Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

sort of the running joke between them.
Hughes: So how about mother’s father, the reverend? Tell us about him.
Evans: His name was William Jordan. He was an itinerate sort of minister. My mother
was born in Morland, Kansas, on Jan. 15, 1892. My father always said that my mother’s
father was the sweetest man he’d ever known. He was just a very lovely, sweet person.
The Jordans ended up in Davenport, Florida. That’s where my father came down to drain
the land, and they met. I’ve got to get out a map and look some time because I think that’s
right about where Epcot and Disneyworld are today.
Hughes: Doubtless no longer swamp.
Evans: I should have that swamp land now that my grandfather owned!
Hughes: How about your mother’s mother?
Evans: Hannah Pritchard Jordan. I don’t know much about her.
Hughes: What’s the earliest that you’ve traced any of those ancestors from all branches of
the family tree coming to America?
Evans: We go back to the 1600s on both my mother’s and father’s side.
Hughes: I read a wonderful line where your mother told a reporter she could have
belonged to the Colonial Dames if she’d ever applied. Was your father involved in Sons of
the American Revolution or any groups like that?
Evans: No. And mother had declined the Dames, but we did go back a long way.
Hughes: But the Jordans were clearly also early arrivers in America?
Evans: Yes. But I’m not sure when my Grandmother Jordan’s side of the family arrived. She
was a Pritchard.
Hughes: A Pritchard? That was her maiden name?
Evans: Yes, like Joel (former congressman, lieutenant governor and great friend to
Nancy and Dan Evans). And it’s been a long time since I looked, but I think it was on my
Grandfather Jordan’s side that the ancestors in America went back to the 1600s. I’m not
sure about the Pritchards. The Jordans go back to the 1600s but I don’t know anything real
specific about them.
Hughes: “Bell” rings in my mind as having Quaker roots.
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