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What is a Home Without a Father
Chances are that if you were to Google or Bing “Andrew Borden,” most of the photos under IMAGES will be of Lizzie Borden. The accused is more famous than the victim. Andrew Borden has taken a pretty hard rap over the decades, and has been charged with some foul things from incest to extreme frugality. A visitor to the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum once declared, “He deserved what he got!” Sadly, very little of what is commonly bandied about as the truth about Andrew Borden and his family relations is true. People will believe what they want to believe or what they see on television “reality shows” which are made purely to titillate and entertain, but seldom educate.Thanks to PARALLEL LIVES, we now know that there existed a warm and affectionate feeling between Lizzie and her father. We have known for many years that he died with Lizzie’s little gold ring on his hand. We also know that to placate his daughters after the real estate transaction deeding the Fourth Street house over to Abby Borden, Andrew settled the Ferry Street house on Emma and Lizzie and what’s more, he bought it back from them for cash in July 1892 when it became too much for them to manage.
The house on Second Street had city water, central heating, wall-to-wall carpeting, and a toilet in the cellar. Things were not so bleak and dreadful as many have promoted over the years and were a lot more luxurious than many in the city lived in 1892- and Andrew Borden was not the monster so many have portrayed.
Father’s Day did not become an official U.S. holiday until 1972 although the idea was tried out in 1910 without much success. Andrew never celebrated Father’s Day, nor did Lizzie and Emma make little cards and gifts on the third Sunday in June. But fathers in Victorian times, as the cross stitch sampler above will testify, were venerated at the hearth as head of the family and the final arbiter in all matters. There is little doubt Lizzie and Emma had a great respect for their father. Parenting is the hardest job of all.
And, if you believe Lizzie was guilty of the crime- well, Andrew Borden probably should have spent more time inspecting that window for Mr. Clegg and should have arrived home MUCH later- it might have all had a different ending. . . .
Happy Father’s Day Andrew Borden- wherever you may be.
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Andrew Borden’s Barber, Pierre LeDuc
photos courtesy of JoAnne Giovino
Andrew Borden’s final morning, leading up to the time of his murder was witnessed by many people as he made his usual rounds around the city. A creature of habit, his daily pattern of barber, post office, banks, and check-in at properties he owned on South Main Street were predictable. He was noted by Abram G.Hart at the bank, encountered by store renter Jonathan Clegg on the street across from old City Hall, engaged in conversation by Mathers and Shortsleeves while checking on a window near the corner of Spring St. and South Main, and observed around 10:45 a.m. by neighbor Caroline Kelly coming around the corner of his house and going up his front steps, attempting to gain entry. Mrs. Kelly would be the last non-family member to see him alive.
Pierre LeDuc is listed as a “hairdresser” along with his partner Joseph LeDoux in the 1891-2 city directory, with their establishment on the second level over Wood and Hall’s shop, which was a furniture store that also had a side line in undertaking, a common practice at the time, supplying things for a funeral and offering wooden coffins for sale in their showroom.
Born of an English father (according to one source) and a French Canadian mother in May of 1864, the family came to America in 1870. The stone marker in Notre Dame Cemetery does not list Pierre’s date of birth, only his death date. The 1900 census has his birthday as May 1864, but the marker has him aged 68 in 1928 which would have made his birth year 1860, the same as Lizzie Borden’s. On April 14, 1890 he married Marie at Saint Anne’s.
Below: City directory entries:
Pierre Leduc 1889-1891 City Directory Location 1: 8 Pleasant Location 2: boards 2 Sixth-and-a-half Occupation: hairdresser Year: 1889
City: Fall River State: MA Pierre Leduc Location 1: 5 Main Location 2: boards 2 Sixth-and-a-half Business Name: Leduc & Ledoux Occupation: hairdresser Year: 1890
City: Fall River State: MA Pierre Leduc Location 1: 5 Main Location 2: boards 2 Sixth-and-a-half Business Name: Leduc & Ledoux Occupation: hairdresser Year: 1891
City: Fall River State: MA 
(click on image above to enlarge to full size) The 1910 census shows Pierre and Marie now living at 160 Robeson Street and they have adopted a daughter, Catherine. With no children appearing since their wedding at St. Anne’s in 1890, twenty years later adoption completed the family. Catherine was born in Massachusetts. Pierre is listed as a barber. Interesting to note that while Pierre’s speaking language is English, Marie’s is listed as French. In other census listings, Pierre and Marie Americanize their names to Peter and Mary LeDuc. And what happened to Pierre’s partner, Joseph LeDoux? In 1930 he is still barbering as an old man and living on Spring Street. If you are fortunate enough to have a copy of Judith A. Boss’ book, Fall River. A Pictoral History (1982 and available on Amazon), you will see a young Pierre LeDuc posing in a jaunty boater hat and crisp white barbering smock in front of Whitehead’s grocery store. He is young and slender. There is only the Fall River Globe’s account that Pierre gave Andrew Borden his last shave and trim the day of the murders. LeDuc probably never thought this is what he would be remembered for in the future. -
It pays to buy quality!
Andrew Borden knew a thing or two about home improvements and value. The cast iron radiators he put in when the family moved into 92 Second Street in 1872 are still going strong today. Here is a photo taken on the day of the crimes in 1892 of the radiator in the front hallway.
Today, the same radiators heat #92 . The current boiler is also located in the same place in the cellar that was the location in 1892. Oh, to get a metal detector under that boiler!
