George Christopher Booth

Born in 1840 in Farmington, Connecticut, George Christopher Booth studied under private tutors and at the State Normal School in New Britain (now Central Connecticut State University) before attending Yale. Following his graduation from the Yale Divinity School, Booth served as pastor of Quinn Chapel in Chicago; Meeting Street Church in Providence, Rhode Island; and St. James’ Church in Kansas City, Kansas. He was also associated with reviving Western University, an institution of the AME Church, in Quindaro, Kansas, and twice served as the pastor of Temple Street Congregational Church in New Haven.

Booth married his first wife, Sara J. Brown, in 1865, and they had three children. Sara died in 1877. In 1878, he married a second time to Penelope E. McLinn, daughter of Charles McLinn, longtime employee at Yale and New Haven community leader; they had three children. The marriage ceremony was performed by George E. Day, professor of Hebrew language and literature at Yale from 1866 to 1891.

The recipient of an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Wilberforce University, Booth served as presiding elder of the Chicago district of the AME Church from 1901 to 1906. He died in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1906.