The BOOTH-JANNEY Family
by Wayne E. Arrington, Sr. & Family

John Henry Booth (b: 1868 d: 1904) married Minerva Frances Alice Janney (b: 3-27-1870, d: 11-28-1933) in 2-8-1885, in Stokes Co., NC. They settled in Mercer Co. to work shortly after they married and raised eight children: Flora, Whitten, James, Bertie, Maggie, Rebecca, Emily and Carrie.

John Henry's people were from around Roanoke in Bedford Co., VA. The Booth family had left a little money in the bank of England when they came to America. John's daughter Maggie Pigg received a legal notice telling her if she could prove her heritage, she would be eligible for a portion of the accumulated bank funds. They hired lawyers in the mid 1960s and talked about getting their inheritance, but nothing ever came of the research.

Not much is known about John Henry, but many stories are told about Minerva. She seemed to have been a bit outspoken. Minerva's mother died when she was young, so she was raised and schooled by her father. Her older brothers taught her to fake a toothache to get chewing tobacco for the pain. There are copies of the account ledgers of the general store in Rock, owned by Maggie Pigg, that show Minerva's tobacco habit lasted her whole lifetime.

Minerva played an auto-harp in a band and spied John Henry Booth as he walked into a room where she was preforming one night. She said he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. Her people were originally from Cabell Co, near Huntington, WV, but her father was discharged in Mercer Co., 10-13-1861, from Company "B" of the Virginia/West Virginia Volunteers.

John Henry and Minerva were living at Crystal in 1904 when John Henry took very ill, breaking out in sores all over his face and head. Turpentine was commonly used as a method of disinfectant at the time, so he rubbed the liquid into the wounds. They say that it promptly went to his brain and killed him.

John and Minerva had been saving money for their dream of a better life out West. They had a friend out there with promises of plenty of land to farm, and the Gold Rush was on . . . there were many possibilities. Their dream vanished with the passing of John Henry, so Minerva took their savings and bought a house at Sandlick to secure her family's future.

Minerva remarried four years after John's death, to a coal miner named Jeff Caves who had a car, a big deal at the time. She finished raising her children and when the grandchildren came on the scene they were more than happy to visit their grandmother's house. The grandchildren liked to visit because she wasn't so strict, teaching them how to dance and allowing romance magazines to be read.