Edmund Booth (1810-1905) forty-niner

Edmund Booth (1810-1905) of Massachusetts lost his hearing and part of his sight by the time he was eight years old. Despite these disabilities, Booth led a full and adventurous life, leaving his Iowa farm in 1849 for nearly five years in the California gold fields. On his return to Iowa he left farming for journalism and became editor of the Abolitionist Anamosa Eureka. Edmund Booth (1810-1905) forty-niner (1953) contains Booth's diary and letters chronicling his overland crossing; prospecting at Feather River, Hangtown, and Sonora; visits to Sacramento, Columa, Columbia, and Stockton; and return voyage via Nicaragua, 1854.