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343 Pebble Knoll
Highland Village, TX 75077
Quinton "Q." Booth was born 16 Oct 1838 in Nansemond County, Virginia, the son of William Alexander Booth (8 Jul 1812 - 7 Aug 1895) and Mary Harrell/ Yeats. 1,2
Another source shows he was born in VA and moved to TN when he was three. When 14 years old he became a blacksmith apprentice with a family in Knoxville. After 6 months/to a year this family told Quint that they were moving to Texas. He decided to go with them to finish his blacksmith apprentice. When the Civil War started he enlisted and met a girl from Mississippi and married her.11
William Navey has his first name spelling as Quenton Boothe and states Quint Booth was born in Nansemond County, VA. He next shows up in Washington County, TN with his father and brother David, mother is dead. He comes to Texas in the fall of 1858. He joins Company A, 9th Texas Cavalry, CSA, meets his wife in Mississippi and he returns there after the Civil War and married her. He then returns to San Antonia and was there in 1870. Then he moved to Comanche County and then to Eastland County, Texas.
Quint is found as having served as a scout at Ft. Griffin, TX with the first group assigned there.
From Recollections of the Great War. The War Between the States, as I Saw It, By A. W. Sparks, (Tyler: Lee & Burnett, Printers', 1901), page 133:
"The complications of battle lines are so varied, and complications too intricate for one to attempt to describe that I will not attempt to describe any position of the constantly changing fronts of the two contending armies while we sojourned in Georgia, during the season of 1864, but will say that our front was upon an average about twenty miles long from extreme left to right and was constantly undergoing changes in curves and angles of varied degrees, to suit the grounds in greatest vantage, to-day the line was measurably straight, to-morrow it might front only a part of the line while the remainder would front on a different angle, so it was the infantry were in trenches in lines not always exact parallels but close proximity in some parts and more distant at other places, like two great serpants they lay, always on the move yet never moving for the lines could be seen at good distance for each line was well marked by its embankment of red clay, each night was a season in which each contending general strove to gain some advantage and each morning showed some new earthworks. General Sherman's tactics was to flank us from our position and avoided to great extent a battle, and his movements were mostly on our flanks and fronts were almost daily changing, and when a line varied and fell out of sight a line of skirmishers was sent out to find them and when they were found the guns told where they were located and a command was then advanced and fought them a sufficient time for our officers to determine their strength and position, this was termed developing the enemy, this part usually fell to the cavalry service and most of the men we lost while in Georgia, was developing the position and strength of the enemy.
It was about the first week in August, 1864, that near Atlanta, Georgia, on our left, the lines of the enemy very suddenly gave way and our command was advanced and were cautious by feeling their way against a line of skirmishers who were stubbornly disputing our advance. We were in a rough woodland and our skirmishers were three or four hundred yards in advance. When by a rouse a Yankee cavalry officer attempted to capture one of our brigade, a member of Company A, Ninth Texas Cavalry. Quint Boothe was his name and he was skirmishing with the enemy in his front and about the time he had emptied his pistol. The officer showed himself from his hiding place in some bushes near by and spurring his horse made directly for Boothe, who upon seeing him so close upon him, spurred his steed to meet him and on attempting to shoot discovered that his pistol was empty. Just before the horses met Boothe threw his pistol at his foe, who in turn shot the horse that Boothe was riding, a dead shot, and again raised his arm to shoot. Boothe's horse fell forward and as the horse fell, Boothe gathered his adversary in his arms and pulled him from his saddle and both fell to the ground, the Yankee rather on top and a life and death struggle ensued. They were both tall, well made men of average make-up. Boothe the taller, but the Yankee the heavier. Boothe from his great length succeeded in turning himself on top, but on turning he threw his leg over with great force and struck it against a sharp rock that projected from the ground just inside the right knee cutting a fearful gash causing that member to become painfully helpless. Once on top he gathered his man by the throat and soon had him limp a prisoner while Boothe held his pistol wrenched from his hand to his head and told him that he was wounded, to assist him to mount upon the living horse and walk before or he would kill him. The Yankee chose to assist his captor to the saddle and Boothe pale and bleeding marched his prisoner into our lines, riding the prisoner's horse and guarding him with his own pistol. Boothe's leg was always afterwards stiff and as he was disabled he was placed in charge of our Ordnance wagon for the remainder of the war."
In 1864 at age 26, Quinton owned property in Birdville, Tarrant Co., TX. 6
Quinton "Q." Booth married Martha Elizabeth Hopkins in 1864 in Mississippi at the age of 26. Their children were:
1. Callie O. Booth (abt 1866 - Unknown)
2. William A. "Bill" Booth (1868 - 1948)
3. John Wilkes Booth (12 Oct 1871 - 3 Oct 1930)
4. Dave Booth (10 Apr 1874 - 16 Oct 1966)
5. Helen W. Booth (1876- Unknown)
6. Salli Rose Lee Booth (abt 1879 - 1 Mar 1923)
7. Charles Franklin Booth (10 Oct 1881 - 1 Feb 1963)
8. Elbert Elamander "Eb" Booth (14 Feb 1885 - 29 Oct 1979)
At age 59 on 11 Dec 1897 he lived in Abilene, Taylor Co.,TX. 7
On 19 Aug 1899 at age 60 he listed his occupation as a farmer.8 He applied for a Texas Confederate Pension #05913.
He died 6 Jan 1908 in Sabanno, Eastland Co., TX at the age of 69,9 and was buried in Liberty Cemetery, Eastland County, Texas.10
Elbert Elamander Booth states that his father told him and his older brother that his father was a cousin to John Wilkes Booth.11 I was told by my grandmother, sister of Quint Booth, that we were kin to John Wilkes Booth and that her brother Quint had visited with John Wilkes near San Antonia many years after Booth was reported killed in Virginia. I have been in contact with members of this family in Texas and they have been told the same story.
Sources
1. Texas State Archives-Confederate Pension Application. Pension application states age of sixty one years old 16th of Oct 1899.
2. Cemetery Visit. Liberty Cemetery Visit March 14, 1998. Cemetery located at corner of FM Rd 569 and Co Rd 376.
3. Verbal interview of Elbert Elamander Booth on Jan. 1977. E E states father was in Confederate Texas Calvary during war.
4. Texas Civil War Pension Records-State Archives. Pension Application quotes Q. Booth stating Company A. 9th Texas Calvary. Served from the beginning of the war until the war closed. Comptroller's File No. 5913.
5. Military Records. Company Muster-in Roll shows Quinton Boothe Pvt. in Capt. Thomas G. Berry's Company, Sims' Regiment, Texas Volunteers, age 23 yrs., joined for duty and enrolled Oct 14, 1861 at Camp Reeves. No. of miles to rendezvous 150. Valuation of horse $120.00 and equipments $20.00.
6. Tax Records. 1864 Tarrant Co Tax List states M. Booth for Q. Booth.
7. Texas State Archives-Confederate Pension Application. Comptroller's File No. 5913.
8. Ibid. Comptroller's File No. 5913.
9. Ibid.
10. Cemetery Visit. Liberty Cemetery Visit March 14, 1998. Cemetery located at corner of FM Rd 569 and Co Rd 376.
11. Verbal interview of Elbert Elamander Booth on Jan. 1977.
©Ron Brothers and Kathy Jo Booth Locke, All Rights Reserved, 2000.
May 4, 2000
