Booth, Hon. John B.

BOOTH

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 11/11/2007 at 22:46:02

The Jackson Sentinel
May 13, 1869

In Memorial.

The late Hon. John B. Booth – Address by Wm. Graham, and Response by Chief Justice Dillon – Resolutions of the Court.

On the 29th ultimo, during the session of the supreme court, Wm. Graham, of the firm of Mills & Graham, addressed the court as follows:

MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT: My brethren of the bar of Jackson county, have imposed upon me the melancholy duty of informing this court that since the last session the Hon. John B. Booth, a member of the bar of this state, and formerly judge of the 7th Judicial District, has departed his life, being it is believed, at the time of his death, the oldest practicing lawyer in the state.

In performing this duty the court will indulge one who was for many years closely connected with him in our common profession, and who knew him so long and esteemed him so highly, in speaking for a few minutes of his life and character, and in bearing testimony to his high personal worth.

Judge Booth was born at Hamptonburg, Orange county, New York, on the 1st day of June, 1792. Having received an academic education at Montgomery Academy, he entered the office of Jonas Storey, at Newburg, with whom he prosecuted his legal studies till his admission to the bar which occurred shortly after he arrived at his majority. Immediately after his admission he opened an office at Goshen, and by his energy and industry took rank with the ablest members of the bar of his native country. Like most other young men of his day he served in the army during the war of 1812. He was for many years one of the judges of the common pleas, and in 1831 was appointed by Governor Throop surrogate of Orange county, and was twice reappointed by Governor Marcy, thus holding this important office till 1841.

In 1851 Judge Booth removed to Iowa, and located at Bellevue, where he continued to reside until his death. In 1854 he was appointed by Gov. Hempstead district judge of the 7th district, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Leffingwell, which office he held one year, and then resigned, resuming the practice of the law, which he continued until his death, having thus been engaged at the bar, or upon the bench, for over fifty-six years.

Judge Booth was interested in the Erie railroad from the time of its inception until its completion was an assured fact, and was for many years one of the most active directors.

The bar of Orange county, with whom nearly forty years of his professional life was passed, was a very able one. When he was admitted the late Hon. John Duer, already well advanced in his distinguished career, was its leader, and among those who were regular attendants upon its circuits were Aaron Burr, the elder Emott and Chief Justice Oakley. In his first trial Judge Booth encountered John Duer, before the able but tyrannical Chief Justice Ambrose Spencer. The late Judge Betts, Judge McKissock, Wilkin, Judge Ruggles, the brilliant Isaac R. Van Duzer, and Judge John W. Brown, who has just closed his long and brilliant term of service on the bench of the supreme court of New York, were the friends and rivals of his middle life, the last of whom alone survives.

Few men have passed a more active life. Though not a brilliant man he was a careful student and close reasoner. He sifted thoroughly every case that was presented to him, and if convinced either that he could not or ought not to succeed, no pecuniary inducement could tempt him to touch it. But when he once believed that the cause was just, he entered into it with a zeal that never flagged. The preparation of his causes was careful, earnest, thorough, and conscientious. I never knew him to enter upon the trial of any cause, no matter how trivial might be the amount involved, without having made thorough preparation, and being armed at all points. Hence the records of the courts where he practiced are the best evidence both of his merits and his success. He was a safe and judicious counselor, and the maxim most frequently on his lips was “that it was a lawyer’s first duty to keep his client out of law suits.” While his manners were peculiar and eccentric, he always showed a kindly heart toward his younger brethren of the profession, and was always ready to assist them with his counsel and experience.

His education and training were received in another school than that of our day, and while we speak of him, although he was so recently among us, we seem to be speaking of one who belonged to a former generation. When he came to the bar Spencer was chief justice and Kent chancellor of the state of New York. John Marshall was chief justice of the supreme court of the United States; Wirt and Pinckney were in the zenith of their fame, while Webster and Taney and McLean were unknown beyond the sphere of their personal acquaintance. His tastes and manners were of the past rather than the present, hence he did not take kindly to the innovation of modern law reformers, and never became familiar with the spirit of our modern practices.

He was a man of great vitality and owning to his regular and temperate life he enjoyed excellent health until a few months before his death, attending as closely to his business and was found at his office as regularly as when in the prime of his life. He did not postpone his preparation for the eternal world until the dying hour, but lived the life of an earnest, devoted Christian gentleman. His wife with whom he was permitted to spend over half a century of married life, preceded him but a few months and on the 18th of February last he was called to rejoin her in the land beyond the river. His last illness was brief and painless, with eye undimmed and his natural force but little abated, with mind clear and faith unclouded he entered into that rest that belongeth to the people of God.

A man forward in every public enterprise, temperate in all things, a model of industry and regularity, quaint and peculiar in his manner; a man of earnest convictions, and bold and outspoken in his opinions, he has gone to his reward, and none either in the church or the community where he resided will soon take his place.