On Sunday, July 12, Mrs. Lovina BOOTH, Tampico's oldest woman resident, will observe her 92nd birthday anniversary. Mrs. BOOTH enjoys good health and is up and around each day working in her home and garden. She lives along during the summer months and spends the winter months in the homes of relatives and friends.  During the winter of 1934 and 1935, she visited relatives in Minneapolis, Minn. She spent the winter of 1939 and 1940 with cousins in Kaetinga, Neb. While there Mrs. BOOTH attended a number of club meetings and favored with piano and vocal selections. She is still greatly interested in vocal and instrumental music.

Mrs. BOOTH, nee Lovina BOWDISH (sic - error: her maiden name is Briggs - Bowdish was her mother's maiden name)was born July 12, 1850, at Charleston, Four Corners, Montgomery county, N. Y. near Albany. She was the daughter of William BRIGGS and Mary Magdalene BOWDISH. She lived at Charleston, Four Corners, until she was 17, when she came west with her parents. They made their home on a farm near Morrison, on the Sterling road.

Teacher's Certificate at 14

At the age of 14 she received her first teacher's certificate, but she continued her schooling for two years and then began teaching. She taught school five months of the year, including every other Saturday, boarding for a week at the different homes. She received only $5 (type is blurred - not sure of amount) a month salary. After moving to Morrison she attended the high school before continuing her teaching career.  She taught eight years before her marriage.

She is  very talented in music, having first learned to play the melodeon while still in the east where she was taught by her father. After coming west she continued practicing on the melodeon, the organ and finally the piano. . She studied music for a year at Upper Iowa university at Fayette, Ia.  She also had vocal lessons and was active in choir work. She taught both instrumental and vocal lessons.

She was married to Horace A. BOOTH of Yorktown, Ill., in the fall of 1879. For nine years following their marriage they lived on a farm east of Yorktown, then they moved into Yorktown where they lived for seven years during which time Mr. BOOTH, assisted by Mrs. BOOTH conducted a store.  They had one son,  Glee Horace BOOTH, who passed away at the age of five and half years. (Feb. 7, 1886-Dec. 30, 1891)

Lives in Old House

From Yorktown Mr. and Mrs. BOOTH moved to Tampico and their home in the old Booth home where Mrs. BOOTH still resides. Mr. BOOTH passed away July 24, 1899 at the Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago.

In 1927, Mrs. BOOTH deeded BOOTH Memorial park to the village of Tampico. The Tampico Women's club sponsored a dedication in honor of Mrs. BOOTH  on July 11, 1930. At that time, Mrs. BOOTH  received two purses of money, one from the Women's club and one from friends.

Tampico friends unite in extending Mrs. BOOTH congratulations and good wishes on her 92nd birthday.