Lot 76 of 461:
Slave agent, later a founding father of Madera County  

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Lot closed - Sold For (Includes Buyers Premium):$250
Estimate:
$400 - $600

Title:
Three letters from Alabama plantation agent who was a founder of Madera County

Author:
Borden, Dr. Joseph, [Borden & Buck]

Place:
Mobile, Alabama

Publisher:

Date:
1860

Description:

3 Autograph Letters Signed (1 by Borden, the others by him with the firm name, Borden & Buck]. 1 pg. each + 2 original mailing envelopes.  All to Dr. A.M. Garber, Livingston, Alabama; dated April 3, May 12, and Nov. 2. 

"Also includes a short undated note to "Garbour" by John D. W. Catherford

Business and personal letters between two friends, both medical doctors with extensive business interests in land and slaves, though these letters make no mention of the latter.  In 1860, he owned 38 slaves, ranging in age from infancy to 70.  As a cotton planter’s agent, he also dealt regularly with slave management for clients like Garber.

The May letter observes, “I think we are going to have a tightness in the money market and it is not so easy to get discounts now as it has been. I believe we shall have a Blk.[Black] Republican Administrations; some political demonstrations that will scare money changers and a scarcity of discounts…”

Borden may have served briefly in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, but he reportedly appeared during the war in the already-established Alabama Settlement of central California – originally part of Fresno County - when, according to legend, the town of Borden was named in his honor by Governor Leland Stanford.  (An earlier name, “Areola”, was borrowed from the Sturwdick plantation which Borden may have represented in his cotton factor days.) As the Alabama emigrant community grew after the conflict had ended, Borden became its leader long before the new County of Madera split off from Fresno in 1893.

Appearing elsewhere in this sale, Borden’s friend, Dr. A. M. Garber, a physician who owned the plantation which Borden represented,  – did not join the California emigration, though he had close ties to that state, one of his sons becoming a prominent San Francisco lawyer, attorney for Leland Stanford's widow and owner of a palatial estate in the Berkeley-Oakland hills. Whether Judge Garber played any part in the establishment of the Dr. Borden’s Alabama Settlement is unknown.


Lot Amendments

Condition:
Very good.


 
Item number:
318212
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