History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Caleb H. Booth
CALEB H. BOOTH, one of the pioneers of Dubuque, was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of December, 1814. At the age of seventeen he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1836. In July of that year he came west and located in the frontier village of Dubuque, then in Michigan Territory, of which he was the first mayor. In 1841 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Iowa Territory. In 1849 he was appointed Surveyor General for Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1857 he was chosen treasurer of the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company in which he was largely interested. He built the first flouring mill in Dubuque in 1848 and was extensively engaged in lead mining. As one of the Iowa State Bank Commissioners he helped to establish the branches. In 1872 he was elected to the State Legislature. He died at his home in Dubuque on the 19th of June, 1898, after a residence in the city of sixty-two years.