Richest Man in Fall River ^(Myth)

Many accounts of the Borden murders include the provocative detail that Andrew Borden was one of the richest men in Fall River. A few will even claim that he was the wealthiest and most powerful man in the city. This helps add to the drama of the story that his daughter Lizzie murdered him for his money, because who could resist claiming such a fortune? It also helps play up another common idea about Andrew that he was a penny-pinching miser (also a myth) who practically deserved to die for keeping his family confined in a cramped, outdated house when he could have afforded so much better.

The fact is that while some of the many Bordens in Fall River were indeed quite wealthy, Andrew Borden did not grow from that particular limb of the family tree. His father, Abraham Bowen Borden, was reportedly a fishmonger, and while the elder Borden eventually earned enough to buy a small house on Ferry Street, he didn’t have much else to leave to his two surviving children, Andrew and a daughter named Lurana. But Andrew was industrious, beginning his career as a cabinet maker and carpenter who first worked for other builders in the city (he did carpentry work on the new city hall) before opening a furniture business with a partner, William Almy.

This business venture, which included the making of coffins (thus giving him the title of undertaker, not mortician), was a success and Andrew began to invest in real estate ventures. Still, it took a number of years before he was bringing in serious money. At the time Lizzie was born, Andrew’s small family—his wife Sarah and daughter Emma along with the new baby—lived in the “Borden homestead” with Abraham and his second wife (Bebe). According to careful research done by Stefani Koorey, Ph.D., it wasn’t until a few years after Lizzie’s mother died in 1863 that Andrew moved his family (along with a housekeeper cousin) to a house of their own, across the street from Abraham, where he brought his new bride, Abby, in 1865. And it wasn’t until Lizzie was 12 years old that Andrew moved his family into the infamous house at 92 Second Street, which became more spacious after Andrew converted the two-family house into a single-family residence.

From there, Andrew did begin to prosper with his real estate acumen and knack for wise investments. He eventually came to own a number of properties, both residential and commercial, from which he garnered rental income. He also pursued positions of financial power as bank president and director on the boards of several large corporations. However, Andrew Borden famously retained the thrifty habits of a man who was not born into money. Even when he could have purchased more grand living conditions for his family in the last decade or so of his life, he was apparently satisfied with what he had. His unmarried daughters were not lavished with the kind of luxuries they believed he could afford, but they were given allowances to spend as they pleased, were relieved from the obligations of housework by a live-in domestic servant and were allowed a measure of independence to pursue their interests. If that was not enough to keep his daughter Lizzie satisfied, she never openly complained to him unless, of course, police were right, and the complaint was delivered to him by the hatchet that took his life and eventually delivered to her half of his money. The jury at her trial, however, did not believe this to be the case, and found her “not guilty.”

By the time of his death, Andrew Borden had amassed a fair amount of wealth with holdings said to be worth about $300,000, a considerable sum in those days, but certainly not the level of wealth that many families on “The Hill” could claim. “By comparison,” wrote the curator of the Fall River Historical Society in a 2021 article, “Mary Brayton Durfee Young (B.M.C. Durfee’s mother), upon her death in 1891, left an estate worth ‘in excess of ten million dollars.’ There were many individuals in Fall River whose fortunes far exceeded that of Andrew Borden.”