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- WILLIAM HENRY BORDEN, M.D., has for over forty-six years
- been a medical practitioner at Milton, Rock County, and is
still actively engaged in his profession. His long residence
at Milton has been one of wide usefulness and eminent success,
broken only by his service in the army during the Civil war.
- Dr. BORDEN was born in Sharon, Schoharie Co., N.Y., Sept.
24,
- 1824, son of James and Rebecca Combs (CRAIGE) BORDEN, and
grandson of Peletiah and Ellen (GORDONIER) BORDEN, the grandfather
a native of New York, of English extraction, the grandmother
of Holland parentage. They reared a large family, eight sons
and five daughters. Peletiah BORDEN was by occupation a farmer
and blacksmith, and lived to the age of over seventy-five years.
He served a short time in the Revolution.
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- James BORDEN, father of our subject, was born in Sharon,
N.Y., and was reared a farmer.
- He married Rebecca Combs CRAIGE, a native of Monmouth, N.J.,
daughter of a cabinet maker, and one of a family of seven children
- three sons and four daughters. She was of Scotch-Irish extraction.
James BORDEN acquired the tanner's, currier's and shoemaker's
trades, which he followed for a number of years, devoting his
attention chiefly to tanning. He died at Otto, N.Y., Nov. 13,
1850, at the comparatively early age of forty-eight years. His
wife survived until October, 1893, passing away at the ripe old
age of ninety-three years and seven months. Both in their younger
years were members of a Presbyterian Church which was later merged
into the Congregational Church. To James and Rebecca C. BORDEN
were born seven children, five sons and two daughters, of whom
the following survive: Dr. William H., our subject; Marietta,
wife of Hurd STRICKLAND, of Otto, N.Y.; Lyman S., of Milton,
Wis.; Jay, of Springville, N.Y., and James Craige, of Otto, New
York.
- The boyhood of Dr. BORDEN was spent in Otto, Cattaraugus
Co., N.Y., where he was
- employed in his father's tannery when not attending school.
He was a pupil in the common schools, attended the select schools
at Gowanda, N.Y., and later for nearly two years was a student
of the academy at Fredonia, N.Y. When his education was thus
completed he taught school for three terms. Then, deciding to
adopt medicine as his life work, he began study in the office
of Dr. Levi GOLDSBOROUGH, of Otto, later entering the Medical
Department of the University of Buffalo, at Buffalo, N.Y., of
which he was one of the first students, and graduating from that
institution April 19, 1849.
- Dr. BORDEN visited Jamestown, N.Y., with a view to beginning
his practice in that town but a
- few weeks later was offered a partnership with Dr. WILCOX,
at Randolph, N.Y., which he accepted. This partnership lasted
a year, and at its conclusion Dr. BORDEN practiced for two years
at Scio, N.Y. The illness of his old preceptor, Dr. GOLDSBOROUGH,
of Otto, presented an opportunity for a partnership in that town,
which was accepted. But a year later, in 1854, the young physician,
now confident of his future, resolved to being anew in the West.
Locating at Milton, Wis. in that year, he has there continued
to practice ever since, except during the closing year of the
Civil war, when he served as surgeon of the 1st Wisconsin Heavy
Artillery, until the regiment was mustered out. He at once resumed
his lucrative practice at Milton, which he has ever since continued.
Dr. BORDEN is a member of the Wisconsin State Medical Society,
and of the Board of Examining Surgeons, of the Pension Bureau
at Janesville, and has been for many years prominently identified
with the medical papers of southern Wisconsin.
- Dr. BORDEN was married, Jan. 23, 1851, to Miss Lavina Depew
VAN CAMPEN, daughter
- of Capt. Benjamin and Mary (SAUNDERS) VAN CAMPEN. To Dr.
and Mrs. BORDEN have been born three children: Mary Alice is
at home with her parents. Emily A. married George VAN CAMPEN
of Olean, N.Y., and has one child, Benjamin. James B., a graduate
of Milton College, classical course, and a post-graduate of the
State University at Madison, is now superintendent of public
schools and principal of the high school at Marshfield, Wis.;
he married Miss Mary Alice TOMPKINS, and has one son, William
Henry. In the present home at Milton the family has lived for
the past thirty-one years. Since the Doctor's purchase of the
property he has remodeled it thoroughly, making his one of the
attractive and inviting residences of the city.
- Dr. BORDEN and family are attendants of the Congregational
Church. For a number of years
- he was a prominent Odd Fellow, but is no longer active in
the order. In politics he is an independent. Dr. BORDEN is a
much respected authority in Milton, not only professionally,
but in all matters that pertain to the general welfare. His long
residence in the thriving little city has made him a living factor
in its growth from its infancy, and the elements for well-being,
to which for nearly a half century he has contributed so generously,
will remain and widen their influence long after his active life
work has drawn to a close.
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-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 96-97; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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