World Agriculture Directory: the home of the world's largest agriculture database. Fastest way to find events, farms and agribusiness that suit your needs. Agriculture Event Directory

Cattlemen Hall of FameBeef cattle barons, cowboys, breeders and builders from around the world

Cattle Breeders and Breed Pioneers

A.P. Borden and the Zebu Cattle That Stood Up to Texas Tick Fever

A nephew of Shanghai Pierce, Borden is remembered for importing humped cattle from India that could shrug off a disease that killed Texas herds.

Who Was A.P. Borden?

Abel Pierce Borden, known as A.P., was born on May 5, 1866, in Rhode Island, and spent his working life as a Texas Gulf Coast cattleman. According to a family-history appendix on the Pierce and Borden ranch, he was eighth in descent from the emigrant Richard Borden, who was born in England in 1601 and died in Rhode Island in 1671. His mother's brother was Abel Head Pierce, the famous Wharton County rancher known as Shanghai Pierce.

His death is given as 1934 in most places. Another family page gives 1935, so the year should be treated as approximate. The sources used here do not name a place of death, and they say little about his schooling or his early years, which is why this profile leans on what is documented about his ranch, his cattle and the family around him.

A Rhode Island Family in Wharton County

The Pierce family had moved from Rhode Island to the Texas coast a generation earlier. Shanghai Pierce was born in 1834 and died on December 26, 1900. By the time of his death his holdings in Wharton County were enormous: the family-history appendix gives about 162,300 acres, while a Texas Escapes profile of Marie Borden says almost 200,000 acres, so sources differ.

Another Pierce brother, Jonathon, was born in 1839 and died in 1915. He founded the town of Blessing and built the Hotel Blessing in 1906, partly to give cattlemen a railhead. A.P. Borden grew up inside that network of relatives, land and cattle, and the name he carried joined his mother's family name to his father's.

The Zebu Cattle That Resisted Tick Fever

The achievement attached to Borden's name is bringing humped Zebu cattle, usually called Brahma or Brahman in Texas, from India. The reason was practical. Tick fever was a deadly scourge in Texas, and the family-history account says the imported cattle were immune to it and could pass that immunity to their offspring. For that, it says, he earned the gratitude of the Texas cattle industry.

The sources do not give the year of the importation, the ports involved or the number of animals, so none of that is stated here. The Texas Escapes profile makes the same basic point in plainer terms: he brought Brahma cattle from India because they did well in Texas heat and with ticks. The exact scale of his imports is a question for a researcher with access to the original papers.

The Borden Ranch Near Wharton

After Shanghai Pierce died, Borden managed the old Pierce ranch for a time. He also acquired a ranch of his own, about 1,200 acres, close to or possibly once part of the Pierce lands, in the country around the Texas towns of Wharton, Pierce and Mackey. Marie Hough Borden, whom he married in 1908, later described the family land as part of the larger Pierce ranch, which she called Rancho Grande.

One vivid description comes from a boy who visited in 1910 and later wrote about it. He recalled a very large man who drove a two-seat Cadillac straight across country, big fawn-colored Brahma bulls that could start a fight without warning, and a few Texas Longhorns on the place. It is a child's memory recorded decades afterward, so it is best read as color rather than measurement.

The Key to Borden's Success

The documented record is short, but it points to a few clear habits. Borden started with an inherited name and a good deal of family land, and he used both to try something other ranchers were slow to adopt: cattle bred for a hot, tick-infested climate rather than cattle bred for a cooler one.

That bet fit a wider pattern in Texas. A biography of rancher James McFaddin notes that he was crossing Brahman blood into his herd as early as 1879, and the later Beefmaster breed was built on a three-way cross that includes Brahman. Borden was working inside a broader move toward Brahman genetics on the Gulf Coast.

  • He solved a specific disease problem, tick fever, with a specific animal, the Zebu.
  • He relied on the trait that mattered most in his region: heat and tick tolerance.
  • He kept a working ranch beside the family's famous holdings instead of living on the name alone.
  • He ran Brahma bulls alongside a few Longhorns, mixing the new with the old Texas stock.
  • Limit: the record gives no herd counts, sale prices or breeding records, so his commercial results are unknown.

After A.P.: Marie Borden and the Switch to Rice

When Borden died, Marie Hough Borden took over the ranch. According to the family-history appendix, she phased out cattle and phased in rice, a common change on the Wharton County prairie. By the time of her 1955 narrative, the Texas Escapes page says, most of the land was in rice farming, while about sixty years earlier cattle had been the main use.

The ranch was sold sometime in the 1940s. Marie also became known for church and mission giving, supported in part by a friendship with the head of Purina, but that is her story rather than his. The point for cattle history is simple: the working life of the Borden Ranch ran from the Pierce era into the rice era, and A.P. Borden stood in the middle of that turn.

Why Borden Still Matters to Beef History

Brahman-influenced cattle are now a basic part of beef production across the hot South, and Borden is one of the early names tied to that shift in Texas. His story is a reminder that many breed pioneers are known mainly through family papers, local histories and one or two paragraphs in print.

If you want to read more about the Pierce side of the family, the Saddle and Sirloin portrait page for Abel Head Pierce is a good starting point, and farm.FM carries stories from the world of ranching, including a farm.FM story on Texas ranch cattle. For the wider picture of the work, see the ranching section of farm.FM.

Timeline

  1. 1834Uncle Abel Head 'Shanghai' Pierce is born in Rhode Island
  2. 1866A.P. Borden is born in Rhode Island on May 5
  3. 1900Shanghai Pierce dies on December 26; Borden manages the old Pierce ranch for a time
  4. 1906Uncle Jonathon Pierce builds the Hotel Blessing
  5. 1908Borden marries Marie Hough
  6. 1910A young visitor sees Brahma bulls and a few Longhorns on the Borden Ranch
  7. 1934Borden dies (one source gives 1935); Marie runs the ranch and shifts to rice
  8. 1940sThe Borden Ranch is sold

Frequently asked questions

Who was A.P. Borden?

Abel Pierce Borden (1866-1934) was a Wharton County, Texas, cattleman and a nephew of Shanghai Pierce. He is remembered for importing Zebu cattle from India that resisted tick fever.

What is A.P. Borden known for?

Family-history sources credit him with bringing humped Zebu or Brahma cattle from India to Texas. The cattle resisted tick fever and passed that resistance to their offspring, which helped Texas ranchers.

How was A.P. Borden related to Shanghai Pierce?

Pierce was Borden's uncle. After Pierce died in 1900, Borden managed the old Pierce ranch for a time before running his own ranch of roughly 1,200 acres near Wharton.

What happened to the Borden Ranch?

After A.P. Borden died, his wife Marie Hough Borden ran it, phased out cattle and moved the land into rice. The ranch was sold sometime in the 1940s.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

More from the hall