James Jourdan

                          Gen. James Jourdan, President of the
                         Brooklyn Union Gas Company, died last
                         evening at his hme, 174 Washington
                         Park, Brooklyn. He had been in poor
   health for the last seven months. In
   March of this year he was confined to
   his home with diabetes. His illness then
   became acute, but he rallied, and during
   the Spring and Summer his health im-
   proved. A few weeks ago the old malady
   returned. The General's wife and two
   sons were at his bedside when he died.
    Gen. Jourdan was a conspicuous figure
   in military circles and the political life of
   the old City of Brooklyn after the civil
   war. He was 79 years old, and until
   the fatal illness seized him his life was
   a remarkably active one. He was one of
   the "Three Graces," who long ruled the
   Republican organization in Kings Coun-
   ty, the other two being Gen. Benjamin F.
   Tracy and the late Silas B. Dutcher. He
   was connected with the Internal Revenue
   Service under President Grant, and led
   in many raids on moonshiners of the
   old Fifth Ward in Brooklyn. In those
   days the moonshiners were desperate
   characters, but Gen. Jourdan possessed
   the fighting spirit that brooked no law-
   lessness.
    His military career began when he went
   to the civil war with the "Fighting Four-
   teenth" Regiment of Brooklyn. He
   joined the organization in 1854. When the
   war started he was the first to volunteer 
   his services. He was then a Major, and
   was rapidly promoted. In December, 1861,
   he was transferred to the Fifty-sixth Reg-
   iment of New York Volounteers as Lieu-
   tenant Colonel, and in September of the
   following year he was made commander
   of the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth
   Regiment, New York Volunteers. He
   was brevetted Brigadier General in the
   volunteer army of Sept. 29, 1864, and in
   January, 1865, he was assigned to the
   command of a brigade in the Eighteenth
   Army Corps. In April, 1865, he became a
   Major General of volunteers by brevet,
   which rank he held at the close of the
   war.
    In August, 1866, he was unanimously
   chosen Colonel of the Thirteenth Regi-
   ment of Brooklyn. He resigned that office
   in 1870, but was re-elected in 1873. He
   was Brigadier General of the State troops
   in 1875, commanding the Fifth Brigade.
   In May, 1878, he became brevet Major
   General, and assumed command of the
   Second Division.
    In 1872 Gen. Jourdan was appointed
   President of the Police Department in the
   old City of Brooklyn, and later became
   sole Police Commissioner and President
   of the Board of Excise when by a special
   act of the Board of Aldermen both de-
   partments were united. About the same
   time he was also made President of the
   Board of Health. He filled this last
   position, with the exception of an inter-
   mission of one year, until 1884.
    Besides being head of the Brooklyn
   Union Gas Company, Gen. Jourdan was a
   Director in the East River Gas Company
   of Long Island, a trustee of the People's
   Trust Company of Brooklyn, a Director of
   the New Amsterdam Gas Company, the
   Northern Union Gas Company, the Me-
   chanics Bank of Brooklyn, the National
   Copper Bank of New York, the New York
   and New Jersey Telephone Company, the
   Internorough Rapid Transit Company, the
   Rapid Transit Subway Construction Com-
   pany, the Subway Realty Company, the
   Interborough-Metropolitan Company, the
   New York & Long Island Railroad Com-
   pany, and several other traction and
   realtiy companies of Long Island.
    Gen. Jourdan was born in New Jersey,
   but had made his home in Brooklyn from
   the time he was a young man.