A well-known and popular resident of Fairfield, James Larkin Borah, D.D.S., is one of the leading representatives of that city, keeping pace with the times in regard to the valuable discoveries and improvements that have been made in dentistry in recent years. A son of Elhanan M. Borah, he was born June 17, 1880, in Wayne county, Illinois, and reared on the home farm.
James L. Borah enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war, becoming a member of Company A, Vance‘s Illinois Volunteers, and with his regiment did duty in Cuba. Returning home at the expiration of his term of enlistment, he entered the Saint Louis University, and in 1905 was graduated from its dental department. Immediately locating in Fairfield, Dr. Borah has here met with veritable success as a dentist, his professional knowledge and skill having gained for him a substantial patronage. Fraternally the Doctor is a member of Fairfield Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; of Fairfield Chapter Royal Arch Masons, of Fairfield; of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and of the Modern Woodmen of America.
In February, 1905, Dr. Borah married Elsie Herrmann, of Saint Louis, Missouri, a daughter of Augustus and Rosa (Leuch) Herrmann, natives of Germany, and they have one child, Charles Edward Borah, born in 1906.
Dr. Borah's paternal grandfather, George Borah, was born in Kentucky, in 1795. Sometime in the ‘twenties he migrated to Illinois, with his brothers, Samuel and William, settling in Wayne county at a time when the Indians were numerous and troublesome. He took up land, improved a good homestead, and was engaged in farming until his death, in 1860, being killed by a horse. He was three times married and the father of several children, but owing to his untimely death the family records were lost, and but little ancestral history is now available. He married for his second wife a Miss Bendsham. After her death he visited Macon county, and while there met Lorena Montgomery, who subsequently became his third wife. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1804, a daughter of Robert Montgomery, a pioneer of Macon county, whose son, Robert Montgomery, Jr., was one of the first settlers of Decatur, Macon county, and helped build the third house erected in that place, and was thereafter a resident until his death, in 1867, at the age of ninety-eight years. Of the third marriage of George Borah three sons were born, namely: Robert, who died while yet a youth; Lyman, who served as a soldier in the Civil war, died in 1874; and Elhanan M., whose birth occurred April 16, 1849, while his mother was visiting at her old home in Decatur, Illinois.
Brought up on the home farm in Massillon township, Elhanan Borah had but limited educational advantages. After the death of his father he had a hard time for several years, in addition to earning his own living helping to support his widowed mother. Buying land in Massillon township in 1875, he improved the forty acres, and having been eminently successful as an agriculturist has since purchased other tracts, at one time owning over five hundred acres. Since 1911 he has sold three hundred and sixty acres of land, but still retains the ownership of his valuable farm of one hundred and twenty acres. Retiring from active labor in the fall of 1909, Mr. Borah moved to Fairfield, where he owns a fine residence and several city lots. He has also money in both of the city banks. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and a Republican in politics. While living in Massillon township he served as school director.
Mr. Borah married, in 1875, Ada Wilson, who was born in Springfield, Illinois, in April, 1855. Her father, Benjamin Wilson, was born in Pennsylvania, of German ancestry, and died in Illinois in 1856. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Higbie, was three times married, Mr. Wilson being her third husband. She had one son by a former marriage, Edward Bitteman, now living in Lexington, Kentucky, and by her union with Mr. Wilson had six daughters. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Elhanan Borah, namely: Peter C., a farmer P. 1638 and merchant in Massillon township, is married and has three children, Vernie May, Perry Clayton and Gladys; William, deceased; James L., the subject of this brief sketch; Oliver C., a dentist in Olney, Illinois; Clem R. a real estate dealer in Fairfield, is married and has three children, Leonard, Oran and Donald; Blanche died at the age of four years; Mary Elizabeth, at home with her parents; Mamie, who died when twelve years old; Loco Wilson, attending the Fairfield high school; and Otto Edward. Peter C. Borah, the oldest son, also served in the Spanish-American war, enlisting in Company A, Vance’s Illinois Volunteers, and with his brother James accompanied the regiment to Cuba. At Jacksonville, Florida, he was stricken with typhoid fever, and from its effects has never recovered, being still a cripple.
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