Edmund Booth

Edmund Booth was an extraordinary man, especially considering the difficult pioneer era he lived in. He was born in Chicopee, Massachusetts on August 24, 1810. On March 8th, 1815, at the age of four, Edmund contracted meningitis, and was not expected to survive this horrible disease. After being very ill for three months, to the surprise of many, Edmund survived. Unfortunately, the meningitis cost him his hearing (slight hearing left in one ear), and the sight in one eye. By age eight, his remaining hearing in the one ear had dissipated, and he was now profoundly deaf. Although he was now disadvantaged in a time when disadvantaged people didn’t fare well, he once again proved everyone wrong, by becoming one the most functional people of his time, a legend in his own right. During Edmunds’ life he became a renaissance man, a journalist, a deaf educator, a forty-niner, and a wonderful husband and father. Edmund Booths’ life is a testament to all that regardless of what society dictates, one can define their own destiny in lieu of their disadvantages.

On March 5th, 1815, Edmund’s father, Peter, died of Meningitis. Edmund’s last memory of his father was the sight of two men placing is father’s body into a coffin. Shortly thereafter, Edmund contracted the deadly disease. Edmund’s grave clothes were already made in preparation for him to join is father. As Edmund lay in his death bed, he cried to his sister to fetch wild irises. Edmund believed nature was better than any doctor. The doctor agreed to let Edmund have anything we wanted, as he was surely to die. Edmund surprised everyone by surviving the spotted fever. Edmund’s extraordinary willpower is starting to show at a young age, and will follow him the rest ...

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...azing life stories as a deaf family successfully living on the frontier. In 1880 Edmund was asked to be the first president of the National Association of the Deaf. Edmund declined stating this role could be better served by a younger person. Edmund continued his strong bond with the deaf community. Whenever he would hear of a new deaf family moving into the area, he would go out of his way to find and meet them, and welcome them to the deaf community. Edmund Booth advocated for deaf rights, especially for school children, to the end of his long amazing life in 1905, at the age of 90.

Works Cited

Lang, Harry G. Edmund Booth Deaf Pioneer. Washington D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2004. 1-161. Print.

Clark, Adrean. Adreanaline. 2013. Web Document. 16 November 2013. Web.

MSM Productions, LTD. Deafpeople.com. 2010-12. Web Document. 16 November 1013. Web.