Source: Past and Present of Bureau County, Illinois
Originally published 1906
Pioneer Pub. Co.
Chicago, IL

Transcribed by: Denise McLoughlin
Tampico Area Historical Society
www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

Pages 372 - 375

COLLIN N. BOOTH

Collin N. Booth, who resides upon his farm near Providence in Indiantown township, was born in England, October 11, 1841, his parents being Joseph and Hannah (Cooper) Booth. The parents were born, reared and married in England and in 1842 the father came to America, where he was joined by the family the following year, after he had prepared a home for them. They came by way of New Orleans, where they landed in December, 1844, being there met by the husband and father who brought them to Bureau county. He had located in Providence, having purchased land for which he paid from two to five dollars per acre. This he cleared, cultivated and improved, making it an excellent farm. He built his home in Providence, whee he resided throught his remaining days. At one time he owned two hundred and thirty acres of land near that village. He had nine children, of whom seven are living. The father died May 6, 1883, his wife surviving until 1892.

Collin N. Booth attended school in Providence, although his educational privileges were somewhat limited. His training in the work of the fields, however, was not meager, and he has always followed farming, purchasing his first land, where he now lives , in the fall of 1874. The following spring he moved onto this place and has resided here continuously since. He has eight acres in this farm and before purchasing this property he was the owner of a home in Providence. The farm is a well developed property, supplied with substantial buildings, improved with fine trees and equipped with all the modern accessories and conveniences of a model farm of the twentieth century. When Mr. Booth resided in Providence, it contained three stores, three wheelwright and three blacksmith shops and was a flourishing village, and in 1874 there were one hundred and sixty pupils enrolled in its schools.

On the 15^th of December, 1868, Mr. Booth was married to Mrs. Henrietta (Tyler) Rhodes, the marriage ceremony being performed by Judge Star Smith, December 15, 1868. Mrs. Booth is a daughter of George G. Tyler, a native of Connecticut, in which state she was also born. The family is an old one of New England, having been established in America prior to the Revolutionary war. Her father was born in Connecticut in 1817 and her mother in 1818. He came to Bureau county in 1855, settling in Milo township, where he purchased eighty acres of land which he improved, making his home thereon throughout the remainder of his days. He died May 11, 1890, and his wife’s death occurred April 18,1897. In their family were three children, of whom two are living: Mrs. Booth and Mrs. Julia Ann Booth, of Oberlin, Ohio. Henrietta Tyler was first married to Albert E. Rhodes and they had one son, William Albert Rhodes, who was born May 9, 1863, and married Julia Rhodes. They live in Milo Township and have three children, one son and two daughters. On the 30^th of March, 1864, while serving as a member of Company H, Fifty-seventh Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, Albert E. Rhodes died and his widow afterward became the wife of Collin N. Booth. They have one son, Milton Tyler Booth, who was born October 27, 1869, married Hulda Nelson and now resides in Atkinson, Illinois, where he is now engaged in the hardware business. They have four children, all living. Mrs. Booth owns eighty acres of land in Milo township.

Politically a republican, Mr. Booth is one of the active men in the party and for nearly twenty years served as road commissioner, while for nearly fifteen years he was a school director. His long continuance in these offices indicates how well and faithfully his duties were discharged. He is a member of the Congregational church of Providence, of which he has trustee for twelve years, and his wife is a member of the Episcopal church. Laboring for the good of the community as well as for individual interests, he has ever shown himself worth of the regard which is uniformly given him by all who know him.