Raising livestock and growing grain and alfalfa were the chief means of livelihood for early residents of South Jordan. During the greater part of the twentieth century, the major crop in South Jordan was sugar beets. Today, the remaining agriculture consists of small plots of land where grain and hay are grown to feed horses and a few cattle.

A landmark day occurred on 14 January 1914 when South Jordan residents participated in a celebration commemorating the installation of a water system, the bringing of electricity into town, and the completion of the interurban railroad, which connected the rural farming village with larger cities to the north and south. The occasion seemed to signal a major shift from the days of horse and buggy toward the modern age.

On 8 November 1935 South Jordan became an incorporated city with a town board and board president. South Jordan City later changed to a part-time mayor with a five-member city council and a full-time city administrator.

The nation's worst school-bus accident up to that time occurred in South Jordan on 2 December 1938 when a train smashed into a school bus carrying thirty-nine people. The bus driver and twenty-three students died. Six of the fatally injured students were from South Jordan; the others were from Riverton, Crescent, and Bluffdale.