William Butler was born between 1790 and 1800, perhaps in North Carolina or Alabama. (On the 1880 US Census, one son said his father was born in North Carolina, and the other said he was born in Alabama.) He married Tabitha Bateman in Bond County, Illinois in 1825. William died in Clinton County, Illinois in 1839 leaving two young sons, John Thomas (1832-1914), who migrated to Texas in the 1870s, and William J.(1838-1926), who remained in the Clinton County, Illinois area.