Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Borger, John H. 1864 - 
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Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

JOHN H. BORGER.

    German-American citizenship has been an important factor in the advance and
progress of the state and nation, and one of this worthy class, Mr. John H.
Borger, is a prosperous resident of Hanover township and a true type of the
German-American of the twentieth century. Mr. Borger was born in West Creek
township, Lake county, February 15, 1853, and is the eldest of nine children,
five sons and four daughters, born to John and Metie (Meyer) Borger. There are
eight of the family living at the present writing, John H. being the first.
Herman is a farmer of Jewell county, Kansas. Anna is the wife of Herman
Batterman, a prosperous farmer of Hanover township. Charles is represented
elsewhere in this volume. Edward is a farmer of Porter county, Indiana. Johanna
is the wife of Henry Thineman, a farmer of Porter county. Metie is the wife of
James Campbell, a resident of LaPorte, Indiana, and a carpenter and joiner by
trade. Maggie, the youngest, lives in Chicago.

    Father Borger was a native of Hanover province, Germany, and was born July
22, 1816, and died March 3, 1873. He was reared in his native land till manhood,
and was educated in the German language. He was about thirty years of age when
he bade adieu to his native land and sailed from Bremen to New York, and the
voyage was of several weeks' duration. He landed in a strange land, among
strange people, and with little money. He came at once to Lake county, and began
as a wage earner by the day or month. The first land he purchased was a small
tract in West Creek township, and he sold this and purchased one hundred and
sixty acres in Hanover township, in Sections 30 and 31, and he moved a little
log house onto the land and this was his first habitation. He was one of the
early settlers of Lake county, and there were then no roads, and Chicago, the
now great city of two million, was but a town in size, and he could have
purchased land around Chicago at a dollar and a half an acre. There was only one
railroad across the county at that time. He was a prosperous man, and added
forty acres more to his real estate in the township. He was a farmer of high
order and a lover of high grades of stock. He was a stanch Republican and always
stood firmly on his principles. Mother Borger was a native of Lippe province,
Prussia, and was born December 18, 1835, and died February 20, 1888. Both
parents are interred in the Brunswick cemetery, where beautiful stones mark
their last resting places.

    Mr. Borger has been reared and spent all his life in this county, having
given his attention to farming and stock-raising. He was educated in the English
language. He remained with his parents until of age, and he conducted the estate
for his mother until his marriage. February 14, 1882, he married Miss Susan
Hoffmann, and eleven children, four sons and seven daughters, were born, ten of
them being alive at this writing. Tillie M., the oldest, was educated in the
common schools, graduating with the class of 1898 from the Brunswick schools.
She does very artistic work in silk embroidering. Metie S. has completed the
seventh grade of common schools. John W., who has passed the seventh grade, is a
practical farmer boy. Lizzie T. graduated from the Brunswick public schools with
the class of 1904. Otto H. is in the sixth year work of the schools, Henry E. is
in the fifth grade, Edward M. is in the fifth grade, Margaret H. is in the third
year, Luella A. is in the first year, and Clara E. is the baby of the family.

    Mrs. Borger was born in Hanover township, September 15, 1859, a daughter of
Mike and Susanna (Huppentahl) Hoffmann. There were eight children, five sons and
three daughters, in the family, and four of these are living, as follows: John,
who is a carpenter and resides with his mother in Hanover township; Mrs. Borger;
Theresa, wife of Anton Hein, a merchant of Hanover township; and Anton, of
Hanover township. Father Hoffmann was born in Germany in 1824 and died in 1896.
He came to America when a young man, having been educated in the German tongue.
He was a Republican, and a Catholic. His wife was also born in Germany, and she
is still living at the age of sixty-seven in Hanover township. Mrs. Borger was
reared in Hanover township and was educated in the common schools.

    Mr. and Mrs. Borger began life on the present homestead where they now
reside, purchasing the shares of the other heirs. All the excellent improvements
of the farm have been effected through their efforts, and their comfortable farm
residence is a credit to the township. Mr. Borger is one of the prosperous
agriculturists of the township, and is a stockholder in the Brunswick Creamery
Company, which was established in 1892. He likes good stock, and is endeavoring
to raise the standard of his own cattle and hogs and horses, his favorite breeds
of these animals being the Holsteins, the Chester Whites and the Normans as a
heavy draft horse for farming. His wife is a fancier of Brown Leghorn chickens.
Their estate comprises two hundred acres of land in Hanover township, and best
of all there is not a dollar's indebtedness on the property. Mr. Borger is a
stalwart Republican, and cast his first vote for R. B. Hayes, having supported
each candidate since. Mr. and Mrs. Borger and their excellent family are among
the leading German-American families of Hanover township, and we are pleased to
give this full history of their lives. It may be added that the German spelling
of the name Borger is Borger.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904

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