Emma

Charles Stuart Booth Family Papers, 1828-1863. 1 box (0.5 linear feet).

ArMs A0147

The Charles Stuart Booth Family Papers contain nineteenth century journals and letters. The journals were written by Charles Stuart Booth (1804-1862), a night watchman who lived and raised his family in Williamsburg and worked in lower Manhattan. He and his wife had four children: Horace, Lillian (Lila), Tom, and Phebe. The letters in the collection are mainly family letters written to son Horace while he served in the Union Army during the Civil War, though there are a few letters from Horace to his sister Phebe and her husband, Hiram K. Lockwood.

Charles Stuart Booth’s journals cover his employment as a privately employed night watchman in lower Manhattan during the years 1828 to 1862, with gaps in the years.  The journals are a unique glimpse into the working life of a diligent man over an interesting span of time that included commercial and waterfront development and expansion in lower Manhattan, the Panic of 1837, two cholera epidemics and frequent yellow fever outbreaks, mass immigration, the Mexican War, the melding of King’s County and the City of Brooklyn, and election riots, to name only a few topics.

The letters written to Horace Booth date from 1861-1863, when Horace served as an engineer in the 8th Regiment of the Union Army. Most of the letters are from his sister Lila, though a few are from his brother Tom and one is from his father. Horace enlisted in the army in 1861 without consulting his father, but one poignant letter from father to son attests to the father’s later approval and good wishes. Also included are letters concerning the Lockwood side of the family: Phebe Booth married Hiram K. Lockwood.

Also included are a small envelope of 48 visiting cards that were utilized to decipher some names in the letters. The final items are the marriage book of the donor’s grandparents, Phebe and Hiram Lockwood, a promissory note to a William Booth, an obituary of a Col. William H. Lockwood (likely a relative of Hiram’s), and some brief notes by the donor on the Booth and Lockwood families.

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