He was born into a peasant family and worked in an umbrella factory, a flower shop and for a wine dealer among other jobs.

Jourde went to primary school, then began work at the age of 14 in an umbrella factory in Angers.

[4] In 1877 he married Berthe Michaud and helped with her flower shop on the Rue Porte Dijeau in Bordeaux.

[1] He ran as a republican socialist Boulangist candidate, and defeated the incumbent Fernand Faure in the second round of voting.

[1] During the 1892 municipal elections Jourde and François Aimelafille tried to organize the socialists to defend the interests of the workers against the republicans, but failed.

In his second term Jourde was again in favor of a referendum, a single chamber, progressive tax on income over 3,000 francs, a pension fund for workers, repeal of the law against the Socialist International and other measures.

[3] Jourde was the most nationalist of the Guesdists, and at one point proposed that foreign workers should be banned from France, an idea that was alien to Guesde and to the POF.

[6] He was strongly criticized by the Nouvelliste and by the Bordeaux edition of l'Intransigeant of Paris for his lack of firm conviction and his attempts to bribe the mayor Camille Cousteau(fr).

[a][6] On 5 June 1899 Jourde stated that he felt deep regret for this, and to repair what he called his "error and foolishness" he voted to halt the judgement of the Court of Cassation referring Dreyfus to the Rennes War Council.

[6] By the 1902 elections Jourde had lost his former popularity with the workers, while his opponent Albert Dormoy(fr) had won a reputation as a paternalistic philanthropist while an engineer for the Chemins de fer du Midi railway company.