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Monday, November 13, 2017
Page #10
Texas History Minute He began farming in what is now the Fort Bend County area. Within a few months, Borden was hired by Stephen F. Austin as a surveyor for his growing colony, on the recommendation of his brother.
Dr. Ken Bridges Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor. He can be reached at drkenbridges@gmail.com. At Thanksgiving, the Borden’s brand is a well-known and essential ingredient in many kitchens across the nation. Gail Borden, the inventor of condensed milk, played an important role in the Texas Revolution before he turned his attention to science and business. Borden’s story is how an Indiana farmboy with almost no formal schooling went from being a Texas revolutionary and editor to a celebrated inventor and wildly successful New York factory owner. The calm and curious man nurtured not only revolution in Texas but a revolution in the food industry.
Things changed quickly in Texas as a great wave of change swept the land. American colonists who had come to Texas grew uneasy at the increasing depredations of an increasingly unstable Mexican government. In 1832, Borden became part of the committee of correspondence at San Felipe, communicating concerns about Mexico with other Texas communities. He served as a delegate to the Convention of 1833, which included future Texas presidents Sam Houston and David G. Burnet, which called for separate statehood for Texas from the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas in order for Texans to more directly address their own affairs.
In 1835, Borden began working with his brother Thomas and Joseph Baker, a Maine native and school teacher, to start a newspaper. The Telegraph and Texas Register saw its first edition on October 10. It rose in prominence, essentially becoming the newspaper of record during the days of the Texas Revolution and the Texas Republic. Its editorials rallied the people of Texas during Gail Borden II was born in the revolution and called for aid Norwich, a remote farming from the United States. In 1836, community in southern New York the paper printed the Texas in 1801. As did many farmers and Declaration of Independence and pioneers of the time, the family set one of the first copies of the new out often in pursuit of greener constitution for the Texas pastures a number of times. The Republic. family settled for a short time in Kentucky before moving to In the meantime, he produced the Indiana. He had little formal first topographical map of Texas education save for a few courses in and became a tax collector for the 1816 and 1817 to learn surveying. fledgling Texas Republic. After Many details of his youth are the end of the Texas Revolution in incomplete, but it is apparent that 1836, he worked with local he was very intelligent and very officials to plan the layout for the principled. City of Houston. He and his brother sold their stakes in the He and his brother served in the newspaper in 1837. Borden Indiana Militia for a time. In 1822, became the official port collector he was part of a group that saved a for Galveston that year and served freed slave from being lynched. off and on until 1837. Starting in Afterward, he headed south. He 1839, he served as an alderman in ended up in Amite County, Galveston and began selling real Mississippi, on the Louisiana state estate. line. With little formal education, Borden was able to land a job as a Borden was active in church, school teacher. He later also serving as a Sunday School became county surveyor and a teacher, a Baptist deacon, and as a deputy federal surveyor. By 1828, missionary to newcomers arriving he married and started a family. in Galveston. He also served in the local temperance society and By 1829, his brother, Thomas tried to curb gambling in the city. Borden, also a surveyor, had moved to Texas and enticed his His wife died in a yellow fever brother and his family to try their epidemic in 1844. The loss luck in the new land. Borden prompted him to find answers to accepted the challenge and arrived prevent future epidemics. He in Galveston on Christmas Eve. began experimenting with
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refrigeration techniques, believing as many did at the time, that temperature and air quality were related to outbreaks of yellow fever and malaria. As he experimented with refrigeration, he began studying the preservation of food. By the late 1840s, he began producing a dehydrated beef biscuit, but it was a poor seller. This prompted his next innovation, condensed milk. The next phase of his life, for which he would be best known, was underway. Continued next week
Howe Mini Storage sell out of warehouse contents To satisfy landlords’ lien at Howe Mini Storage; 511 N. Denny (Hwy 5); Howe, TX on Saturday November 18, 2017 at 10am Furniture, Appliances, Tools, Toys, Christmas Decor & Misc Household Goods Tenants: Cathy Marsh #38 Dean Patterson #58 Christopher Sanders #65 Rayna Lane #71 Irene Skirvin #80 Todd Turner #112 Todd Turner #113 Abandoned Contents #115 Abandoned Contents#116 Gabrial Jenkins #137
