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mcc-jrr_jcc-063
Jordans Chapel Cemetery Summary Report, page 63
was strong in the Methodist movement back in North Carolina, before he came to Alabama with Isham Fennel, who married Batt's daughter Temperance. However, the only indication the he is buried on the Jordan's Chapel site is from the statement in the 1929 letter published in a Memphis TN newspaper. That letter was written by a Jordan descendant who had never lived in north Alabama, and in fact, he was two generations removed from this area. His letter also stated that Jordan's Chapel was in Mullins Flat, which is definitely proven incorrect herein. The facts of the legal records (in spite of their limitations of unrecorded transactions, incomplete indexes, omitted words, misspelled terms, and possibly transposed numbers in notations) still point to the location of the chapel and its cemetery (if indeed it had one) as being just outside of the arsenal boundaries, on the northeast end. Nevertheless, the lives of Bartholomew Jordan and his children and their “in-laws” certainly figured prominently in the settlement and early history of the land that became Redstone Arsenal. It is hoped that a commemorative plaque will someday be erected near the site of Jordan's Chapel (perhaps at the DOT site or on the shoulder of Governor's House Drive in that area) to denote to the public that one of the earliest Alabama Methodist congregations met in the area and that American Revolutionary War soldier Batt Jordan is buried nearby. For the more avid researchers, the majority of the records examined during this investigation were photographed and stored digitally on CD-ROMs provided to the Army offices, even when those records may not directly shed light upon the determination of the site of the chapel. Much useful information is contained in these records for genealogical purposes and for association with other landowners of the properties that became Redstone Arsenal. In addition to these digital records, all handwritten notes made during the investigation were kept. It is intended at the time of this writing that the original notes will be given to the Huntsville - Madison County library's Heritage Room archives for JORDAN family files and/or for a JORDAN'S CHAPEL folder, since those subjects are of interest to the general public for history of areas outside of arsenal considerations. For additional information about the original location of the Methodist Episcopal Church that became known as Jordan's Chapel after it moved a few miles to the northwest, see the Summary Report for the Williams -Scott Cemetery, 37-1. This location was on land owned by Robert Lanford, the first donor of land for the church's meeting place. For some reason, the congregation decided to move to a “more suitable place”, and Batt Jordan 63 - (3217)