Commissioner’s Corner: John P. Borden
John Pettit Borden was the General Land Office’s first Commissioner, taking on the task of organizing previous land records from the Spanish and Mexican governments, as well as creating new public land distribution policies. He did all of this initially with no budget, no office, no staff, and hardly any guidance from other government officials. He was operating in an environment where portions of the population were uncooperative and sometimes downright hostile toward the new Commissioner and his duties. Borden dealt with all of these issues as he created a system that is, essentially, still in effect today.
John P. Borden was born in Norwich, New York on December 30, 1812. From New York, Borden traveled to Texas with other members of his family in December 1829, at the age of 17, with the hopes of acquiring land on the frontier. Borden received title in November 1832 to 1107.1 acres of land in Stephen F. Austin’s Second Colony, located in present-day Wharton County.[1]
Upon his arrival, Borden immediately realized that Spanish was the language of business and therefore a key to success in his new homeland, so he quickly became proficient by attending school in San Antonio. He went on to follow in the footsteps of his brothers Gail and Thomas by finding employment as a translator and land surveyor. One of the most detailed maps of Texas prior to 1836, the Connected Map of Austin’s Colony, 1833–1837, was projected with the assistance of John Borden. The Connected Map of Austin’s Colony is one of the oldest cadastral[2] maps at the General Land Office today, and it served as an excellent example to future Land Office draftsmen of how county maps and surveys should be created, though larger in scale.
After serving faithfully in the army of Texas during the Revolution and receiving his honorable discharge in June of 1836, John Borden unsuccessfully sought election as clerk for Austin County in January 1837. Just a few months later, on June 28, 1837, in a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Smith, he was appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office and encouraged to assume the position as soon as possible. Smith wrote, “It is important to the Govt. that you enter on the [duties] of your office immediately in order that the public archives be collected and properly arranged as the law requires.”[3]
The first and most important priority for Borden was collecting the various land titles and plats showing the location of land that had already been granted by Spain and Mexico in order to avoid possible conflicting surveys in the future. Conditions were difficult for Borden as he attempted to collect land records across Texas, as evidenced by his 1837 Commissioner’s Report. He acknowledged Mr. Dougherty of McMullen’s Colony, who declined handing over the land records to the Republic of Texas government, asserting that “The Americans shall never again have possession of them [land records].”[4]
In 1839, the capital moved from Houston, where the Land Office had occupied a portion of the Capitol Building, to Austin, where a log cabin was built for the sole purpose of housing the Land Office. Borden was appointed to administer the move of nearly 5,000 pounds of land records and furniture by wagon to the new site, in addition to nearly 52,000 pounds of furniture, books, and archives belonging to eleven other government agencies. He closed the Land Office in Houston on September 5 and embarked on the journey to Austin on September 10. The Land Office re-opened, in Austin, on October 8, 1839.
After the move, Borden and his newly-provided clerks and Spanish translator continued to struggle with the duties of administering the difficult public land laws of the early Republic. In an October 23, 1839 report, Borden wrote to President Mirabeau B. Lamar:
“I cannot avoid expressing to you the great distrust I have of my ability to represent in a full yet concise manner the true situation of the landed interest of this Republic immediately connected with which are the principal resources of the Government and the future prosperity of the country.”[5]
Borden resigned on December 12, 1840, due to the multitude of problems that plagued the Land Office and prohibited him from performing his job correctly, including lack of space, authority, and money. He stated that these circumstances rendered it necessary to retire from his position in the government.[6]
After leaving office, Borden returned to private surveying around Houston and worked occasionally as a translator. In 1846, he was elected judge of Fort Bend County, which would be the last public office he held. He sought to return to the position of Commissioner of the Land Office a quarter-century later but was defeated in his election bid by Jacob Kuechler. Borden passed away on November 12, 1890, in Borden, Texas, and was buried with his wife at Weimar Cemetery.[7]
[1] Under Mexican land law, married heads of families were eligible for one league (4,428.4 acres) of land, and single men were eligible for one-quarter of a league (1,107.1 acres).
[2] Cadastral maps are cartographic records of land ownership.
[3] Henry Smith to John P. Borden, 28 June 1837, Early Letters Received Reel #1 (microfilm), Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[4] Commissioner’s Report by John P. Borden, 7 October 1837, Commissioner Reports, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[5] Commissioner’s Report by John P. Borden, 23 October 1839, Commissioner Reports, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[6] Commissioner’s Report by John P. Borden, 17 October 1840, Commissioner Reports, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[7] Handbook of Texas Online, William N. Todd IV and Gerald Knape, “Borden, John Pettit,” accessed May 09, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbo25.
