Andrew Borden, the undertaker

[dinglefarb]

My first post...wish me luck.
Anyone have any information on Andrew Borden's motuary business? Did he operate out of his home as in the Montgomery movie? What was the name of his business? Did he do his own embalmbing? My only information is that his partner was his parner was Frank Almy and they were sole dealers of Crane's Patented Casket Burial Cases.....how nice.
Larry Allen, Columbia Missouri

[Tina-Kate]

Hello & welcome.

It's a common misconception that Andrew was an undertaker. He wasn't. Borden & Almy were cabinet makers. They became part of the undertaking business as a sideline during the Civil War. They mainly rented chairs, etc for funerals.

There is no evidence Andrew participated in embalming of any kind. Certainly not out of his house.

[shakiboo]

Hi and welcome! Hope you enjoy yourself here!

[Angel]

Welcome, Larry!

[snokkums]

Welcome Larry.

I thought that that is how Andrew initally made his money, in the mortuary business. Did I get my information wrong? How did he first make his money?

[Cheryl]

Welcome Larry and good question...

I was always under the impression that Andrew was in this field as well. In fact I had read that he had a reputation for "cutting corners" with the bodies to make them fit the caskets.

[mbhenty]

Yes, right you are TINA-KATE: Borden was in the furniture business.

There is really no proof that Andrew Borden actually worked on cadavers.

Borden's main trade was in the funiture/cabinet/casket trade.

Back in that time cabinet makers were also called undertakers.

Along with cabinet making they built caskets/coffins.

They were known to "Undertake" the job of building coffins. In doing so they became more and more involved in the funeral trade and "undertook" other responsibilities, acting like a funeral director or mortician.

There is no real proof that Andrew Borden actually did any embalming, though there is no proof that he did not assist others in the trade. He was basically in the furniture trade with his partner Almy.

The stories about Andrew chopping off peoples legs to fit a body in the coffin, or the depiction of Borden as the "Mad Undertaker" in the movies is just that, a movie, a story, folklore, fiction.....

Andrew Borden was basically a businessman and banker; and successful one at that.

[kssunflower]

Hi Larry! Glad you joined. You're not too far from me in Columbia - home of the MU Tigers! I'm a Jayhawker from Olathe.

[snokkums]

I heard that too, Cheryl, that he had a reputation for cutting corners in the business. Heard that he would cut the legs off the body to put it in a cheaper smaller coffin while charging the relatives an arm and a leg.

[mbhenty]

YES:

Let us get to the meat at hand, preferably done right.

The undertaker story, and rumor of Andrew Borden cutting the legs off of the decease, was made famous by Vicky (Victoria Lincoln) in her unscrupulous book " A Private Disgrace".

There are some; and I am not admitting to this, just yet, that believe that the only disgrace is Victoria's book.

No one chopped the legs off of anyone.

Vicky, I believe, was the first to make that story popular. In her book she mentions that Andrew "CUT THE FEET OFF THE CORPSES SO THAT HE COULD CRAM THEM INTO UNJDER SIZED COFFINS THAT HE GOT CHEAP."

She also described him as "gaunt - with small dull black eyes and a dry voice and skin, with a lipless mouth turned down at the corners. His clothes never varied, always wearing black, a string tie and double breasted Prince Albert."

Come on now! How did she know how his voice sounded when he spoke or how dry his skin was. When she wrote her book Andrew had been dead for over 75 years.

This is a women who used words such as electroencephalogram to claims that Lizzie killed Abbey in a epileptic fit. How many epileptics go around committing murder? Perhaps Lizzie got the epilepsy from her father who in an epileptic fit cut off the legs of the decease.

Victoria Lincoln was a fiction writer. She like to brag about being from Fall
River and knowing Lizzie. The spirit of her trade got to her and had a lot to do with her writing A Private Disgrace.

"Disgrace" had more to do with her book than with Lizzie's life.

[Shelley]

Undertakers would also "undertake" the task of supplying chairs and accoutrements like bunting for the funeral day, possibly arranging for a hearse or carriage to convey the coffin to the cemetery, see to the obit in the paper, even supplying ice and seeing to the pressing of the deceased laying out clothing. I would imagine Andrew concentrated on the coffin-making, and maybe hiring the hearse and supplying chairs. There is a GREAT little booklet called The Victorian Undertaker which can be had for a song on Amazon.

[mbhenty]

In reading "A Private Disgrace" one quickly arrives at the conclusion that this is one spunky writer.

An above post lends itself to the description of Andrew Borden through Ms Vicky's eyes. Below, in the same vein is her description of Dr. Bowen.

"Dr. Bowen did not have one of the better practices in town. Why, I do not know, for his PHOTOGRAPHS indicate a DEVASTATING bedside presence; though well on in middle age, he was OVER HANDSOME and EXCESSIVELY DRESSY. I never met him, and I always heard him referred to as "that old Bowen" in tones that somehow wiped him out of existence."

ALL GOSSIP? I would like to know what photographs she is speaking about. Is she describing old Seabury or Oscar Wilde.

When it comes to spinning a good yarn, FRANK SPIERING MOVE OVER.

[Kat]

It's unfortunate that Andrew was followed so many years after his death by these kinds of spurious rumors. Remember, he had a partner named Almy and that man's name was not maligned. If one was painted that way, the other should be too, IMO.

[Kat]

Here is a xerox copy of an actual ad for Borden&Almy and their "Crane's Casket"- 1860. Probably Fall River Globe?
They are touted as the "only Agents for the sale of the above article in this city and vicinity."
Terence wrote on the page:
"July 26, 1860, identical ad appeared in July 19 issue." That means this ad appeared the very day Lizzie was born!

For our new member

This is from Terence's Collection, which was given to Stefani.

[doug65oh]

Now this is fascinating - apparently the undertakers of Fall River were at various times clustered together. For example, ten years before the Borden murders, there were no less than nine different listings for "Undertakers" in the city of Fall River. They were arranged thus, according to the city Directory for the year 1882:

D.W. Baldwin 47 So. Main & 10 Annawann Street
Patrick Herrity 20 Second Street
Jeremiah Kelly & Son 99 Bedford Street
McDermott Brothers 3 Spring Street
Napoleon Millotte 263 Pleasant Street
Daniel D. Sullivan 115 South Main
Waring Brothers 95 South Main
S. W. Wilkinson 73 Pleasant Street
Wood & Raymond 43 South Main

Baldwin's shop there looks like it was just opposite the Borden & Almy address.

[camgarsky4]

Below is a 1870 article that provides a solid indicator that Borden, Almy & Co. were indeed a full service undertaker business.

Second paragraph......"The body when found was in a fair state of preservation, though somewhat disfigured. It was removed to the undertaker establishment of Borden, Almy & Co., and prepared for burial, and this afternoon the funeral took place....."

Whether that included embalming is impossible to say. An important point of context, the process of embalming became popular in the U.S. as a result of the Civil War. The episode described in this article occurred barely 5 years after the Civil War ended. The condition of the body may have also influenced the decision.....families may have opted out of the added expense of embalming if burial was happening quickly and the body was damaged, negating an open casket.

Perhaps Borden & Almy 'got out of' the undertaking business for this very reason. As undertaking started requiring skills, such as embalming, they exited the business and focused on real estate.

p.s. Mark P. Chace, police officer in the article, is the one and same gentleman who testified to seeing a carriage 'parked' on Second St. near the Borden house around 11am on the day of the murders.

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