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Update: Is Booth Lake named after fugitive abolitionist?

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Editor,

The legendary tale of how Booth Lake got its name has long been accepted as historically accurate thus far (Ginny Hall’s Mystery Place, July 20).

However, there has been some information that has come to light that might shed added relevance and could raise Booth Lake’s stature to national historic importance.

The original story begins in pre-Civil War days, about 1850, when a man with the last name of Booth came to board with the family of Major Jessie Meacham.

Meacham and his family were prominent early settlers who had made their home in the Walworth County area near a beautiful lake. The name of the lake was Rose Lake. Their boarder, Mr. Booth, enjoyed the lake greatly and often spent his days on its shore. The common phrase among locals soon became, “Let’s go down to the lake and see what Booth is about.” In 1873, Rose Lake came to be known as Booth’s Lake on maps and records.

To this day, however, Booth’s first name remains unknown.

More than 100 year later, one might wonder how a transient individual with no known first name and relatively no recognized significance to the area, other than his oratory, could live on in history and have a lake named in his honor.

The answer may lie within ten boxes of records in the archive at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on the renowned orator and newspaper publisher, Sherman Booth.

Sherman Booth gave up his life, fortune and eventually his beloved family when he was arrested in 1854 for successfully freeing runaway slave Joshua Glover.

Glover had been jailed under the Fugitive Slave Act, and Booth had aroused abolitionists to break down the walls of the jail to free Glover.

The Fugitive Slave Act required citizens in free states to send runaway slaves back to their owners in the slave states.

Glover escaped to Canada, but Booth was sentenced to prison for his involvement. However, the Wisconsin governor soon pardoned him.

Despite the pardon, he was again arrested by federal marshals, but broke out of jail and went into hiding for two months. It was the summer of 1860.

The story of Booth’s summer on the lam runs eerily parallel to that of the aforementioned Booth of Rose Lake.

Could it be possible that our anonymous Mr. Booth was in fact Sherman Booth?

Marion Guild
East Troy