The representative in America of an old English family, Charles J. Booth of Pomona was born in Lancashire, Eng., May 16, 1858. His father, who was a schoolmate and personal friend of the famous English advocate of free trade, John Bright, was the owner of a cotton-spinning factory in England, and young Charles was bookkeeper and accountant in his father's factory in his younger days.
Thirty-eight years have elapsed since he sailed from his English home for the shores of America, where, a young man of twenty-three, he arrived at Boston, Mass., September 19, 1881. He found employment at Lowell, Mass., as bookkeeper for J. C. Ayer & Company, the famous patent medicine manufacturers. After spending six years in their employ he came to California, arriving at Los Angeles in 1887, where he became correspondent clerk for the wholesale grocers, M. A. Newmark & Company. In 1889 he went to Pasadena and engaged in the grocery business, conducting a store on Lake Avenue. Attracted to Pomona by its bright future prospects and beautiful and congenial surroundings, he came to this city to make a home in August, 1898, and for sixteen years he and his wife conducted the European Rooming House on Parcells and West Second streets. During this time and later, for nearly eighteen years, he was in the employ of Loud and Gerling, fruit packers, in the capacity of bookkeeper. In 1908 Mr. Booth erected two houses on land that he had acquired in Pomona, and afterwards exchanged this property for his present ten-acre ranch at 1341 East Phillips Boulevard. This land, originally a barley field, he set to Tuscan cling peaches in 1910, and now has one of the best developed peach orchards in the Valley. His success in peach culture testifies to the care bestowed upon his orchard in giving the right amount of water, fertilizer and cultivation, the wise administration of which is of vital importance in producing the best results. In 1918 the orchard yielded forty-four tons of fruit, and the crop for 1919 exceeds this. Mr. Booth started hatching the White Leghorn strain of poultry with a modern incubator, with the intention of increasing his flock to 1,000 or more laying hens.
In selecting a life partner his choice fell upon Harriett G. Eccles, a native of England, to whom he was united in marriage. Their union was blessed by the birth of a daughter, now Mrs. Helen M. Cleveland of Pomona. In religious associations Mrs. Booth is a member of the Pilgrim Congregational Church.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 11/20/08, Pages 705-706
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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