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Pronunciation

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I've corrected the pronunciation from /ˈbɔːrdʒər/ to /ˈbɔːrɡər/. Eindiran (talk) 07:00, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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History of Borger, Texas

Eight times larger than the County Seat of Stinnett, Borger once boasted of a four-mile long main street when things like that were rare. Borger was a wild place in 1927. So wild, that Governor Dan Moody had to declare martial law and send in the Texas Rangers. The Ranger-in-charge was Captain Frank Hamer, who was to rain on Bonnie and Clyde's parade in '34. Gov. Moody didn't want to do it, but when a town shoots and kills its District Attorney, it's time to do something.

Named after Asa "Ace" Borger, land speculator and town builder, Borger lost its namesake in a one-sided shootout in the Borger Post Office in 1934. It seems that the County Treasurer, Arthur Huey (never trust a man with two first names) was miffed at Ace for not bailing him out of jail on an embezzlement charge. Huey confronted Ace while he was licking a stamp and called him a bunch of names. Mr. Borger could live with that; but then Huey shot him five times with a .45, which Mr. Borger could not live with. To add insult to fatal injury, Huey took Borger's .44 and shot him again (along with a few other postal patrons). It is not known if Mr. Borger's letter was ever delivered.

I'm going to "adopt" this page as a personal project, since I was born here. Hopefully I will fill out some history and more current aspects of the town.

(Tracyfennell 22:24, 13 January 2006 (UTC))[reply]

I've since added some early town history (much of its only interesting history). Most was gleaned from the Handbook of Texas Online, esp. the article about Borger, written by H. Allen Anderson. Tracyfennell 05:42, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Be sure to cite sources when adding material to an article. Thanks SpigotMap 04:16, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]


The following is testimony that has been in my family for years. I offer it only as that. It cannot be verified.

My father, Warren J Edwards's, family lived in Borger during two separate phases. Around 1926 and later during the mid thirties. Granddad, Warren Jimmison Edwards was a roughneck in the oil fields and knew Hickman from his youth. They had attended gradeschool together. After a prominent murder in town Grandad took his family and left Borger for a safer environment for raising a family. My father had always remembered it as being "Edward" Hickman who was killed and thus causing granddad's change of heart and decision to move. Dad was only 5 or 6 at the time they left. His memory was wrong about the identity of the slain - Hickman died many years later per the Rangers - and Hickman's first name - Thomas, not Edward. What my father remembers vividly is being with his dad on a street corner in Borger while Granddad and Hickman talked. What he remembers of Hickman most was his guns. He had double western holsters worn backwards - with the handles pointed forward. White metal guns (nickle plated?) with handles that had steer heads carved into them with red stones for eyes. Being a small boy they were just about eye level. He remembers the guns real well. He always told the story that Hickman was found one morning in the middle of the street, shot in the back and stripped of his holsters and guns. I've tried to verify some of the facts but to no avail.

The family returned to Borger in the thirties. My aunt, Marjorie Renfro (Edwards) was 19 and working in a small shop across the street from the Post Office. She related that she was working at the counter, looking out the large plate glass window and witnessed Ace Borger get gunned down. She remembered the motive being about the wife of the assailant and Borger. That could have been just town talk. She concurred that the man emptied his own gun into Borger and then shot Borger with his own gun. She recalls that after the killing the man just walked over to the boardwalk in front of the shop she was in, sat down and put his head in his hands. She said the owner of the shop knew him and led him up the stairs beside the shop to the room above the store where they waited for the authorities.

During the family's second stay in Borger my father worked in the local theater along with the custodian, an alchoholic, former town police officer from the early days of Borger, who went by the name of "Pop" Yeall. Dad used to help the old drunk home at night to a little shack he lived in before going home himself. On one occaision while helping "Pop" home, the old man said, "Jack, I want to show you something. You can't tell anyone cause nobody else knows about it." He went to a trunk or chest and pulled out a bundle wrapped in cloth. He unrolled the bundle and there was the double holstered guns Dad saw in his youth with the steer head handles with red stone eyes. At the time it scared him witless. He didn't tell anyone about it for years. Dad always believed this man had committed the crime that sent his own family from Borger years before.

I offer this, as it was told to me many times, because I believe there is a thread of truth in there somewhere. Possibly it will fill in some answers for someone who's family has the other half of the story.Doubledink (talk) 21:47, 22 May 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Doubledink (talk • contribs) 21:33, 22 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is a followup to my family story above. My Dad's memory was partly correct. Capt. Thomas Hickman's guns were as he remembered. They are on display at the Waco Texas Ranger Museum. So the guns that Pop Yeall showed Dad were not Hickman's. They were most likely similar and his young mind just connected the dots. I had read that there was a prominent murder of a public official that had been the reason for calling in the Rangers to establish marshal law. That discussion may have influenced his memory. Thanks for reading. Doubledink. 11/12/19.24.113.121.146 (talk) 18:22, 12 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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