Borden

Borden is between Interstate Highway 10/U.S. Highway 90 and the Southern Pacific Railroad, four miles northeast of Weimar in southwestern Colorado County. Before the Civil War the area was known as Harvey's Creek Settlement. Soon after the war, however, Gail Borden, Jr. , founder of the Borden Milk Company, returned to Texas and after building homes for himself, his sons, and his brother, John P. Borden , on the hills above the creek, named the settlement Bordenville. In 1872 the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway completed its line through the area. Borden invested $125,000 in the Borden Meat Preserving Company there in 1872. In 1873 the company built a slaughterhouse capable of handling twenty-five head daily and the facilities for preparing "extract of beef," roast beef, and beef hash. Borden also built a school for white children and a freedmen's' school for black children. Prospective residents, drawn by the railroad, available jobs, and land that sold for five to fifty-seven dollars an acre, flocked to the new community. On January 19, 1874, a post office was established with John P. Borden as postmaster. It continued in operation until 1905, when mail was rerouted through Weimar.