Dell A. Borah

DELL A. BORAH. While his home has been in and around Grinnell for the past thirty-five years, it is not merely long residence that accounts for the prominence of Dell A. Borah in business and local affairs. He is an energetic and successful business man, has been a ranchman, farm owner, public official and banker and is the active head of the Grinnell State Bank.

Mr. Borah was born at Lancaster, Wisconsin, July 21, 1859. The name is of Dutch extraction; and his forebears were early settlers in Southern Illinois and also in Kentucky. His grandfather, Michael Borah, spent his life in Kentucky, where he died about 1855, and was a farmer. He married Miss Harleson, also a native of Kentucky.

Edmond H. Borah, father of D. A. Borah, was born at Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1829. When he was a boy his family moved to Grant County, Wisconsin, where he lived until 1879. About the time he reached manhood there were many enterprises sufficient to quicken the spirit of youth in the Middle West, and he was one of those argonauts who went across the plains with ox trains to California in 1850. He had considerable success as a gold prospector and returned east about 1853, otherwise his life was normally devoted to farming. In 1879 he came to Grinnell, Kansas, homesteaded 160 acres, and that homestead was his place of residence until he died August 14, 1918. He was one of the more successful of the early residents of that section, and at the time of his death owned 640 acres, devoted to general farming and stock raising. He was one of the pioneers in introducing sheep raising in that vicinity and he was engaged in the industry thirty years. In politics he was identified with the democratic party.

Edmond H. Borah married Margaret Kilby, who was born in Grant County, Wisconsin, in 1836, and died at Grinnell, Kansas, in 1901. She was the mother of four children: Kilby H., who was a plainsmaa and was accidentally shot while chasing wild horses in Wallace County, Kansas, in 1883, at the age of twenty-seven; Dell A., the second in age; Nettie, now living in Sheridan, California, is the widow of T. R. Moore, a merchant at Wakeeney, Kansas, where he died; and Georgia M., wife of C. H. Barnes, a farmer and stockman at West Liberty, Iowa.

Dell A. Borah attended the public schools of Grant County, Wisconsin, graduated from high school at Lancaster in 1877, and finished his education in Beloit College. After that he was a farmer in Grant County, but in 1882 joined his father at Grinnell, and was successfully identified with the sheep industry until 1908. He was also early drawn into public life, being appointed county clerk when Gove County was organized in 1886 and filling that office until 1891. Since then besides farming and stock raising he has held office and handled a large amount of real estate. His personal ownership extends to farms in Gove and Sheridan County, Kansas, and also to some tracts of land in Texas, aggregating all told about 2,000 acres. In 1910 he engaged in the coal, implement and coal business at Grinnell.

Mr. Borah helped organize the Grinnell State Bank in 1905, was its first cashier, and is now its vice president. The president of the institution is John F. Jones, of Topeka, and the actual management of the bank largely devolves upon Mr. Borah's judgment and ability. The cashier is his son, John E. Borah. The bank has a capital of $25,000 and a surplus of $4,000.

Mr. Borah is a member of the Kansas, the Kansas State and American Bankers Associations, is a republican in politics and is affiliated with Gove Lodge of Masons.

In 1889, at Wakeeney, Kansas. Mr. Borah married Nana M. Jones, daughter of Dr. J. H. Jones, a well known physician now deceased. Mrs. Borah died at Gove in 1893, the mother of two sons: John E., born October 21, 1890, graduated A. B. from Washburn College at Topeka, and became cashier of the Grinnell State Bank, but is now absent in government service as a member of the Signal Corps of the army, receiving his training for that work at Detroit, Michigan. Kilby, the second son, was born February 18, 1892, is a farmer and stockman on his father's ranch and lives at Grinnell.

In 1897, at St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Borah married for his present wife Miss May L. Walker, a native of Buffalo, New York. They have one son, Eugene W., born May 7, 1900, now a member of the Students Army Training Corps at Manhattan.

Pages 2144-2145.