William Jordan was born into slavery in the early 1840s to Reuben Jordan. He had at least three brothers, including Irwin Jordan and Nelson W. Jordan. His enslaver was George E. Booker, and he grew up on Booker’s farm near Howardsville, Virginia. He and his brother Irwin fled to Union lines in 1861 or 1862.

He enlisted in the Union army on August 13, 1864, and he mustered in as a private in Company D of the 41^st USCT Infantry later that day. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 7 ½ inches tall, with black hair and black eyes. The regiment took part in the siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign. He contracted measles in the fall of 1864, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. In the summer of 1865, he was court martialed for “sleeping on post.” He was found guilty and sentenced to be “confined at hard labor in charge of the Provost Guard for the period of two months and to forfeit to the United States his monthly pay for the same period.” He mustered out on September 30, 1865.

He settled in St. Clairsville, Ohio, around 1866, and his brother Irwin eventually joined him. He earned a living as a laborer. He married Catherine Townsend on February 6, 1870, and their son Amos Garfield Jordan was born on July 4, 1880. He supported the Republican Party, and he and his brother helped organize a “Colored Republican Club” in St. Clairsville in October 1880. As a local editor explained, the club “expects to do its full share in forwarding the cause of freedom and human rights.” He named his son after Republican president James A. Garfield.

By 1890, he was suffering from “lumbago caused by measles.” He applied for a federal pension in July 1890, and he eventually began receiving $8 per month. He died on March 9, 1895.