Name/Title
"Middletown Times Herald" Booth Family - 200 years on Campbell Hall, NY FarmEntry/Object ID
000475Tags
Booth FamilyScope and Content
MIDDLETOWN TIMES HERALD, MIDDLETOWN, N. Y., WEDNES- [Partial Headline]: Washington Meet Convinced of They Live On A 200-Year-Old Farm
[Photo Caption]: Pictured in the flower garden behind their home near Campbell Hall are Alfred Booth, his wife and sister, Miss Dolly. —Photo by Pierson
Booth Family Line Spans 200 Years On One Farm Charles, Great-Great-Great-Grandfather of Alfred, Present Owner, Bought 2,000-Acre Patent near Campbell Hall 50 Years Before Revolution
There can be but a handful of farms in this area which have been held continuously by the same family longer than the Booth place at Campbell Hall. According to the best knowledge of the present members of the clan, Charles Booth, who first came to Orange County from Long Island, bought the 2,000-acre patent of Joseph Sacket in 1720. Since the Farm Editor has been delving into the present operations and past history of farms in this region, the only other one he has encountered with a more ancient title is that of the Mills Brothers at Scotchtown, whose original deed dates from a royal grant made by Queen Anne of England about 1710.
It would, incidentally, be interesting to determine just which farm still held by descendants of the original settlers could rightfully claim the distinction of the oldest. Possibly, it might be one of the early Huguenot families in the Neversink Valley or one of the old Dutch farms over New Paltz way or one in the central part of Orange County. Of course, the Bull family claims famous old William and Sara Wells Bull as the first white settlers of Orange County. Undoubtedly they were and their ancient stone house—one of the landmarks of this region—with the land around it, are still a homestead of the Bulls, although now the property of the family association and not operated by one individual. But when it comes down to William and Sara Wells, there might be even older family names hereabouts. If there are, the Editor for one would like to know all of 'em.
Booths and Bulls Linked Incidentally, the Booths and the Bulls are linked by close ties. Of the numerous progeny of William and Sara Wells and of Charles Booth and his wife, three Booths married three Bulls, thus starting family lines that have proliferated hugely ever since.
For one who is interested in tracing back these old and honorable family histories, there is no better place to do it than the rambling, high-ceilinged Booth homestead set in its towering trees not far from Campbell Hall, and no better informant than Miss Dolly Booth. She is a veritable mine of historical lore, not only as it concerns her own family's genealogy but the whole background of rural life as it has slowly moved down through the years in our area. You can sit there in a 100-year-old split-bottomed chair, let your eyes roam over the oil paintings of ancient Booths, or, perhaps, walk through the rooms filled with lovingly-handled old furniture of apple-wood, native maple and oak, and she can tell you something about each piece. Or, if you wish, you can spend several profitable hours conning the ancient sheepskin deeds, ledgers, diaries, note-books and faded histories that have been accumulating in this venerable house for many generations.
Miss Booth has long been a member of the Historical Society of Middletown and takes an active interest in all its proceedings. One of the proudest moments in her life was on January twenty-sixth of this year when she attended a banquet in Albany to receive one of the first ten citations in the Order of Century Farmers, an organization started by various agricultural leaders in New York State to mark those homesteads in this state whose continuous tenure by one family has exceeded a century. As may be remembered, of the ten chosen for the first year's citation, four were from Orange County—the Booth farm, and those operated by Bartow W. Bull, Stony Ford; Raymond W. Hill, Pine Bush, and Charles B. Hill, Montgomery.
Farm Has 340 Acres While Miss Booth is the historian and antiquarian of the family, her brother, Alfred, is the fellow who keeps things moving on the farm. While the original patent of 2,000 acres was cut up into smaller pieces many years ago as young Booths came on, wanted places of their own or moved away, the farm is still one of the largest in the county, containing 340 acres. Of [text cut off] being in wood-land and pasture. Between forty and fifty cows are kept on the place, with no other activity than the raising of the hay and corn to feed them.
Since the death of his father, Jesse, in 1926, Al Booth ran the farm in bachelor independence, taking, as a matter of course, the good-natured chaff of his widespread circle of friends on why such an eligible single man as himself had never succumbed to the lure of matrimony. Incidentally it should be mentioned that Al is a graduate of Massachusetts State Agricultural College, class of 1917. But, at long last, early this year, he and a pleasant Montgomery women, Miss Eleanor van Keuren, were married after a friendship of many years. The new Mrs. Booth has been for several years, a school teacher in Yonkers and, for the present, has continued with her work.
Two Other Brothers Besides Al and Miss Dolly, there are two other brothers—Pierson, a civil engineer who lives with his family in Warwick and J. Wellington, of Scranton, PA. Like his father before him, Al Booth has always been actively interested in such farmer-operated organizations as the Dairymen's League and G. L. F. Cooperative.Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Booth Family