{"id":3001,"date":"2019-06-14T07:13:26","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T12:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=3001"},"modified":"2019-06-14T07:13:27","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T12:13:27","slug":"grampa-borders-read-the-douglas-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/grampa-borders-read-the-douglas-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Grampa Borders Read The Douglas Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>

Many years after my paternal grandfather, Carl Borders, left Wyoming, he continued to subscribe to The Douglas Budget and Converse County Review<\/em>. He and his father had left Illinois in 1918 to homestead 640 acres in Converse County, about 50 miles northwest of Douglas, which then had a population of about 2,300. It now has about 6,500 residents.<\/p>\n

Although he left Wyoming in the mid-1940s to pursue a career as a professional Boy Scout, Grampa Borders continued to subscribe to the weekly paper. This was when folks had to rely on the paper to find out what was happening in places they used to live. As far as I know, he subscribed to The Budget<\/em> until his death in 1994. My great-grandfather had retained his portion of the mineral rights to the homestead long after it sold. Decades later, it provided a comfortable retirement income for Gra\"\"<\/a>mpa Borders, who never made much money as a scout executive but loved the job.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Wyoming Online Historical Newspapers project, one can view copies of the Douglas Budget<\/em> from the comfort of a study chair parked in front of a computer screen. I decided to take a look at what was happening in Wyoming when Grampa Borders, then 12, helped his dad, Henry W. Borders, to homestead in 1918.<\/p>\n