Borden

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War.[1] It consisted of the small United States Army (the regular army), augmented by massive numbers of units supplied by the Northern states, composed of volunteers as well as conscripts. The Union Army fought and eventually defeated the smaller Confederate States Army during the war, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. About 360,000 died from all causes; some 280,000 were wounded. ----------------- William Borden(1850-1896) and Mary Degama Whiting(1861-1934) married on 1882 Children: John Borden - 1884 - 1944 - Age (60y 1m 28d) Mary Borden - 1886 - 1968 - Age (82y 6m 28d) William Whiting Borden - 1887 - 1913 - Age (25y 5m 8d) Joyce Borden - 1897 - 1971 - Age (74y 5m 25d) ----------------- William Whiting Borden was born into affluence in Chicago, Illinois on November 1, 1887, Borden's family was wealthy and his father prominent in Chicago, making his money in silver mining in Colorado. After his mother converted to Christianity in 1894, she began taking him to Chicago Ave. Church (now The Moody Church). He soon responded to the gospel preaching of Dr. R. A. Torrey, turned to Christ and was baptized. From then on, prayer and Bible study became hallmarks of his life. After graduating from the Hill School in Pottstown, PA, at age 16, he traveled to Europe, Africa, and Asia. He entered Yale University in 1905. Borden graduated from Yale in 1909 and later from Princeton Theological Seminary. He later decided to become a missionary to the Muslims of Northern China, but died of cerebral meningitis in Egypt during his training there at the age of 25. Samuel Marinus Zwemer conducted his funeral. He is buried in the American Cemetery in Cairo. Borden bequeathed $1 million to the China Inland Mission and other Christian agencies. The Borden Memorial Hospital in Lanzhou, China was named after him. After his death, Borden's Bible was found and given to his parents. In it they found in one place the words "No Reserve" and a date placing the note shortly after he renounced his fortune in favor of missions. At a later point, he had written "No Retreat", dated shortly after his father told him that he would never let him work in the company ever again. Shortly before he died in Egypt, he added the phrase "No Regrets." ------------------ ------------------ Gail Borden was born in Norwich, N.Y., (on Nov. 9, 1801. -1874) His family moved to Kentucky in 1814. Taught surveying by his father, he helped lay out the city of Covington. The family soon moved to Indiana Territory; Gail, Jr., served briefly as Jefferson County surveyor and taught school. In 1821 he moved to southwestern Mississippi for health reasons. He taught school and worked as a deputy U.S. surveyor for 7 years. Still searching for a better climate, Borden moved to Texas in 1829. After farming and raising cattle briefly, he returned to surveying. As Stephen Austin's superintendent of official surveys, Borden prepared the first topographical map of Texas. He headed the Texas land office from 1833 until the Mexican invasion. With his brother, Thomas, in 1835 he founded the first permanent Texas newspaper, the Telegraph and Texas Land Register, in San Felipe. The paper was soon moved to the new city of Houston, which Borden surveyed in 1836. After Texas separated from Mexico in 1836, Borden helped write its constitution. In 1837 he was appointed the first Texas collector of customs by President Sam Houston. Borden surveyed and planned the city of Galveston, continuing as customs collector. After his wife and children died in 1844 and 1845, Borden decided to alleviate the hardships of pioneers by making concentrated food that would not spoil. His first marketed product was a biscuit of dehydrated meat. At the first world's fair, the London Crystal Palace Exposition (1851), Borden's meat biscuit won him a membership in the London Society of Arts and a gold Council Medal, one of five awarded to Americans. The biscuit, tested by food specialists, retained nutrition and succulence indefinitely. The British saw in it a great, new American enterprise. Borden's biscuits were used by explorers and sailors, but his company failed in 1853 because competing suppliers of meat caused cancellations of army orders for the biscuits. Visiting the Shaker community at New Lebanon, N.Y., in 1851, Borden observed sugar making with airtight pans and decided that milk could be condensed and could remain wholesome indefinitely. In 1853 he applied for a patent on a process for extracting 75 percent of the water from milk and adding sugar to the residue. The patent was denied on the grounds that the process was not new. Three years later, after demonstrating that the use of vacuum pans was novel and essential to the process, he received the patent. The New York Condensed Milk Company (much later, the Borden Company) was formed in 1856, financed by Jeremiah Milbank. Several factories were established in Connecticut, New York, and Maine by 1861 and many more in the 1860s. Four more patents on condensed milk were awarded Borden in the 1860s. Early in the Civil War this milk was found to be of great value to the Union Army, and the output of Borden's plants was commandeered. Its use spread rapidly, especially after soldiers introduced it to civilians. Indeed, the Civil War era witnessed a vast increase in all canned-food consumption. Next Borden patented a process for condensing fruit and berry juices. (It had not been known that spoilage is caused by bacteria, which can be heat-killed, until Pasteur's germ theory in 1864.) The U.S. Sanitary Commission bought Borden's condensed juices to serve to wounded soldiers. Borden also patented processes for making beef extracts and for concentrating tea, coffee, and cocoa. Returning to Texas, Borden educated dairymen in sanitation, engaged in philanthropy, organized schools for African Americans and whites, built six churches, and supported poorly paid ministers, teachers, and students. He died in Borden, Tex., on Jan. 11, 1874, and was buried in White Plains, N.Y. -----------------