Newton Booth (December 30, 1825July 14, 1892) was an American entrepreneur and politician. Early life Born to Hannah (née Pitts) of North Carolina and Beebe Booth of Connecticut, Quakers, in Salem, Indiana, he attended the common schools. In 1841, his parents Beebe and Hannah Booth moved from Salem to Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1846, he graduated from Asbury College (later renamed DePauw University), in nearby Greencastle, Indiana. He studied law in Terre Haute, was admitted to the bar in 1849, and became a partner in Griswold's law firm. Career Terre Haute Booth worked in his father’s Terre Haute store, then studied law in the office of attorney William Dickson Griswold (1815-1896). Booth traveled with Walter W. Reynolds, from Terre Haute, by ship to Panama, continuing, by ship to San Francisco, arriving 1850-10-18. California Central Pacific Railroad founder, Lucius Anson Booth (1820-1906), a cousin, and New York native, and Thomas Morton Lindley, Sr. (1819-1896), in 1849, began the firm of Lindley & Booth. When Newton Booth arrived in Sacramento, the first cholera epidemic was spreading, and he went to Amador County, where he was sick for some time. The epidemic, reportedly, ended in three weeks. In May 1850, John Forshee, Lucius Anson Booth and John Dye established Forshee, Booth & Co. In the Spring of 1851, Lucius Anson Booth and John Dye retired from Forshee, Booth & Co. In February, 1851, Charles Smith and Newton Booth established a business of Smith & Booth., on J Street, between 4th and 5th streets. Kleinhaus & Co., established in 1852, Theodore P. and David W. Kleinhaus as partners. The firms suffered from the Sacramento Fire of 2 November 1852. Soon after Lucius Anson Booth, one of the organizers of Lindley & Booth, became a partner, and the firm assumed the name of Booth & Co. and continued until 1856, when Newton Booth retired and returned to Indiana, while the firm consolidated with Kleinhans & Co., but the name was not changed from Booth & Co. In 1856, C. T. Wheeler and T. L. Barker were admitted as partners. The Kleinhaus retired in 1860, and Newton Booth again entered the firm. Lucius Anson Booth and T. L. Barker retired in 1862, and Joseph Terry Glover (1832-1886), of San Francisco, became a partner in the firm. In 1869, Lucius Anson Booth was working in SF and living in Oakland. In December, 1871, business was established in