William Borah state of Idaho in 1947, stands in the National Statuary Hall Collection. William Edgar Borah was born in Jasper Township, Illinois, near Fairfield in Wayne County. His parents were farmers Elizabeth (West) and William Nathan Borah. Borah was distantly related to Katharina von Bora, the Catholic nun who left her convent in the 16th century and married reformer Martin Luther. His Borah ancestors came to America in about 1760, fought in the Revolutionary War, and moved west with the frontier. The young William E. Borah was the seventh of ten children, and the third son. Although Borah was not a
Katharina von Bora and wife Margarethe, Truchsessin von Wetzhausen (1490–1527)) but died in Mühlhausen in 1570 at the age of thirty-six. Her descendants have continued to modern times, including German President Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934) and the Counts zu Eulenburg and Princes zu Eulenburg und Hertefeld. She is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of some Lutheran Churches in the United States on December 20. In addition to a statue in Wittenberg and several biographies, an opera of her life now keeps her memory alive. Katharina von Bora Katharina von Bora (; January 29, 1499 – December 20, 1552), after her wedding Katharina