JAMES L. BOOTHE.—One of the best known agriculturists of Jackson
township is James L. Boothe, who has been identified with its farming
interests for many years. He was born in Washington township of Clay
county, December 20, 1833, a son of one of that township’s earliest pio-
neers, Thompson Boothe, who was born in Harrison county, Indiana, in
January, 1808, and came with his mother and stepfather, Thomas Wheeler,
to Washington township, Clay county; during his boyhood days. He was
there married to Hulda Thomas, who was born in Kentucky in April of
1808, and was five years of age when she came with her parents to Clay
county. Her father, David Thomas, entered and cleared a farm in Wash-
ington township. After his marriage, Thompson Boothe entered eighty
acres of land in Washington township, and at the time of his death
he owned an estate of three hundred acres, the most of which he had
cleared and improved, his death occurring there at the age of sixty-eight
years. He voted with both the Whigs and Republicans.
    James L. Boothe, the eldest son and second child of his parents' eight
children,—four sons and four daughters, all born in Washington town-
ship,—was reared in the locality in which he was born, and in 1863 he
enlisted for the Civil war in the One Hundred and Fifteenth Indiana Vol-
unteer Infantry, Company D, in which he served until the close of the
conflict, doing principally skirmish duty, and he was discharged as a
sergeant. In the fall of 1866 he moved with his family to Boone county,
Iowa, where he farmed for fourteen years, and returning to Clay county
in 1880 bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Sugar Ridge
township, but in 1897 moved from there to his present farm of one hun-
dred and sixteen acres in Jackson township. From 1905 for two years
he had charge of the county farm, but has since been conducting his own
homestead. His first political vote was cast for Fremont, and he has since
supported the principles of the Republican party, taking an active part in
its local councils. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the
Republic.
    In Washington township, January 24, 1865, Mr. Boothe was mar-
ried to Marian LaSalle, a daughter of John and Harriet (Gilbert)
LaSalle, pioneer farmers of Washington township, where their daughter
Marian was born and reared. Nine children have been born of this union,
namely: Albert M., John T., Harry H., Mary D., Lena R., Jeptha L.,
Blanch. B. (deceased), Holley T. and Harriet H., five of whom were born
in Iowa and the remainder in Clay county.