Background
Newton Booth was born on December 30, 1825, in Salem, Indiana, United States, the son of Beebe and Hannah (Pitts) Booth.
Businessman politician statesman
Newton Booth was born on December 30, 1825, in Salem, Indiana, United States, the son of Beebe and Hannah (Pitts) Booth.
Newton Booth graduated from Asbury (now DePauw) University in 1846. He entered upon the study of law and was admitted to the Indiana bar three years later.
In 1850 Booth moved westward with the pioneers who sought gold and opportunity on new horizons. He settled in Sacramento where he engaged in a mercantile and grocery business. In 1856 he returned to Indiana, but 1860 saw him again in Sacramento. His interest in literature and history, and his extensive reading on those subjects, now brought him increasingly into demand as a lecturer and writer. As early as 1862 he began to contribute to the Sacramento Union, a paper wielding a remarkable influence in California during the years 1850-1875.
His strong support of the Union cause at the time of the Civil War, together with his ardent devotion to the Republican party, led him into political life, and resulted in his election in 1863 as state senator from Sacramento, an office which he held for one term. In the years immediately succeeding, he threw himself whole-heartedly into the cause of his party, and helped to carry the state for Grant in the presidential election of 1868. In 1871 he became the eleventh governor of California. He went into office on a platform whose chief feature was opposition to the granting of subsidies to the railroad. This issue was then the source of bitter controversy, but it died down to some extent following the election. Booth's administration was notable for a genuine attempt at economy in public affairs and also by a successful revision of the statute law.
The resignation of Eugene Casserly as senator from California in 1873 led Booth, while still governor, to seek appointment at the hands of the legislature for the unexpired term. In this move he was unsuccessful. His defeat, however, was only temporary; for at the next election the legislature returned him to the United States Senate for the full term of six years. In March 1875 he accordingly resigned the governorship, a position which he had retained even in the face of criticism while he was seeking election, and took up his duties in the national capital. There, he was a member of the committees on Public Lands, Patents, Manufactures, and Appropriations. He died at Sacramento on July 14, 1892, when he was sixty-seven years of age.
Newton Booth was a man of exceptional ability and unquestioned integrity. His strong partisanship, together with his eloquence and literary talent, made him a leader in the political life of California from the days of early statehood almost up to the time of his death. During his single term in the US Senate from 1875 to 1881, he was active in accomplishing the adoption of the silver certificate and the redemption of the subsidiary coins, and secured the passage of a bill for the settlement of land titles in California.
Newton Booth was a member of the Republican party. He was elected as a Senator from the Anti-Monopoly Party in 1875.
Newton Booth was married on February 29, 1892, to Octavine Glover.
