DUANE
Duane's take
Well, the marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice passing it along. Right here in Galveston County stands the site of a home that sheltered one man through a whole season of becoming — from 1837 to 1851, this was the address of Gail Borden, Jr. Now that's a name worth saying twice.
Gail Borden, Jr. Pioneer surveyor. Newspaper editor.
And the man who figured out how to condense milk. Not just any man wearing a few different hats — this was a fellow who kept trading one hat for a bigger one. And right here, while living on this very ground, in the year 1840, he discovered that process.
The condensing of milk. Something that would ripple far beyond the boundaries of this lot, far beyond Galveston, far beyond Texas itself. He was born November 9, 1801, and he died September 2, 1874.
The surveyor who mapped land. The editor who shaped words. The inventor who, somewhere between the salt air and the ambition of this place, looked at something as ordinary as milk and saw a problem worth solving.
Some men pass through history. Gail Borden, Jr. left his mark on it — and on just about every can that came after.
What the marker says
Site of the home 1837-1851, of Gail Borden, Jr. pioneer surveyor, newspaper editor and inventor of a process for condensing milk, which he discovered while living here in 1840. Born November 9, 1801. Died September 2, 1874.