An Early Carlsbad Newspaper Man, W.W. Borden

Carlsbad has been fortunate enough in our history to have not only individuals who were enterprising, but also unconventional! The benefit of enterprising people does not have to be explained, but why are we fortunate to have had entrepreneurs with very individualistic personalities? For this historian, they not only add color to our past, but their outside-the-box thinking was a benefit to their community. Developing communities need people who have dreams and follow them, people who are very strong individuals…like William Webster Borden.

Mr. Borden was born in Missouri on Dec. 6, 1858. His family came to California when he was 10 years old. In 1874 the Bordens came to San Diego County and became early settlers in our area. The father, Oliver Borden, built a two-story, concrete house “up the canyon on the north side of the valley in the back of Ponto” (History of Carlsbad). His father called their rancho Lakeview. William Borden kept a journal, which he started on Dec. 16, 1876, his 18th “birthday anniversary.” Although he was very active at home, socially and personally, one amusing entry dated Dec. 27 stated that he “Spent most of the day getting ready to nothing, came very near succeeding in doing it.” As a young man, he spent time singing, drawing and painting, and helping his father and others with farm work, including hauling rocks from the beach and herding sheep. After William Borden married Minnie Kelly in 1881, of the Kelly clan, they moved to Barham (on the west end of San Marcos). They had 10 children. A later addendum to the journal kept in his youth stated “…the aim of my life, though poorly accomplished, was scarcely less high then than now. May my children adopt only the best from my example.”

According to the San Diego Union, May 6, 1884, Mr. Borden’s paper the Barham Advocate was to have its first issue out on June 1 of that year. The Union indicated that it was a temperance paper with local (from Escondido to the coast) and general news. Charles Kelly was listed as co-editor and proprietor. Most sources state that the newspaper was called Our Paper, with William S. Kelly as the assistant editor. However, in 1885, the paper’s name changed to The Plain Truth, and Minnie Borden became William’s assistant.  The printing office, as of 1888, was in San Marcos, as Barham had ceased to exist as a separate locale. 

In addition to printing the newspaper, Mr. Borden also taught school, was a minister of the church he helped form, the Christian Church of San Luis Rey, and ran the post office. The Borden’s house burned down in 1893, and they returned to Carlsbad and lived on Harding Street (as it is known today). Seven years later, he started a new monthly paper called the Spirit of Love. He used a homemade printing press that printed the paper in “continuous rolls… (rather than) the old, slower single-sheet method” (Seekers of the Spring).

The paper, which in 1915 printed 200 or more copies per issue, was published monthly at a subscription rate of 25 cents per year. The motto of the paper was “Our standard – Only the best is good enough.” Some of Mr. Borden’s poems were included in the publication, which was not uncommon at the time. The paper ran until December 1922. Note: The Carlsbad History Room has a large collection of excerpts dated 1884-1922 from the paper, which cover local and regional happenings, weather, births, deaths, etc.

Mr. Borden’s independent thinking can be seen in his daily life. According to Allan O. Kelly, Mr. Borden liked color so much that the roof of his house was “red, the walls white, the window frames and doors yellow, purple, and green.” He had on his property a windmill that he built to grind corn and power a homemade washing machine. The same windmill also “thrashed [sic] beans and churned butter” (History of Carlsbad). It was said that he did not believe in enslaving horses, so he walked instead. He tried at one point to build a car to house an engine that he ordered, but the project was abandoned. In addition to the other positions he held, there was a situation that had arisen in his life where he left a job because he felt that it went against his conscience, “even though the letter of the law made it all right.” There were no further details about the job in question, but he was clearly a man of principle.

William Borden died in 1924. The Christian Church that he started had been moved to Oceanside by this time and his funeral was held there. There were so many people in attendance that the church was overflowing. Hymns he had written were sung at his funeral. He was buried in San Diego, as were many early Carlsbad residents. His obituary in the Oceanside Blade stated that he was a “man of high ideals and purposes and has been said to be as honest (as) Abe Lincoln.”

Some quotes from his journal:

“Be yourself whatever that may be; but never cease striving to make yourself better.”

“Experience lessons are to [sic] dearly bought to be carelessly thrown away.”

“Be kind to yourself if you wish to be kind to others; you can never nourish a gentle spirit that will forgive their faults while you are always picking at your own.”

“If you expect others to follow your teaching follow it yourself.”

“Too often, instead of looking at others as they are, we look at and criticize their figure as we behold it in our own looking glass and measure them by the measure of our own stature.”

“This life is not always bright; clouds ‘dark and murky’ will sometimes float over the sky hiding the sun from our eyes and the world seems dark and the wind howls furiously about us. But let us always remember that the darkest clouds have each a brighter side, and by extra exertion we may climb the mountain steeps and pierce above them, leaving behind us many of our weightier sorrows.”

Sources:

History of Carlsbad, by the Friends of the Library

Windows on the Past, by Susan Gutierrez

Borden Family Research, by Kristi Hawthorne

Seekers of the Spring, by Marje Howard-Jones

Borden Family vertical file collection, Carlsbad History Room

The Plain Truth & Spirit of Love Newspaper Excerpts Collection, 1884-1922