Waymon L. Borden was born at home at Tiadaghton Hill, Pennsylvania, December 17, 1909. The house was owned by his father, Irvin Borden, who was a farmer and also worked in the woods cutting lumber. There were 8 children in the family. Life was not easy. The oldest brother, Glen, died at 10 years old of typhoid fever. In 1927 four of them had pneumonia, including Waymon. Two died, Charles and Ransford. He and his brothers grew up hunting and fishing and he enjoyed these pastimes all of his life. In 1925, Waymon shot one of the largest bears in the area in years. He told how they had to push the bear over a falls in Tiadaghton because they couldn't drag him so far. Then they floated him part way down Pine Creek and tried putting him in a boat, but the bear was so large the boat sank.
Waymon worked the farm until about age 16 when he went West with his sister, Hilda Gitchell, and her husband, Glen. They left in 1926 or 1927 in a Model T Ford. Roads were dirt. It took them three weeks to get to Colorado. They camped in a tent on the way out. The road was called the Union Pacific Trail.
The first place they stayed out West was Canon City, Colorado. Waymon ran a garage and Hilda and Glen ran a grocery store. This was located across the Grand River from the State Penitentiary. They stayed there about one year. They then went to get work on the Hoover Dam but no work was available. They picked up odd jobs. One time they picked tomatoes for $2.50 a ton. Waymon also worked for a man named Burnside, driving truck to deliver cow hides. On July 4th, 1926 (or 1927) they got stuck in Hoosier Pass in the Rockies during a snow storm.
The three came back to the farm in 1927 or 1928. Hilda and Glen had a produce farm in Williamsport. They had one daughter, Catherine, who was the first Cesarean birth in the Williamsport Hospital. They later moved to Oregon in the 1930's. Hilda died there of cancer.
Waymon returned to work in the lumber mills or cutting timber. He worked for Alan Putman and also a man named Callahan in Stony Fork. He then worked on the railroad for 11 years (first worked for $.43 per hour). In 1932 he married Lucille Sticklin. They had two children, Vivian and Arnold. Lucille died in 1937 of pneumonia. In 1938 he married Emiline Priset.
He worked for Frank Callahan in his garage in Wellsboro on Water Street for a couple of years. Then he bought the stock from Frank and rented the building. A couple of years after that he bought the building and the junk yard behind that. He ran the garage, selling Studebakers, Dodge, and Plymouths. When the war started he went into wholesale auto parts in the store on Water Street. He sold this building and bought one on Queen Street. He managed Borden's Auto Parts on Queen Street for 19 years. During this time he bought two houses on Water Street and later sold them. One ended up being the location for the A&P. In 1950 they bought the house on Route 6.
After getting out of the auto parts business, he retired for awhile; but retirement wasn't for him. he took a home TV repair course. He began fixing tv sets for Bill Montgomery who sold TV's (right across the road from the Route 6 house). He later opened his own shop at his house. He traveled miles and miles around the Wellsboro area fixing people's TV sets in their homes. Before there was the modern cable TV, he put antennas on the mountains and strung wires from the trees down to the homes in areas like Slate Run and Camel; all so people could get the one or two TV channels available. After a storm or a heavy snow, repairs would need to be made and he would walk the lines - often not getting home until late at night. Later he had a partnership with his son, Carl. Eventually Carl took over ownership of Borden's TV and Waymon retired.
Excepts from Wellsboro Gazette Article - September 1982
"Twenty-five years ago today, on Sept. 1, 1957 Donald Smithgall of Wellsboro, made his first investment in Borden's Auto Parts, a business that has seen changes during the rapidly changing automotive market coupled with related innovations.
When Smithgall first bought a half-interest in the auto parts store, formerly located at 9 Queen St., many of the parts were interchangeable on most cars or trucks built by a manufacturer. Today each model has its own specific parts and often times the same car or truck will have a number of different options for similar models..........Smithgall bought his interest in the business from Charles "Pete" Grinnell and became a partner with Walt Warriner in the auto parts business which had been started by Waymon Borden, the name the business still carries today. In 1964, Smithgall bought Warriner's share of the business and operated in the building at 9 Queen St. owned by Borden.
In January, 1970, Smithgall bought the former Ford garage from Frank Dunham and began to prepare for the move across the street to its present location at 12 Queen St. Just a few days before the move was to be initiated, fire broke out in the old building at 11:35 a.m. on Feb. 27, 1970. The two-story brick structure and all the business inventory were lost in the $75,000 blaze. A tenant, 82 year old Mrs. Nina Bowen was rescued from the second floor by former employees Arnold Borden and Lyle Phillips, but the entire building and its contents were lost in the fire. Wellsboro firefighters saved an adjoining building after battling the flames for nearly four hours."
(Walt Warriner was Waymon's nephew and Arnold was his son) (Borden's Auto Parts is still there at 12 Queen Street, Wellsboro, as of April 2019)
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Later Years
After finally retiring, Waymon and Emiline moved into a mobile home on Rt. 6 across the road from their original house. Waymon always kept busy with building and fixit projects. He had a large garden. They both had bowled for many years and continued this on a regular basis. They loved playing cards with relatives and friends. They bought a winter home in Florida which they shared with daughter, Vivian and her husband Don Donner. They had many friends and family visit them there. In 2000 Waymon became ill with bladder stones which led to sepsis. His mind did not recover from this. He could not take care of himself and spent the last few months of his life in the Green Home in Wellsboro.
