This is an oral history complied by Clarence Stewart. It mentions the history of the Booth family. I left all the text intact, but did add some of the notes in parentheses to clarify names and dates and relationships. Please feel free to email me if you want any more info, I have a good amount on the Booth side, but very little on the Murphy side. Uncle Jeff (Thomas Jefferson Booth) said his parents bought the property for $1800 gold from Dr. David Miller, first doctor in Pearl township, who had a drug store in part of the building, which had a hickory floor. Another picture of the log house, with frame and addition, taken about 1890, showing Edna, Pearl, and Wilbur (children of uncle Sylvester - Joseph Sylvester Booth) in the doorway, was given by Daisy Dawson to Mrs. Edna Hoskins (also a child of Joseph Sylvester Booth) , Riverside, California, in 1947. Oscar Morris also has one. Before demolition about 1911, the ancestral home stood near the farms of Uncles Jeff and Syl, approximately 200 feet west of the latter's frame house. Nell Stewart happily remembers visiting her grandmother in the old log house. I saw it in 1909, on my first visit. (Daisy, Nell, and Oscar are children of Martha Jones Morris.) Julia Ann Murphy was born April 7, 1828, (her mother was French). During childhood at Belleville, Illinois, she and four sisters lost parents in a cholera epidemic. She became a skilled seamstress, and did handwork for St. Louis stores. On October 7, 1845, she married William F. Jones, born December 10, 1816, who had come from Lowell, Massachusetts. Martha F. Jones was born May 30, 1848. He (William Jones) died July 7, 1849, of cholera at St. Louis, after returning from the Mexican War of 1846-7. They lived near 9th and Morgan (now Delmar). He was buried in Grace Episcopal Cemetery, 11th and Warren Streets. We have their Bible and an attractive photo of each at about time of the wedding. While Martha was quite young, widow Julia married Thomas Booth, born February 20, 1813, who came to St. Louis from Harrington, Delaware. They acquired land at Chain of Rocks, later sold it to the city, and moved to Mozier Hollow, Calhoun County, Illinois. In 1861, they moved to above farm in Pike County, where subsequent years were spent. He died August 4, 1887, and she passed away October 15, 1899, both buried in nearby Hess Graveyard. They were parents of: Amanda (died in infancy), Lydia (married William Powell), Dora (married George Wheeler), Thomas Jefferson Booth, born June 14, 1864, (married Nova Patrick April 22, 1886 at her home on Bee Creek), died June 19, 1945; Sylvester Booth, married Frances Smith, buried at Caldwell, Idaho; Sarah, married Chas. Johnson, b. November 4, 1888 Aunt Nova was born January 8, 1870, died November 3, 1945, buried in Hess Graveyard beside Uncle Jeff. Martha married LeRoy Monroe Morris, 1871, died February 4, 1909, at 2025 Penrose Street, St. Louis. He was born in St. Louis County, February 29, 1848, died 1912. Dora, Jeff, and Sarah were wed over 50 years. In reporting the reunion of the Jeff Booth family at this two-story frame farmhouse July 24, 1943, the Pike County Republican, Pittsfield, Illinois stated: "No name in Southeast Pike is more honored than that of Booth. The name is part of the story of early settlement on the Old Pearl prairies. Mt. Booth himself, now in his 80th year, remembers well the men who pioneered..." In 1944 I sent relatives copies of an 1874-5 photo of Thomas and Julia Booth family, including L. M. Morris and George Wheeler, each with wife and child. Kathleen Ellis