Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/541

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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caused him to remove his residence to Rich- mond, Virginia.

Charles Eugene Borden came from a fam- ily of active and successful business men. Two of his brothers were prominent in the railroad world. His brother, Edwin Borden, who died some years ago, was superintend- ent of transportation of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, and Herbert L. Borden, of New York, is at the present time secretary of the same company, while a third brother, James C. Borden, is a prominent cotton broker of New Orleans.

Mr. Borden's business career began in the laboratory of the Navasa Guano Company, of Wilmington, and he steadily and rapidly advanced until he became president and general-manager of that company. When the Navasa Guano Company was sold to the Virginia Carolina Chemical Company Mr. Borden was placed in charge of the sales' department of the new company, with headquarters at Charleston, South Carolina. • In 1901 he was appointed man- ager of the manufacturing department of the company, with office at Richmond, Vir- ginia, and he removed his residence to that city. In 1909 Mr. Borden was still further advanced by being made assistant to the president, and in 1912 he was elected one of the three vice-presidents of the company. Mr. Borden's remarkable executive ability- attracted the attention of men of affairs and he was continualh' urged to assume various and heavy business responsibilities. He was vice-president of the Charleston Mining and Manufacturing Company, vice-presi- dent of the Amalgamated Phosphate Com- pany and held large interests in each com- pany that he so ably represented.

The duties of his private business were tedious and exacting, still he found time for the expenditure of his extra energy upon various and important undertakings. Mr. Borden was a member of the executive com- mittee of both the National and Southern Fertilizer associations and took an active part in the committees of each. He was also a member of the board of education of Richmond, and of the Chamber of Com- merce, one of the founders of the Country Club of Virginia, organizing it by an unique subscription plan which proved most suc- cessful, a member of the Westmoreland Club, and secretary of the board of deacons viR-59

of the Second Presbyterian Church of Richmond.

Thus we see that no phase of earnest human life was untried by the interest of Charles E. Borden. He gave to the church the same vital energy that characterized his business life. He was a man of charming personality and the "name of his friends' was legion. The closer the tie of friendship or business the higher the esteem of those who associated with him, and the spell of his integrity and his sympathy held all who came under their forceful influence. Mr. Borden loved his fellow-man and was ever ready to listen to the "call" of the city's new enterprise, social intercourse or the church. Among his friends his good-fellowship was irresistible and those who knew him best loved him most. His untiring energy, his universal friendliness and the strain of his varied business interests began to weaken his vigorous constitution, and his physicians alarmed by the unmistakable symptoms of over-work, ordered a rest at Atlantic City. • For a short time recovery seemed probable, but soon after midnight, October 28, 1913, he was stricken with apoplexy, at the Hotel St. Dennis, which resulted in his death, uni- versally deplored, at the early age of fifty- two years. His body was taken to Wilming- ton, North Carolina, the old home of his wife, and where many happj' years of his own life had been spent, for interment. Mr. Borden is survived by his widow, who was before her marriage a Miss Hattie Taylor, daughter of Colonel John D. Taylor, of Wil- mington. *

Charles Howard Lewis, M. D. Lewis is one of the oldest names in English history and one of the most numerous and distin- guished in American annals. The names Louis in P'rance and Lewis in England are too ancient to be traced to a common origin, the name having existed in the latter coun- try long before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove many Frenchmen of the name to seek shelter across the channel, where in many instances the French Louis became the English Lewis. It is not known how many distinct branches of the Lewis family there are in America. For several centuries previous to the settlement of this country the name Lewis was as numerous by comparison in Wales as that of Smith in