Henry Borne, more often called Dutch Henry was an outlaw and one of the most prevalent horse thieves and cattle rustlers of the Old West. Henry was born to German immigrant parents on July 2, 1849, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In the 1860s he moved with his family to Montague, Michigan, where he worked as a lumberjack. Somewhere along the line he joined the Seventh Cavalry, but quit in the late 1860s. Shortly afterward, Borne was arrested at Fort Smith, Arkansas for stealing twenty government mules. He was sentenced to prison, but escaped just three months later.
By 1869 he had moved to Kansas where for the next six years he hunted buffalo and worked as a freighter in Kansas & eastern Colorado. In 1875, Dutch Henry emerged as the leader of a horse-stealing ring operating in a vast area from Kansas to Colorado, New Mexico to the Texas Panhandle. Although the actual number of Borne's followers is disputed, it has been estimated to be as many as 300. Henry specialized in Indian ponies and government mules, for which he found a lucrative market.
Demands that Dutch Henry be brought to justice increased. More than once he had managed to escape from jails and elude law officers, but in December 1878, Las Animas County Sheriff, R. W. Wootton, arrested him at Trinidad, Colorado. There, Borne was tried for stealing mules and ordered transferred to the Bent County Jail. However, Borne was acquitted in January 1879. Soon, he drifted on to Las Vegas, New Mexico where he was said to have been a member of the notorious Dodge City Gang. By that time, he had become so good at stealing horses, that one legend says that he once sold a sheriff his own recently stolen horse. There term “Dutch Henry” soon began to be known as a stolen horse.
Finally, the State of Arkansas finally caught up with him, putting him back in prison for the Fort Smith robbery years before. However, his time behind bars was apparently brief, as by the late 1880s he was known to have been prospecting at Summitville, Colorado and opened the successful Happy Thought Mine in Creede, Colorado.
In the 1890s he filed on 160 acres on the West Fork of the San Juan River twenty miles from Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The acreage would eventually become known as Borne's Lake. In July, 1900, Henry married Ida Dillabaugh and fathered four children. In his later years he talked little about his past and for seven years did not even keep a gun in his home. Borne died of pneumonia on January 10, 1921, and was buried at Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
Ida Rosetta Born, a resident of this community since the year 1900 passed away Tuesday afternoon at her home, that beautiful spot we allknow as "Born's Lake." The former Ida Rosetta Dillabaugh was born at Montague Michigan, on Oct. 3, 1868 and was 80 years, 9 months and 23 days old when death claimed her.
Ida stayed on at the ranch raising their daughters. Her life as a ranching widow is best portrayed in her obituary written in The Pagosa Springs Sun upon her death in August 5, 1949. Many of the people mentioned in the obituary have future generations still living in Pagosa Springs - it is like "Heaven on Earth". It's easy to understand why the surnames mentioned below are prevalent families in the area today.
She grew to womanhood and was educated in Michigan, where at one time she taught school. On July 10th, 1900, she was united in marriage to Henry Born at Montague, Mich. He brought her as a bride to his homestead which was and is now the present "Born's Lake." To this union 4 children were born, two boys and two girls. The boys preceded her in death, George was died at the age of 2 years and James lost his life in the service for his country at the Port Chicago disaster July 17, 1944. The surviving children are Mrs. Mabel Bennett of Pagosa Springs and Mrs. Helen Brown of Durango, Colo. Also 7 grand children and one great grandchild. Besides these relatives she has three brothers that survive her, R, R. Dillabaugh of Grand Rapids, Mich.; Frank Dillabaugh of Lansing, Mich., and H. E. Dillabaugh of Meridian, Idaho, also several nieces and nephews. Mr. Born passed away many years ago when the children were young but she carried on, keeping the home intact and educated them. Being a "Pioneer Lady" many hardships beset her path thru life but she mastered them in the true Pioneer Spirit taking the bitter with the sweet. In past years she was ever ready to lend a helping hand to friends in times of sickness and need. When a young woman she united with the Methodist Church and held to that faith thru her long, useful life. Pall bearers were Jim Moorehead, B. S.
Ellsworth, Bill Woodard, O. C. Boyd, Walter Curs and Jim McCoy. The honorary pallbearers were J. T. Chambers, Harry Speelman, Frank Schoonover, Dave Hersch, A. L. Decker and Jule Macht. The funeral services were held last Friday afternoon from the Methodist Church with Rev. J. Denton Simms officiating. Interment was in Hilltop Cemetery.
Arrangements were in charge of the Lynch Mortuary.