom to pursue their own Western Dream. That is, until now.

 

Thanks to the painstaking, devoted work of author Mary Louise Gately — a longtime West Des Moines resident, who decades ago identified the need to research and write this important chapter of Iowa’s history in a detailed and contextual way — Jordan’s fascinating life and historical contributions to our state are revealed in her new book, “Pursuit of a Dream: James Jordan, His Life and His Legacy.”

 

The publication of the book in 2018 coincides with the celebration of West Des Moines’ 125th anniversary of incorporation. It also marks the 80th anniversary of its moniker, which was changed from “Valley Junction” to “West Des Moines” in 1938.

 

What’s more, Gately’s selfless decision to generously donate the publishing rights and proceeds from the sale of “Pursuit of a Dream” to the nonprofit Historic Valley Junction Foundation (HVJF)  — an organization which bolsters the city’s profile and economy through award-winning historic preservation — embraces the spirit in which Jordan founded the small railroad town, with hope for a better life for his family and others to follow.

 

Iowa History Journal is proud to have played a small role in helping to produce the book and to have published a cover story in our previous issue about Jordan, which was written by Gately and the book’s editor, Jan Davison. As a volunteer member of “The Jordan Book Team,” I enjoyed working with Gately, Davison, HVJF Executive Director Jim Miller and the book’s project director, Barry Haire, and I was honored to write the book’s foreword.

 

Most rewarding was seeing Gately realize her own dream of publishing such an informative, entertaining and aesthetically-pleasing book and knowing that it will benefit the nonprofit HVJF and its ongoing work to keep history alive.

 

Jordan’s enduring legacy is omnipresent, though often overlooked. Thanks to “Pursuit of a Dream,” it can now be further discovered and acknowledged by Iowans throughout the state.

 

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