Thomas Allen Borman, president of the Continental Creamery Company, of Topeka, was born on a farm in Dickinson county, Kansas, Dec. 5, 1872. His father, George Willows Borman, a farmer, born in Lincolnshire, England, came to the United States when eight years old with his parents, Allen and Ann (Taylor) Borman, who located on a farm in Jefferson county, Indiana, where they spent the remainder of their lives and where George W. Borman was reared to manhood. The latter was married in Jefferson county, Indiana, in 1870, to Elizabeth Bissett, who was born in Edinburg, Scotland, and came to the United States with her parents, Thomas and Mary Bissett, when she was seven years old. They, too, settled in Jefferson county, Indiana, locating in the village of North Madison. The male members of the Bissett family for the most part followed railroad pursuits and Thomas Bissett was one of the early locomotive engineers on the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis railroad, now a part of the Pennsylvania system. He and his wife both died in Jefferson county, Indiana. George W. and Elizabeth (Bissett) Borman removed to Kansas in 1870, almost immediately after their marriage, and located on a farm in Dickinson county, in which county they have lived ever since, their present home being at the town of Hope.

Thomas A. Borman is the only child of his parents and was reared on the farm on which he was born. He was educated in a district school and in the Dickinson County High School, located at Chapman, which graduated its first class in 1892, of which class Mr. Borman was a member. While a student in the high school there he was able to spare sufficient time from his school studies to learn the printer's trade in a local newspaper office in that town, and immediately after his graduation he became editor of the "Enterprise Journal," at Enterprise, Kan. He continued in the position of editor one year and then returned to the Borman farm, where for a period of eight years he was associated with his father in agricultural pursuits. They made a specialty of dairy farming, and with Holsteins as their breed, they bred the largest producing dairy herd that had ever been developed in the State of Kansas up to that time, their herd averaging 400 pounds of butter fat per cow, annually.

In 1901 Mr. Borman entered the employ of the Continental Creamery Company, which had just been organized and incorporated in Topeka. His first service with this company was as a lecturer before farmers' institutes and as editor of the "Dairy Age," a publication devoted principally to the interests of the creamery company. Mr. Borman carried on a sort of an educational campaign as editor of this paper and as lecturer before farmers' institutes for one year, the object of the creamery company being to educate the farmer in dairy lines and urge upon them the importance of making the dairy product one of the chief assets of farm life. He has been connected with the Continental Creamery Company ever since in one capacity or another, and he has had much to do in making this company one of the greatest concerns of its kind in the United States, and by far the largest creamery concern in Kansas. He was made superintendent of one of the state divisions of the company in 1902, and in 1903 he became assistant to the general superintendent. In 1905 he was advanced to the position of general superintendent, and on June 1, 1908, he became president of the company, a position he still holds. Despite his manifold duties in connection with the affairs of the creamery company, he has found time to devote to newspaper work, a work that has always had a fascination for him, and in 1908 he became editor-in-chief of the "Kansas Farmer," a well known Kansas weekly agricultural publication. He is still serving in that capacity and is, besides, vice-president of the Kansas Farmer Company.

On Jan. 1, 1899, Mr. Borman was married to Miss Maud E. Bennett, of Enterprise, Kan., and they have two sons: Charles Thomas, born June 14, 1901, and George Allen, born May 23, 1910.

Thomas A. Borman's life is a splendid illustration of what a young man may accomplish if he possesses energy, perseverance and courage and has coupled with those qualities honesty, good habits and high character. Within the space of his ten years' connection with the Continental Creamery Company, by the exercise of his natural ability and correct methods, he has been rapidly advanced to the presidency of one of the state's principal industrial concerns, and at the same time he has forged to the front as one of Topeka's leading men of affairs, as well as one of her best known and most progressive citizens. Besides being president of the Continental Creamery Company and editor-in-chief of the "Kansas Farmer," he is an ex-president of the Topeka Commercial Club, and is president of the Kansas State Fair Association. Mr. Borman is a fine type of that class of Americans who have succeeded purely through their individual efforts, and though a comparatively young man yet, few native Kansans are more widely and favorably known throughout the state.