Maud Elizabeth Charles-Worth Ballington Booth

• Maud Elizabeth Charlesworth Ballington Booth
• Born: September 13, 1865
• Died: August 26, 1948

Social reformer noted for her efforts in behalf of prisoners and ex-convicts, was born in the village of Limpsfield, Surrey, England, the youngest of three daughters of Samuel Charlesworth, an Anglican clergyman, and Maria (Beddome) Charlesworth. Her parents were cousins. Among her relations two were novelists of some repute during the Victorian era: her oldest sister, Florence Louisa Barclay, published several works, including The Rosary; and an aunt, Maria Louisa Charlesworth, wrote Ministering Children.

When she was three, the family moved to a parish in London. Both parents were tireless workers for the poor and destitute, and their ideas about the social responsibilities of good Christians made a deep impression on all three children. Like her sisters, Maud Charlesworth received her primary education at home, from tutors, and then attended the Hill House school for girls, in Belstead. Her growing desire to devote her life to helping others received a strong impetus in 1881, when she attended a Salvation Army meeting.

The Army, led by its founder, General William Booth, combined evangelical Christianity with help for the needy and was a response to the social ills that were being exacerbated by England’s rapid industrialization. After the death of her mother, in November 1881, Maud Charlesworth began to attend Salvation Army meetings. Soon she joined Catherine (Kate) Booth, daughter of General Booth, who was directing the French branch of the Army. In Paris and later in Switzerland, Maud Charlesworth encountered the sometimes violent opposition of established churches and individual Christians. Among the Army’s detractors was her own father, who forbade her to continue her association with it.

Despite his opposition, she not only formally joined the Army in 1883 but, in the same year, announced her intention to marry one of its leaders, Ballington Booth, a son of General Booth. She moved into the Booth household and began working on various projects in the British Isles. Her upbringing as a clergyman’s daughter often gave her access to influential people who were otherwise put off by the low social class of many Army members.

When she reached her twenty-first year, Maud Charlesworth married Ballington Booth, whose first and last names she incorporated into her own, to show that she was “his woman.” The couple then departed for the United States to reorganize the Army there. Shortly after their arrival (1887), their first child, William, was born. (His given name was legally changed to Charles Brandon in 1900.)

The family lived in the New York City area, settling eventually in Montclair, New Jersey, although their work was national in scope. They quickly put the Army on a sound financial base, recruited new officers and members, and launched a series of programs that combined the Christian message with social welfare. Maud Booth was particularly concerned with helping deserted wives, prostitutes, and destitute women and with finding foster homes for illegitimate children. Realizing that she must go directly to the source of the problem, she drew on her British experience and organized a team of women Army members who lived in the Manhattan slums and helped the poor, the handicapped, and children.

Maud Booth’s work attracted national attention. In 1895 she was asked to write an article about her slum work for Scribner’s Monthly. By that time the Army had established itself in New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis.

Meanwhile, Maud Booth moved into other areas of service. In 1890 she started a nursery at which working mothers could leave their children for the day. In 1891 she established the Food and Shelter Depot to provide meals and beds for destitute men.

The work of the Booths gained the Army respectability in the eyes of established churches and institutions; by the 1890s Maud Booth was speaking frequently in churches. She also became acquainted with other reformers, including Jane Addams and Frances E. Willard. In her personal life, too, these were good years. She gave birth to another child, Myrtle Theodora, in 1892, and in 1894 was reconciled with her father. In 1895 Maud Booth and her husband became American citizens.

The good times ended in 1896 when the Booths were ordered by General William Booth to relinquish their American post and prepare for assignment elsewhere. When they objected that this would jeopardize their American successes, they were told to accept the decision from London or resign from the Army. After pondering their choice, they resigned.

They turned over leadership of the Army and began to build another organization, God’s American Volunteers, later renamed the Volunteers of America, which was similar to the Army but without any ties with England. As before, their goal was to do good works in areas that were neglected by other welfare groups. Unlike those in the Army, members were allowed to retain affiliation with established churches, indeed were encouraged to, and both Ballington and Maud Booth were eventually ordained ministers in “the Church of God in general” (1896 and 1897).

It was as a member of the Volunteers of America that Maud Booth began her work with prisoners and ex-convicts. Despite several decades of reform attempts, most prisons remained instruments of punishment, rather than reformation, and prisoners had little incentive or opportunity to prepare themselves for eventual release. Maud Booth wanted to help the demoralized inmates return to society by telling them of the strength of belief in Christ. Her visits to various institutions, beginning at Sing Sing penitentiary in New York State, encouraged her to form the Volunteer Prison League (VPL) in 1896, intended to provide a bond for inmates who wanted to rehabilitate themselves. They agreed to pray regularly, follow the Golden Rule, obey prison regulations, and help others, In return they were visited periodically by league representatives and received a newsletter. The VPL quickly spread to other states.

Maud Booth then turned to the problems of ex-convicts, for whom little had yet been done by other reformers. Their greatest needs were for jobs, places to live, and emotional support during the transition to life outside prison. In 1896 the VPL opened Hope Hall, in Flushing, New York. It was a way station for newly released ex-convicts, providing them with clean accommodations, a structured daily routine, and a sense of being part of a community. Soon Hope Halls appeared in other cities, where they filled a gap in the rehabilitation system that was being established by other prison reformers.

Maud Booth was an active member of the American Prison Association, being elected a national vice president in 1918 and serving on the Committee on Probation and Parole. In 1923 she served on the executive committee of the National Prisoners’ Aid Association.

Booth financed her many reform enterprises in four ways: by collections from church meetings at which she spoke; by gifts; by the Maintenance League, comprised of supporters who promised to pay a fixed annual fee—she had cultivated some wealthy friends; and by fees from her numerous lectures and speaking tours.

During World War I the Volunteers redirected much of their effort to helping the millions of men who were joining the armed forces; among other activities, the Volunteers opened soldiers’ clubs in New York City and Boston. In 1918 Maud Booth went to Europe to work with the YMCA, which was in charge of providing the same services that the United Service Organizations (USO) provided in World War II.

After World War I Booth returned to her prison work, but her activities diminished after 1930, when she began to suffer from physical infirmities. When her husband died in 1940, she became head of the Volunteers. She died of a heart attack, just three weeks short of her eighty-third birthday, at the home of her daughter, at Great Neck, New York. She was buried at Fern-cliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.

A major figure in the reformation of prison life, Maud Booth used her talents as a speaker to focus public attention on numerous social problems. She was not a theorist but an activist who believed that direct communication between individuals was the most powerful way to improve the lot of the needy, whether they were prisoners, children, or destitute mothers.

Booth wrote numerous magazine articles on social work, including a series for True Story Magazine (1934). Her books include After Prison— What? (1903); Branded (1897); and Did the Pardon Come too Late? (1897). Her papers are in the possession of her daughter. The standard biography is S. F. Welty, Look Up and Hope! (1961), which may be supplemented with H. A. Wisbey, Soldiers Without Swords: A History of the Salvation Army in the United States (1955). See also Notable American Women (1971). An obituary appeared in The New York Times, August 27, 1948.