Uncrowned Community Builders

Ada Talbert was born in 1854, the first child of Robert Talbert and Anna Harris Talbert. Her parents were considered one of the wealthiest black families at that time. She went to Catholic schools and was considered a formally educated lady for the times. She was the sister-in-law of Mary Burnett Talbert, who married her brother in 1891. She married John Jordan and from that union produced three daughters. For the majority of her life, however, she functioned as a single parent.

Education was highly prized by Ada Talbert Jordan. One of her daughters, Edith Jordan Rawlings, was one of the first blacks to graduate from Buffalo State Teachers College. Her family was extremely important to her throughout her life. She traveled extensively by train and enjoyed going to the spas in Saratoga to partake in the hot springs. Saratoga was noted for treatments that gave relief to an arthritic condition that she developed during her later years.

Mrs. Jordan had an eye for business. She survived during this time by managing and living off her share of her parent's estate, which consisted of income properties and other land holdings. She was one of very few individuals who built and maintained her own home before 1900 in Buffalo, New York. This was a remarkable deed in itself when so many people lost everything during the great depression of 1929. She exemplified the strength and resilience of black women, and set the standard for her children who passed on the same kind of fortitude to their children.

Ada Talbert Jordan died in 1938 and is buried in a family plot in Forest Lawn Cemetery.