Matthew Borden

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Matthew Chaloner Durfee Borden (18 July 1842, Fall River, Massachusetts - 27 May 1912) His father was Colonel Richard Borden, who founded the Fall River Iron Works Co., and his mother was from the Durfee family. Together the Durfee and Borden families were an unreckoned force in Fall River.

Matthew was fitted at the well-known Phillips Academy in Andover, and graduated from Yale University in 1864. At Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and Skull and Bones. Later that year he entered one of New York's leading dry goods house as a stock boy. By 1867 he had become a partner in a New York commission house, where he represented the Fall River Print Works as a selling agent. Borden had inherited a large share of the print works from his father. In 1879, the print works failed, causing him to lose his job in New York. With the help of his older brother, he reorganised the company under the name of The American Printing Co. in January 1880. He allied himself with the commission house of J. S. & E. Wright & Co. (later Bliss, Fabyan & Co.) with whom he maintained fruitful relations for many years. One of the partners of Bliss, Fabyan & Co. was Cornelius Newton Bliss, who would later become Secretary of the Interior.

In 1887, Borden bought his brother's interest in The American Printing Co., and has since been the sole owner of the works. At this time, The American Printing Co. was probably the largest of its kind in the world. Borden sought to increase profits, and to become independent of the open market. This led him to commence the building of three large cloth mills in Fall River in 1889. By 1892 Borden's business were churning out around 70,000 pieces of print cloth week. Half of the cloth was being supplied by his own mills.

In order to raise money for his textile business he regularly turned to his fellow Bonesman and roommate at Yale, John Williams Sterling. Sterling was a well-know New York banker, with access to the Stillman and Rockefeller crowds.

Borden also kept a home in New York City, and integrated himself into the high society of that City. He also had many financial interests in New York, being a director of the Manhattan Company Bank, the Lincoln National Bank, the Astor Place Bank, the Lincoln Safe Deposit Co. and the New York Security & Trust Co.

Unlike many of the ruthless capitalists of his time, Borden has been recorded as being a generous businessman. He didn't belong to the Cotton Manufacturers Association, and didn't participate in organised wage reduction.

Borden was a Republican in politics. For several years he served as Commissioner of Parks.

He was a trustee and treasurer of The Clinton Hall Association, and governor of the New York Woman's Hospital.

In 1865, he married his relative, Harriet M. Durfee of Fall River, with whom he had seven children. He died in 1912. When word of his death was received, all of his mills were temporarily closed.

He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, Down Town Association, Jekyll Island Club, Merchants Club of New York, Metropolitan Club of New York, New England Society, New York Yacht Club, Players Club of New York, Republican Club of New York, Riding Club of New York, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club, Skull and Bones, South Side Sportmen's Club, Union League Club of New York and the Whist Club of New York.