Booth makes mark on city

(Staff photo)

Fred Neuman Booth was a local business man born in Hillsboro, Texas on February 6, 1878.

Booth was a former school board member and owner of Mont Meta Memorial Park. Booth named the cemetery after his wife Margaret Chadwick “Meta” Jackson Booth after she passed away on August 17, 1925. Fred Booth was also president of the San Benito school board and director of the San Benito Land and Water Company.

He was well known not only in San Benito but throughout the Valley as a pioneer resident. In 1910 the first “Ward School” was built. The school was renamed the Fred Booth Ward School on March 9, 1931, in honor of Fred Booth and later, simply Fred Booth Elementary, located at 705 Zaragosa St., in San Benito as the Bobcat serving as the school’s mascot.

Booth passed away on February 23, 1930. At his funeral, pallbearers included Ed Downs, Dr. C.M. Cash, and J.A. Goolsby. Honorary pallbearers were Col. Sam Robertson, John T. Lomax and Judge A.V. Logan.

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