C. B. BORDNER, of Dakota Township, is a prominent general merchant and Assistant Postmaster at Afolkey in this township, and lives on section 15. Mr. Bordner comes of an old Pennsylvania family who had their settlement in the Keystone State, the progenitor of which came from Germany. Our subject is of the third generation of the family, who figure in the history of this country. The great-grand and grandparents spent their lives in Pennsylvania, where they both died. It was in Cumberland County, that State, that George Bordner, the father of our subject, was born. He first saw the light of day in Center County, and was there reared, educated, and married to Miss Wilhelmina Kline, also a native of Pennsylvania, of German descent. After the birth of their first child, whom they christened David, the parents went to New York State, making settlement in Seneca County, and there the father began farming, at the same time engaging in the occupation of a cooper, which trade he had learned while young. There were nine children born in Seneca County, and of these our subject was the eighth child and fourth son of the family, which afterward came West in the year 1851, and made settlement in Dakota Township, locating on a farm of ninety acres, which the father had purchased before coming to this State.

Of the eleven children included in the home circle, three are now deceased, and the parents have both passed away, having been worthy and representative people. The father’s death occurred Feb. 19, 1881, in Dakota Township. He was a member in excellent standing of the Evangelical Association. The mother died April 16, 1880, at her home near Afolkey. She had continued a devout adherent of the faith that she possessed a half century before her death. Her marriage was celebrated in 1827, when she was living in Cumberland County, Pa. She was a devoted mother, a loving wife, and a neighbor whose place cannot soon be filled. The father, George Bordner, politically, was a Democrat.

Going back to the early life of Mr. Bordner, we find him like other boys, under similar circumstances, seeking his education in the common schools, until he came West with his father, but later he attended the Northwestern College, of the Evangelical Association, then of Plainfield, Will County, and now of Naperville, Du Page Co., Ill. He lived at home and taught school in Dakota and Buckeye Townships, this county, and was married in Buckeye Township, Dec. 26, 1867, to Miss Sarah J. Kuntz, daughter of Owen and Sarah (Leibengutt) Kuntz, from Pennsylvania, and now residing on a farm in Buckeye Township. Mrs. Bordner was born in Allen Township, Lehigh Co., Pa., Sept. 11, 1847. She came with her father to Illinois when a girl, and resided at home until her marriage.

Since marriage Mr. Bordner has been teaching and farming. In 1884 he purchased property and started a first-class general store, and has since engaged in trade. He subsequently secured a partner in the person of A. N. Hoffnagle, who is now the Postmaster of this place, and resides in Dakota Township. Mr. and Mrs. Bordner are members of the Evangelical Association, and Mr. Bordner for many years has been Superintendent of the Sunday-school. He believes in temperance principles, and votes the Prohibition ticket. His stock is large and well arranged, and the establishment excels in appointments the usual country store. The firm command a fine trade, and owe their success to their fair and courteous treatment of their customers.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 272