Martha Shackford Meserve, the daughter of Isaac Hall and Mary Walker (Shackford) Meserve was born Nov 15, 1850 in Roxbury, Massachusetts and grew up in Quincy at the National Sailor’s Home where her father worked as Superintendent. She would have been in her early teens during the brunt of the civil war.
In August of 1868, her cousin Joseph Wesley Shackford visited from Virginia and wrote in his diary “Mattie is quite a good looking young lady. She is engaged at this time to Capt. Jordan.” Eighteen months later, on May 19, 1870, Martha married the same Jediah Porter Jordan who had enlisted in the 42nd Massachusetts Infantry when he was only 16 and left as a Sergeant Major.
After the war Jediah worked as a bookkeeper, paper merchant, and ran his own paper company. Martha raised five children, and belonged to the Paul Revere Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the Women in Council, and the All Soul’s Unitarian Church Alliance. Three of her children survived her. Her application to the DAR is shown below and was based on Samuel Shackford, her second great grandfather who served in both the Burgoyne and Rhode Island Campaigns and also served as Selectman in Newington, New Hampshire in 1776-1777.
MRS. MARTHA SHACKFORD MESERVE JORDAN. 29532
Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts
Wife of Hon. Jediah Porter Jordan.
Descendant of Samuel Shackford, 1st, of New Hampshire.
Daughter of Issac Hall Meserve and Mary Walker Shackford, his wife.
Granddaughter of Samuel Shackford, 3d and Nancy Buzell, his wife.
Gr. -granddaughter of Samuel Shackford 2d and Ann Walker his wife.
Gr.-gr-granddaughter of Samuel Shackford 1st and Mary Elizabeth Marshall Ring, his wife.
Samuel Shackford, 1st, (1828-1812), served in the Burgoyne and Rhode Island campaigns. He was born in Newington, N. H.; died in Portsmouth, N.H.
SOURCES:
Darwin Gertrude B., Historian General and Sarah Hall Joshnston, Compiler, Lineage Book National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Volume XXX. 29001-30000 1899 (Washington, D. C.: 1910), page 191; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 4 July 2014.
“FUNERAL TOMORROW OF MRS MARTHA S JORDAN,” Boston Daily Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), 6 January 1920; digital images, ProQuest Obituaries (http://obituaries.proquest.com : accessed 19 November 2014
Johnston Joseph S, editor, The Diary of Joseph Wesley Shackford King and Queen County Virginia 1868-1893 (Library of Congress: Library of Congress, 1991), page 17
“J. P. Jordan Paper Co,” The Paper and Wood Pulp News (15 February 1902), digital images (www.books.google.com : accessed 7 March 2016), page 84.
Massachusetts, Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915, , Martha Meserve, 15 November 1850; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 12 September 2014).
Massachusetts, Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915, , Jediah P. Jordan and Martha S. Melserve, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N4WV-HPG, 19 May 1870; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 29 February 2016).
SHACKFORD Family History 