Edmund “E” BUTLER was born about 1694 at a currently unknown location (possibly Ireland or of Irish ancestry). He died between 27 April and 27 September 1747 in Southam Parish, Goochland County (area later became Cumberland County), Virginia at home on the family farm. He married Frances COOKE, daughter of Abraham COOKE, Sr. and Martha CLAYTON/CLEATON of Virginia, about 1725. Frances was born 1704 in Virginia. She died between 1773 and 1783 in Southam Parish, Goochland County, Virginia at home on the family farm.
Their children:
1) Aaron BUTLER, b. June 1726, Goochland County, Virginia; d. between October 1776 and 24 March 1777, Cumberland County, Virginia at home on the family farm He was married 1746 in Goochland County, Virginia. His wife’s name is believed to be Susanna(h) WILLIAMS. Aaron’s will was proved in Cumberland County, Virginia on 24 March 1777.
2) Frances BUTLER, b. about 1727, Virginia
3) Edmund BUTLER II, b. about 1728, Goochland County, Virginia; d. 1801, Hancock County, Georgia He married Mary “Polly” STREET.
4) John BUTLER, Brigadier General, b. about 1729, Goochland County, Virginia; d. about 1785, " Mt. Pleasant" Plantation, Orange County, North Carolina His will was written 20 May 1785. He married Anne ARMSTRONG, of either Virginia or North Carolina. For many years, John BUTLER was the Sheriff of Orange County, North Carolina. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a Brigadier General for North Carolina.
5) Nancy Ann BUTLER, b. Between 1738 and 1742, Goochland County, Virginia; d. about 1783 in Georgia Nancy married John Henry LOWE Jr. about 1755 in Virginia. John was born in 1736 and died 1820 in Washington County, Georgia. John Henry Lowe Jr. served in the American Revolution as attested to by the following document. "State of Georgia, Wilkes County.- This is to certify that John Lowe hath steadfastly done his duty from the time of passing an Act at Augusta, to wit, on the 20th of August 1781 until the total expulsion of the British from this state: and the said John Lowe can not to my knowledge or belief be convicted of plundering or distressing the country: and is therefor under the said Act, entitled to a Bounty of two hundred and fifty acres of good land free from taxes for ten years. Given under my hand at Savannah this day of February 1784. Elijah Clark, Colonel, By his order, H. Freeman".
6) William “the Regulator” BUTLER, b. about 1740, Goochland County County, Virginia; d. 9 November 1790, Edgefield County, South Carolina About 1765 before magistrate Richard Bibb of Prince Edward County, Virginia, he married Phoebe/Feby CHILDRESS/CHILDERS. In 1766, William, who is listed as being of Cumberland County, Virginia, sold 100 acres of land he inherited from his father. He and his brother John sold Cumberland County, Virginia land they each owned in 1767 to John PIGG. We know William was living in Orange County, North Carolina by November 1766 because his mother wrote him a letter there that was delivered by Rev. Henry PATILLO. William was infamous in his day as one of the leaders of the North Carolina Regulators in Orange County. King George offered a reward of 1000 acres of land and 100 pounds sterling for the capture, dead or alive, of William BUTLER because of his leadership role in a tax revolt and rebellion against dishonest civic leaders. Local citizens and later historians called the Regulators patriots, much like the Sons of Liberty in Massachusetts. Part of William’s story is included in the presentation at the National Park Building in North Carolina at the site of the “Battle of Alamance” which took place in May 1771. Although William died in South Carolina, he never lived there. For his participation in the Revolutionary War, William received a land grant located in Edgefield County, South Carolina. He went there with one of his sons to check out his new property and look into the possibility of moving his family to this location. While on this trip he died.
7) Hannah BUTLER, b. about 1741, Goochland County, Virginia; d. possibly Hancock County, Georgia Hannah married Joseph BARKSDALE.
8) Unknown daughter, b. about 1744, married William WATSON, Jr. From family correspondence between William and his mother and siblings, we know the WATSON’s lived in Charlotte, either Virginia or North Carolina. They took care of one of William's sons, during the time William was in hiding after the King of England put a price on his head.
Following is a transcription of Edmund’s will which was written 27 April 1747. His will was proved 17 September 1747 in Goochland County, Virginia.
"In the name of God Amen
I Edmond Butler of the Parish of Southam in the County of Goochland being very sick and weak but in perfect sense and memory hath thought it fit to constitute and ordain this to be my last Will and Testament and I do appoint my well beloved Wife Frances Butler whole and sole executrix, and for my worldly goods I desire they may be left in manner and form as followeth after my lawful debts are paid- viz-
Item- I give and bequeath to my well beloved wife Frances Butler all of my moveable estate to raise my children on, and after to be at her disposal.
Item- I give and bequeath to my son Aaron Butler one hundred and forty seven acres of land at the lower end of my survey to be laid off in a regular form to him and his heirs forever.
Item- I give and bequeath to my son John Butler one hundred acres of land joyning the line of the above said Aaron to him and his heirs forever.
Item- I give and bequeath to my son Edmund Butler one hundred acres of the land joyning the line of the above John Butler to him and his heirs forever.
Item- I give and bequeath to my son William Butler one hundred acres of land whereon the plantation I now live on to him and his heirs forever.
In Witness whereof I have Set my hand and Seal this twenty seventh day of April 1747."
Chas [Charles] Anderson, Chas [Charles] Cotrill, Wm. [William] Cooke Edmund (E) Butler
[Marked with his “E” - two small c’s, one on top of the other.]
I descend through Edmund and Frances Butler’s youngest son, William “the Regulator” Butler and his wife Phoebe Childress/Childers.
William “the Regulator” BUTLER (Edmund “E”) and Phoebe/Feby CHILDRESS/CHILDERS, daughter of Henry CHILDRESS/CHILDERS and Mary FARMER, b: 1747 in Hanover County, Virginia; d. 26 January 1831 at the home of her son James BUTLER and his wife Charity LOWE in Simpson County, Kentucky; buried 16 January 1831 at the LOWE’s burying ground in Franklin, Simpson County, Kentucky
William was a well educated man who was fluent in Latin. With his level of education and support from his brother John, the Sheriff of Orange County, William managed to get himself appointed as the tax collector for the area in North Carolina where he lived. He helped further the cause of the Regulators by simply not collecting taxes. William and Phoebe had nine children. Phoebe lived a long time following her husband’s death. All except one of her children, William, moved to Tennessee or Kentucky. She moved with several of her children from North Carolina to Kentucky. For a number of years she lived with her daughter Frances “Fanny” and Fanny’s husband Joseph William PLUMMER. [My uncle William provided a number of original letters and documents to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill dealing with correspondence to and from William “the Regulator”, his mother, and his siblings, plus letters to and from Phoebe and her children in correspondence with her son William who remained in North Carolina. Additional information about William “the Regulator” BUTLER and his involvement in the Regulator Movement can be found in the book Breaking Loose Together by Marjoleine Kars published in 2002 by The University of North Carolina Press.]
Their children:
1) Elizabeth BUTLER b. 1766 in Cumberland County, Virginia; d. before September 1825 in Moury County, Tennessee On 5 April 1785 in Rowan County, North Carolina, she married James McCONNELL/McKONNELL. About 1818, they moved to Tennessee.
2) John BUTLER b. 1768 in Orange County, North Carolina He married Nancy. [There is a great deal of confusion between this John and a Jonathan L. BUTLER IV. Jonathan L. BUTLER IV is shown by some researchers as John Landon BUTLER, son of John BUTLER III. Both John BUTLER and Jonathan or John Landon BUTLER IV appear to be born around the same time. Jonathan/John is born in Richmond County, Virginia. Many researchers have attached the same wives, marriages, and children to each of these men. John BUTLER is sometimes shown with wife Nancy KNOX, occasionally listed as Nancy/Jessie KNOX. Frequently this first wife for John BUTLER is listed simply as Jessie. Jessie KNOX is also shown as the first wife of the John or Jonathan that is the son of John/Jonathan Butler III. Those that show Jessie KNOX as the first wife of either of these men frequently show Mary Ann JONES, daughter of Seaborn JONES, as their second wife. Some Jonathan L. BUTLER IV researchers only show the Mary Ann JONES marriage. Yet, they attribute all the children found under the two wives by the other researchers, to this single marriage. Originally our research only showed a Nancy with unknown last name. Recently we have uncovered a marriage between John BUTLER and Nancy CANNADAY which took place 15 September 1787 in Halifax County, Virginia. Heil CANNADAY was the bondsman for this event. It is possible this is the marriage for the above John BUTLER and simply facts were confused between these two men. Or the above John may have married in North Carolina in a yet undiscovered union there. Both families need more research to sort out the discrepancies.]
3) William BUTLER b. 2 October 1770 near Deep River community, Randolph County, North Carolina; d. 12/17 March 1833 at home on the Butler farm in Iredell County, North Carolina, location near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community on Highway 2 His first marriage took place 11 February 1799, when he wed Anna GOODEN. His second marriage was held 3 May 1804 when he exchanged vows with Elizabeth BEAN. Both of his marriages took place in Rowan County, North Carolina.
4) James BUTLER b. 1772 in Maryland (His father was hiding out in Maryland at this time. If Phoebe was with him, this is where James was born.); d. 1835, Simpson County, Kentucky On 1 March 1802 he married Charity LOWE in Logan County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of William LOWE, a Revolutionary War soldier, and Margaret FARR. Charity was born 12/13 January 1782, Goochland County, North Carolina and died 25 April 1851 in North Pigeon, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. In the fall of 1796, her family became the first white settlers in what is now Simpson County, Kentucky.
5) Edmund/Edmond BUTLER b. about 1774 in Virginia (Source: Census of 1850 Simpson Co., Kentucky.); d. May 1850 in Simpson County, Kentucky His first marriage was to Polly STEELE 19 July 1808 in Warren County (later became Simpson County), Kentucky. He married, second, Mary Jane “Polly” JENNETT about 1815.
6) Samuel BUTLER b. 1776 in Rowan County, North Carolina; d. 26 January 1828 in Lincoln County, Tennessee He married 26 December 1797 to Naomi CHILDRESS in Prince William County, Virginia.
7) Thomas BUTLER b. 1778 in North Carolina; d. 1826 probably in Kentucky He married Susannah ELLIS, daughter of Christopher ELLIS and Rebecca IRVING in Rowan County, North Carolina sometime in the 1790’s. We think Susannah ELLIS passed away prior to October 1802. We believe he had a second marriage to Polly SMITH on 21 October 1802 in Rowan County, North Carolina. He moved with his family to Simpson County, Kentucky.
8) Aaron BUTLER, b. about 1780/1782, North Carolina; d. 26 April 1848, Fountainhead, Sumner County, Tennessee Aaron married 11 February 1805 in Sumner County, Tennessee to Rosanna(h) BRACKEN. They had six children, four boys and two girls. Aaron wrote his will 13 September 1845. It was probated after his death in Sumner County, Tennessee.
9) Frances “Fanny” BUTLER b. 11 November 1784, North Carolina; d. 9 November 1855 Simpson County, Kentucky On 20 February 1807 in Logan County, Kentucky, Frances married Joseph William Plummer. After Phoebe, Fanny’s mother, was widowed, she lived with her daughter and son-in-law’s family for many years.
I descend through William and Phoebe Butler’s son William and his second wife Elizabeth Bean.
William BUTLER (William “the Regulator”, Edmund “E”) and Elizabeth BEAN, daughter of Thomas BEAN and Rachel (maiden name unknown at this time) b. 20 April 1781 in Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 5 March 1838 in Pettis County, Missouri Her estate was probated 10 August 1838 in Pettis County, Missouri. William was a highly educated man who practiced farming. His marriage bond for his nuptials to Elizabeth BEAN was signed by his brother, Edmond BUTLER, on 14 April 1804. At this time, Elizabeth BEAN’s father’s will was in probate. When Thomas BEAN’s will was settled the inheritance went to William BUTLER, husband of Elizabeth BEAN Butler.
Their children:
1) Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus “LQC” BUTLER b. 31 October 1806 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 19 November 1886 near Anchorage, Jefferson County, Kentucky He was named for the Roman general, Lucius (Titus) Quinctius Cincinnatus. We know his grandfather was a Latin scholar and we believe his father was one also. LQC became both a Latin and Greek scholar. His first marriage was 23 November 1837 in Surry County, North Carolina to Elizabeth Adeline WHITLOCK. She was born 19 December 1819 in Davie County, North Carolina and died 26 June 1843 in Davie County, North Carolina. They had four daughters. She and two of her children died during a typhoid epidemic. One of her daughters had died earlier in infancy. Their second daughter was the only child of their marriage to live to adulthood. Her name was Quintilla Pauline BUTLER. LQC’s second marriage was 23 November 1845 in Davie County, North Carolina to Amelia Elvira PRATHER. They had seven sons and two daughters. He and his youngest son, James, were on a trip that included an excursion to the World’s Fair in Chicago followed by a visit with his two sons that were living in Kentucky when he passed away. His body was returned to the family farm in North Carolina for burial. His tombstone has his full name and lists both of his wives with dates of their marriages and all of his children. Both of my sisters and I have visited the Butler Family cemetery on the farm LQC owned. The KENNEDY family has helped keep the markers repaired. The only problem is it is not fenced and is farmed closer and closer to the area of the cemetery with each passing year. In the burial record it states Eagle Mills Community. This is located at Houstonville Crossroads and now a community no longer exists there.
2) Thomas Bean BUTLER b. 11 September 1808 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 8 April 1820 of diphtheria on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina
3) Rachel Paulina BUTLER b. 27 March 1810 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. between 17 August 1868 and 23 October 1872 in Altona, Bates County, Missouri She married 3 February (or possibly 3 March) 1831 in Iredell County, North Carolina to Enos BEAMAN. Enos BEAMAN, son of Charles “Charley” BEAMAN and Martha CURR(E)Y, was born 1804 in Rowan County, North Carolina. He died November 1851 in Altona, Bates County, Missouri. They had eight children, three boys and five girls.
4) Fabius Milton BUTLER b. 15 March 1812 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 28 January 1849 in Johnson County, Missouri He was a school teacher and an attorney in Iredell County, North Carolina. He handled the sale of his brothers and sisters shares of their father’s estate on 13 June 1833 in Iredell County, North Carolina. Later he moved to Missouri. There he took care of settling his mother’s estate in Pettis County, Missouri in 1838. He married Lucy Ann PLEASANTS in Pettis County, Missouri on 3 October 1842. The marriage bond was issued the day prior to their wedding, 2 October 1842, in Johnson County, Missouri. The two counties are side-by-side. They had three sons. Fabius was buried in Bluff Springs Cemetery, Kingsville, Johnson County, Missouri.
5) William E. Chancy BUTLER b. 5 December 1813 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 5 July 1849 in Missouri His family called him Chancy. He was a school teacher and medical doctor. He moved from North Carolina to Missouri sometime after 1837. [He should not be confused with the William E. BUTLER who was a Judge in Cooper County, Missouri and married Louisa Young in Pettis County, Missouri on 27 June 1837. We have a letter dated 28 June 1837 written in Wilksboro, North Carolina by W. E. C. BUTLER to his brother LQC BUTLER in Iredell County, North Carolina.]
6) Junius Jackson BUTLER b. 16 October 1816 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 8 March 1891 in Yamhill County, Oregon; buried in McMinville, Yamhill County, Oregon He moved from North Carolina to Cass County, Missouri and then to Oregon. He was a piano maker. He married 20 April 1873 in Yamhill County, Oregon to Melinda/Malinda TONEY Payne, widow of Caleb Joseph PAYNE. Melinda/Malinda, daughter of James Patrick TONEY Sr. and Martha Patsey THORNTON, was born 24 March 1829 in Callaway County, Missouri. She died 26 January 1898 in Bellevue, King County, Washington. She is buried in Bellevue Cemetery, Bellevue, King County, Washington. Melinda/Malinda and her first husband, Caleb, had five children, four girls and a boy. Junius and Melinda/Malinda had three children, two girls and a boy.
7) Mary Barcina “Polly” BUTLER b. 16 September 1817 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 1 October 1861, Bates County, Missouri She married Richard Lawrence PETTUS 30 December 1840. This couple had six children, three boys and three girls.
8) Benjamin Decatur BUTLER b. 31 March 1819 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 13 April 1890 in The Dalles, Wasco County, Oregon He moved from North Carolina to Cass County, Missouri and then to Oregon. He married Elivera Josephine McBRIDE, daughter of James McBRIDE and Mahala MILLER, 23 November 1851 in Yamhill County, Oregon. Information about their wedding was printed in the Spectator, McMinnville, Oregon newspaper on 2 December 1851. Elivera was born 3 March 1834 in Boone County, Missouri and died 2 May 1910. Like his older brother, Junius, Benjamin was a piano maker. He also was a photographer, the second one in Oregon. His landscapes and life in early Oregon photos were highly regarded in his day and are considered classic art work for their genre today. They had three children.
9) Elizabeth Loid Carleton Tonehill Bean BUTLER b. 5 April 1821 on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 17 December 1840 On 1 March 1838, she married Robert FOWLER in Pettis County, Missouri. He is mentioned in the settlement of his mother-in-law’s, Elizabeth BEAN Butler’s estate. Robert FOWLER and wife are shown in Pettis County, Missouri in the 1840 census. It does not show any children. It is possible Elizabeth LCTB BUTLER Fowler died in childbirth.
10) Phebe Elvira Childers BUTLER b. 12 July 1823, on Butler family farm near Houstonville Crossroads in Eagles Mills community, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 22 July 1895 in Bickleton, Klickitat County, Washington On 19 February 1838, she married Thomas D. EMBREE, son of Rev. Martillius EMBREE and Margaret HAZELRIGG, in Pettis County, Missouri. Thomas was born 19 February 1819 in Clark County, Kentucky and died 10 April 1852 in Cass County (in 1855 this part of Cass County became Bates County), Missouri. They had three sons and three daughters, all born in Missouri. In 1879, almost eighteen years after she was widowed, Phebe moved west and settled near her brother, Benjamin D. BUTLER, in the Alder Creek area (now Bickleton), Klickitat County, Washington Territory. She was buried in the Methodist Episcopal Cemetery in Bickleton, Klickitat County, Washington. A marker was never erected for her grave.
I descend through William and Elizabeth Butler’s son Lucius Quintias Cinnatius “LQC” Butler and his second wife Amelia Elvira Prather.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus “LQC” BUTLER (William, William “the Regulator”, Edmund "E") and Amelia Elvira PRATHER, daughter of Hiram Henry PRATHER and Anna LOVELACE, b. 21 December 1827, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 7 February 1886 County Line, Davie County, North Carolina Amelia’s obituary in The Landmark, Statesville, North Carolina newspaper was under heading DIED and read as follows: “At her home near County Line, on the 7th inst., of apoplexy, after an illness of five days. Mrs. Amelia E, wife of L. Q. C. Butler, aged 58 years. She was much loved by all for her kind deeds of charity and noble Christian sprit. She leaves an aged husband and three sons, two of whom are in Louisville, Ky., to mourn her loss. Heaven has gained another jewel.” It was barely nine months later when LQC passed away at his son William’s home near Anchorage, Jefferson County, Kentucky. During his lifetime he worked as a school teacher who also operated a farm. In addition, he was a miller and a miner. LQC was a man of many talents. He was a Greek and Latin scholar who studied under the well known Peter Stuart Ney. He was one of P. S. Ney's favorite pupils. It was LQC who Ney asked to come and get his papers after he died and translate them for the world to really know who he was. Unfortunately, my great grandfather did not hear of Ney's death until a year after it had occurred, although they lived only about 15 miles apart. It was virgin country between the two of them and there was little communication between the two separate communities where they each lived. Within 24 hours of learning of Ney's death, LQC immediately traveled to the Foard home where Ney had been living. But, alas, someone had come before him and claimed all of Ney's manuscripts. No one ever saw any of those papers again. My great grandfather, as did most of Ney's pupils, sincerely believed Ney was the great French Field Marshal Michael Ney who served Napoleon. LQC also played the violin. It may have been one of the things that attracted his second wife, Amelia Elvira PRATHER, to him. The PRATHER's were known as exceptional "fiddle" players. Her father, Hiram Henry PRATHER, was considered the best "fiddler" in the whole area. LQC and the PRATHER in-laws spent many hours entertaining themselves and others, fiddling the night away. My older sister has a violin LQC made. The musical talents even expanded into the next generations when Amelia’s brother Hiram Henry “Bowman” PRATHER and LQC and Amelia’s son James fiddled for the delight of relatives, friends, and the entire community at times. Their other sons John Alexander and William Lucius played as well on violins they had made and their daughter Edmonia was an exceptional pianist. The older LQC became the more independent he got. Some called him eccentric in later years. His descendants believe he was simply a genius who exhibited an extraordinary ability as a “free thinker.” He not only used his pet Jersey bull to pull his cart, but he broke him to ride. On Sunday's he would bridle the bull, dress himself in his Prince Albert coat and his high top silk hat and ride to church. He was a complete individualist, at a time when individualism was not as prized as it is today. In a book, Memories of a Country Doctor, this gentleman speaks of "Mr. Butler" with respect and admiration. He states although many considered Mr. Butler's actions strange, there was a lot more behind what he did than most saw or knew. The author speaks of stories about a hidden gold mine and how on occasion Mr. Butler takes his hired servant and they travel off in a wagon, being gone for several days. Each time they come back with what many believed was gold. This doctor claims to have seen LQC and this servant riding in the wagon once with a huge ball of gold in the back, covered by a tarp.
Their children:
1) Mary Inis BUTLER b. 17 September 1846 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; d. 29 December 1884, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; buried at Byerlys Chapel cemetery in Davie County, North Carolina The Cemetery is still there, but Byerlys Chapel has burned down. Mary Inis was only 38 years old when she died. She had married Dewitt Clinton WILSON/WILLSON, who was 38 years her senior, on 3 April 1870. She was D.C.'s second wife. D. C. had divorced his first wife, Nancy Caroline HALL whom he had married on 7 January 1840 in North Carolina. D.C. was the son of William B. “Billy” WILLSON and Catherine KELLER. D. C. was born 30 November 1818 and died 6 April 1901 in North Carolina, aged 82 years, 4 month and 6 days. Strangely enough, when my sisters visited Byerlys Chapel cemetery, they discovered D.C. and both of his wives buried side-by-side with D.C. in the middle. Nancy was the last to pass away. It would be interesting to know the whole story behind the relationships between these three individuals. Mary Inis and D.C. WILSON/WILLSON had 4 sons and a daughter.
2) William Lucius BUTLER b. 11 September 1848 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; d. 30 April 1910, Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky In his youth William worked in a mill and mine. In 1867 his father taught a five month school, which he attended. He developed an interest in books. He wanted to study Latin and law, so he could become a lawyer. When he asked his father for the money to attend school, his father told him "to go paddle his own canoe." Hearing Kentucky had a lot to offer enterprising young men, he joined his Uncle Julius PRATHER and set out on foot for Kentucky. They left North Carolina on 14 June 1868. William had two dimes in his pocket that his mother had given him as he stepped off the porch of the family’s home. Fortunately his Uncle Julius had about fifteen dollars. They walked, passing through Tennessee on their way to the home of Julius’s brother, William’s Uncle Thomas R. PRATHER near Wadesboro, Calloway County, Kentucky. They slept in the woods at night as the weather was warm. They arrived 6 July 1868, a total of three weeks and 1 day after they had begun their journey of about seven hundred miles. William officially joined the Church of Christ at age 21 when in August 1870 he was baptized in Clark's River at Murray, Kentucky. He entered the College of the Bible in Lexington, Kentucky. There he became a Greek and Hebrew scholar. He began his ministry for the Church of Christ in the summer of 1871 when the college sent him on a missionary trip. He traveled mostly on foot both ways between Lexington, Kentucky and the family farm in North Carolina. He preached along the way and held several successful meetings. On 24 July 1872, when his was in North Carolina, he established the Jericho Church of Christ. On that date he conducted his first baptisms into Christ for the following individuals: Mary Catherine KURFEES, Rachael SEAMAN, Quintas BUTLER [his father], Inis WILLSON [his sister], and Marshall Clement KURFEES. This church was where Mary Inis, followed by many of her descendants have been members ever since. When William graduated from the College of the Bible in Lexington, Kentucky, he became a full time preacher in the Church of Christ. William married Alice Beatrice STONE on 3 February 1876 in Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Lemuel Milton STONE and Maria A. McCLANNIHAN, born 4 August 1852 in Bath County Kentucky and died 3 July 1894 in Iredell County, North Carolina of consumption. William’s father, LQC died at this couple’s home near Anchorage, Jefferson County, Kentucky on 19 November 1886 when LQC and his youngest son James, William’s brother, were there for a visit. Due to Alice’s deteriorating condition from her battle with consumption, William moved his family to North Carolina in 1893. He had relatives close by to help with their five living children (they had lost their two oldest children as toddlers). It was at that time he established the Pfafftown Christian Church. After Alice died, William returned to Kentucky to check on the churches he had established there. He met two lovely ladies who were willing to take on the awesome responsibilities of being a mother to five children who ranged in ages from toddlers to teenagers and be the wife of an evangelical country preacher who was held in high esteem by all those who belonged to the Church of Christ. He had left his children in North Carolina in care of family. He returned there with pictures of each of these two ladies and asked the children to pick there new mother. In Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky, on 1 October 1896, he married Lizzie May TALBOT, born 1868 in Kentucky, died 24 December 1964 in Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky. This new family unit took up residence in Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky. May and William had two sons of their own. The oldest died as an infant. When William’s brother, James and his wife, Nannie died just two weeks apart in February 1908, no one in the family wanted the responsibility of taking all four of their children. When William heard the family was planning on separating these siblings, he asked all four of them be brought to him to raise in Kentucky. William’s niece, Edmonia Vasti BUTLER, John Alexander and Lucy Ann BUTLER’s oldest living daughter, escorted the orphaned children on the train trip to Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky. This swelled William and May BUTLER’s family to eight children. William’s two oldest living daughters were already married and off on their own. In August 1909 William suffered a stroke. May took care of William, the children, and the household for the next 8 months until his death in April 1910. Sadly, William lived only a couple of years after his brother’s orphaned children entered his home. This left his second wife, May a widow with their one living child, John Boyd BUTLER, three of William’s children from his first marriage, and the four orphans that had come to live with them just two years prior. May struggled to maintain this family unit, but financial pressures required her to seek help from others. Maggie, William’s oldest living daughter was getting ready to move to California. She offered to raise her Uncle James and Aunt Nannie BUTLER’s daughter, Mary Hunt there. Amelia Inis, William’s next living daughter, had married James Floyd COCHRAN, 28 May 1907 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. She and her older brother who was between herself and Maggie were extremely close. His name was Lucius Quintias Cinnatius BUTLER after his grandfather. When their father died, Amelia invited Lucius to come live with her family in Tennessee. May then asked the church’s congregation for aid. There was an older childless couple, Mr. and Mrs. CLARK, who needed help on their farm. They adopted James’ and Nannie’s second oldest son, John who was then ten years old, with the promise they would pay for him to attend college. James’ and Nannie’s oldest son, William felt abandoned by his Uncle William, the world, and God when the man who had taken him and his orphaned siblings in died so soon after the loss of both his parents. He decided he would rather be on his own than pawned off on another family. Even though he was just twelve years old at this time, he announced he was old enough to take care of himself. From this point on for the rest of his life he fended for himself. For many years he felt bitter about the events that had left him alone at such a young age. James, called “Jimmy”, the baby of the family who was only three years old at the time, remained with his foster mother, Aunt May. The household was now a manageable one adult and four children, two girls and two boys.
3) Thomas J. BUTLER b.21 May 1851 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; d. between 1 January 1861 and 21 May 1861 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina Thomas was born with hydro encephalitis. This caused him to suffer from mental retardation. He was nine years old when he died.
4) John Alexander BUTLER b. 28 September 1853 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; d. 7 December 1904 in Gastonia, Gaston County, North Carolina; buried on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina John joined his older brother in Kentucky, seeking his fortunes in the world as a businessman. He followed in his father’s footsteps and became a miller. He married Lucy Elizabeth YAGER on 24 March 1887 in Henderson, Kentucky. Shortly after their marriage, due to some major business reversals caused by a devastating flood that had destroyed John’s mill, this couple moved to Harmony, Iredell County, North Carolina. They had nine children, six girls and three boys. There was a bridge between the communities of Houstonville and Statesville that tended to washout nearly every rainy season each year. This would make travel between these two areas almost impossible. Finally John and his brother James decided to take the matter into their own hands. One year the two of them designed and rebuilt the bridge. When my sisters last visited the area around 1996, that bridge was still standing, providing a vital connection between these two communities. At age 51, while John was on a business trip, he died of a heart attack. When he did not come down in the morning for breakfast at the Inn in which he was staying, the proprietor went to his room to check on him. After repeatedly knocking at his door, the proprietor entered the room. He found John on the floor next to the bed wearing the clothes he had on when he had retired the previous evening. He had been dead for a number of hours. His widow, Lucy, married a second time to John’s nephew, the son of his sister Mary Inis Butler WILSON, James Butler WILSON on 21 June 1905 in North Carolina.
5) Alice Beatrice BUTLER b. 8 May 1855 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; d. 25 July 1856 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; buried on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina Alice was a happy, beautiful little girl who enjoyed her family. It was a warm summer’s day and Alice was sitting in her highchair eating a hard boiled egg. The men in the family came in to take a break from the heat after having been working outside. Alice smiled. One of them picked her up and tossed her in the air, as they had done so many times before. She giggled with glee, inhaled a piece of the hard boiled egg that was in her mouth and choked to death. At three o’clock on that Tuesday afternoon in July, the family was in shock and mourning.
6) Alfred M. Scales BUTLER b. after 1853 and before 1859 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; d. before 4 June 1860 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; buried on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina
7) Hiram Henry BUTLER b. after 1855 and before 4 June 1860 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; d. before 4 June 1860 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; buried on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina
8) James Augustus BUTLERb. 29 January 1863 on the Butler farm, County Line, Davie County, North Carolina; d. 18 February 1908 at home in Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina; buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina He married Nannie MARTIN 10 February 1897 at the home of her parents, John Henry MARTIN and Mary Malinda HUNT in Little Yadkin, Yadkin County, North Carolina. Rev. R. T. STEPHENSON, a Methodist Episcopal minister, performed the marriage ceremony. Their marriage bond was issued on 9 February 1897, witnessed by Nannie’s father, John Henry MARTIN. James had a number of things in common with his father, LQC. He was a good fiddle player. He too chose teaching school as his profession. He was the Superintendent of Schools for Iredell County for 10 years, still holding that position when he died. And his farm background enabled him to be appointed the first Iredell County Agricultural Extension Agent.
I descend through LQC and Amelia Butler’s son James Augustus Butler and his wife Nannie Martin.
James Augustus BUTLER (Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, William, William “the Regulator”, Edmund "E") and Nannie MARTIN, b. 5 February 1876, Knobnoster, Johnson County, Missouri; d. 4 February 1908, Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina; buried Oakwood Cemetery, Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina Nannie was a fraternal twin. Her twin brother did not survive infancy. Like James, Nannie was a school teacher prior to their marriage. James and Nannie had a total of six children. When Nannie and her two oldest boys were visiting at her parents home in Little Yadkin, she suffered a miscarriage. This pregnancy occurred between the births of her second son and her daughter. Other than that grief, their life together was what every couple hopes for. James was considered one of the up and coming young men of Iredell County. He became politically active in the Democratic party. He was elected the State Senator for Iredell County to the North Carolina legislature in both 1898 and 1907. He was the first Agricultural Extension Agent for the County of Iredell and was the Iredell County Superintendent of Schools. Then the winter of 1908 cast a dark shadow upon their unsuspecting family. James became ill in the latter part of January. The doctor said it was pneumonia. Although Nannie was five months pregnant with their sixth child, she insisted on personally caring for her terribly ill husband. She knew James was fighting for his life and sincerely believed she was the only one who could pull him through. If nothing else, she could draw on their deep abiding love to bring him back from the brink of death. Family was there to help with the children. Unfortunately, in Nannie’s condition, she was more susceptible to James’ infection than she realized. When she fell ill, her pregnancy created complications. First she lost the child she was carrying and then in her grief over the loss and her exhaustion from having worked so hard to save James’ life, she succumbed to the disease raging inside her. When James started improving, he asked for his wife. It was then the family had to break the tragic news that his wife and the child she had been carrying were both dead. James was so distraught he insisted on going on a walk alone to sort things out. Although the family begged him not to go outside, he arose from his sick bed, shaved, dressed and left the house. It was February and there was snow on the ground. In his anguish he did not take an overcoat or hat. When he returned sometime later, he immediately went to his bedroom, put on his night clothes, returned to bed, turned his face to the wall and shortly relapsed. A number of days later, there in his bedroom while being attended by Dr. Henry Long, he died of pneumonia complicated by his personal grief.
Their children:
1) William BUTLER b. 6 December 1897, Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 20 January 1986, Fremont, New Hampshire; cremated and ashes spread on Red Rock Maple farm in Fremont, New Hampshire
William set out on his own at age twelve. He lived with various members of his mother’s family and friends in North Carolina for several years. At first William went to live with his grandfather, John Henry MARTIN and his grandfather’s son Uncle Will, who shared a household. His grandmother, Mary Malinda HUNT Martin had died only nine months prior to his parents. It was just one more reminder of all the losses William had suffered. Then the family thought a female’s hand might sooth William’s anger, so he moved on to live with his Uncle Walter and Aunt Bertha MARTIN for a time. Unfortunately, Uncle Walter suffered from alcoholism. Then he spent time in the home of his Uncle Walter’s oldest daughter and her husband. He also resided awhile in the home of the close family friend, Smith WILLIAMS and his wife. In 1914, when he was sixteen years old, he lied to the Army, claiming he was eighteen, and enlisted. He was in the Army when World War I broke out. He wound up serving in Europe. While he was oversees, he received an anonymous care package from the United States. Inside was a pair of hand knitted socks. Stuffed inside one of the socks was a note from Georgia Louise TABOR. She said she had knitted these socks for a soldier serving his country overseas and she would enjoy corresponding with him, if he wanted a pen pal back in the States. She included her address. William wrote back thanking her for the new warm pair of socks he so badly needed. They struck up a correspondence relationship. When William was injured due to exposure to mustard gas, he was sent back to the United States to recuperate. He wrote Georgia to let her know what happened and they arranged to meet. William and Georgia were married 27 October 1920 in Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Georgia explained she began knitting socks for soldiers overseas after the Women’s Missionary Group at her church had someone from the Red Cross make a talk about the war in Europe and explained the needs of the soldiers serving over there. One day, a girl friend of hers darned her to have the nerve to include her name and address in one of the packages she was sending out. She only wrote one note which she slipped into a pair of socks she had made. That was the pair William received. We truly believe God was answering William’s prayers for a family of his own. Without much education and in ailing health from his mustard gas experience, earning enough money to support a family was a challenge. He moved his bride to Winston-Salem, Forsythe County, North Carolina. William was seeking a family anchor to help build a foundation for his new family. This put him close to his only living direct line ancestor he had left, his grandfather, John Henry MARTIN. Seeking a profession he could handle while continuing to recover from his mustard gas poisoning, he started selling insurance. It was in Winston-Salem their first child was born. Next they moved to Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts and lived across the street from Georgia’s elderly and fragile parents. All of their other children were born in Canton, Massachusetts. Finally they moved their family to New Hampshire and started farming. William would take his own produce to market. As his children grew, so did his farm. Ultimately Red Rock Maple Farm, the family’s home place, was filled with acres of maple trees that he and Georgia tapped every year. They had three sons and a daughter. Their daughter was their second child. She lived less than a day. There three sons, however, became testaments to William’s commitment to his own family. His oldest son became a Commander in the United States Navy. His second son spent 20 years as the Director of Personal for Harvard University before he retired. His youngest son was an attorney in New York City. Their oldest son chose cremation with his ashes spread at sea. Least future generations would forget them; Georgia had headstones placed in the nearby cemetery for her husband and oldest son, both of whom had chosen to be cremated.
2) John Henry BUTLER b. 25 June 1899, Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 12 May 1986, Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky; buried Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky
Mr. and Mrs. Clark were true to their word. When John finished high school, he attended the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky. John’s foster parents paid for it all. He joined a fraternity during his college years. His younger brother, who was now using the name Jim, was a bit of a rebellious teenager. He had run away from the Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky home of his foster mother, Aunt May. He showed up at his brother’s doorstep at the college. John was living in the fraternity house at the time. His fraternity brothers had no objections, so John made a space in his room for Jim. John, however, did require his brother to go to high school while he was living with him. One afternoon while Jim was doing homework in the living room of the fraternity house, there was a knock at the door. Since he was the only one in the downstairs part of the house at that time, he answered it. It was a gentleman who said he had come to visit John BUTLER. He escorted the man into the sitting area and went to the bottom of the stairway. He yelled upstairs, “Hey Bro, there is someone here to see you.” John hollered back he would be down in a few minutes. Jim asked the gentleman if he would care for a drink while he was waiting. He said “No”. Jim went back to his homework. The gentleman picked up the local newspaper and began reading it. Jim kept sensing the man was staring at him. Yet, each time he looked over, the gentlemen seemed to just be adjusting the paper and going on with his reading. Several minutes lapsed before John appeared at the bottom of the stairway. The gentleman rose and immediately went to him. They instantly exchanged warm hugs with each other. Jim wondered who in the world this could be. Then John said “Jim, I need you to come here a minute, there is someone I want you to met.” Jim walked over, offered his hand to shake and said “Hi, my name is Jim, I am glad to meet you.” The man took his hand and said “My name is William and I am your brother. I am glad to meet you too.” That became the first concrete personal memory Jim had of his brother William. William indeed had been starring at Jim over the top of the newspaper he was pretending to read. The young man had called John “Bro”. He kept thinking could this be my brother who I don’t even recognize? No, he kept telling himself. This is a fraternity house and this is just one of John’s fraternity brothers. John graduated with an engineering degree in 1929. He had a job waiting for him as a teacher at New Mexico Agricultural and Mechanical College in Las Cruces, Dona Ana County, New Mexico. Before he left Kentucky, he was married to Mary Louise BROADHURST, daughter of Fred BROADHURST and Minnie Bell RUSH, on 26 June 1929 by Dr. Hugh McLellan at Macedonia Christian Church in Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky. His brother Jim had finished high school and then headed off to Texas to work with a railroad construction crew. Now that John was through college, he wanted to help his baby brother Jim earn an engineering degree too. A few years later, John invited Jim to come to Las Cruces and live with him and his wife Mary so he could help Jim with expenses while Jim attended New Mexico A & M. Sometime in the later half of 1930 or early 1931, Jim had taken him up on his offer. New Mexico A & M and Hardin Simmons College played in the first postseason Sun Bowl football game held 1 January 1936 in El Paso, El Paso County, Texas. The president of New Mexico A & M, Hugh MILTON, asked John to design and oversee the construction of the college’s float for their entry in the Sun Bowl parade that year. It became the Parade’s sweepstakes winner. John was an excellent instructor, respected by the students and staff as well. His reputation as a strong task master, yet fair and honorable man was well known. One spring, a small group of soon to be graduating engineering seniors had to take an extremely difficult math class they needed for graduation and only Prof. BUTLER taught it. This group decided amongst themselves, if they all did exactly the same amount of work and performed at the same level on their tests, Professor BUTLER would have to lower the class curve and pass them all. Much to their shock, instead he failed them all. They complained to the administration. John refused to change their grades because he said they had not shown adequate knowledge of the subject to be working as engineers in the business community. After looking over the students work the administration agreed. All of these gentlemen had to come back and take the course again in summer school, from Professor BUTLER. He was given the nickname “Tuffy BUTLER”. When my sister was a freshman at New Mexico State University (formerly New Mexico A & M), she was called into the Office of the Dean of English who was then Dr. REED. She had only been on campus a few weeks and wondered what she possibly could have done to warrant such a directive. When she walked into Dr. REED’s office, he asked her to sit down. Then he asked if she had ever had a relative who taught at this college. She said yes, but thought Dr. REED might have been referring to the current head of the Music Department, who just so happened to be a Professor BUTLER, and quickly added she was not related to him. He answered no, that he meant a gentleman by the name of John BUTLER who had taught at the College in the 1930’s and 40’s. She responded in the affirmative. He then related this story. “I first met Professor John BUTLER when I came to the college in the early 1940’s. I was told he was called “Tuffy BUTLER”. He looked far more like a then popular newspaper cartoon character called “Milber Milk Toast” than someone who should be called “Tuffy”. I figured the name was a joke. I was glad I found out the truth before I made that mistake publicly. At that time some classes were being taught in old World War I barracks buildings that had been placed on the campus. These buildings did not have heating or cooling. In warm weather fans where placed in the buildings and in cold weather, kerosene heating stoves were brought in. Frequently these heating stoves malfunctioned making the classrooms in these buildings woefully inadequate places of learning. Early one winter morning when Professor BUTLER arrived at his classroom in one of these very chilly buildings, he discovered the heating stove nonfunctioning again. He had made repeated requests for its repair. These buildings stood off the ground enough that each had a set of about five steps and a landing in front of the door to the classroom. On this particular morning, Professor BUTLER told two of his students to ‘Take that stove and throw it out the door.’ The students, one on each side of the stove, picked it up, carried it out the door and down the steps, and place it on the ground outside. Then they came back into the room and returned to their seats. After they were again seated, Professor BUTLER loudly stated ‘I told you to THROW it out the door. Now go back down, pick it up, bring it back in here, and THROW IT OUT THE DOOR.’ After the students had done as their professor commanded, John went down and kicked it to pieces so it would be totally unrepairable. Then he said ‘Now they will have to get us a new one!’ You see, John cared more about his students and the tools they were provided for learning, including their environment, than any other professor I have ever known. I just wanted to share this story about him with you and let you to know what a special man I think he is.” In the mid 1940’s John left New Mexico and moved to the midwest to teach. He had some difficult years. The family that had remained in Kentucky were aging, so John and his wife Mary returned to Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky to farm, raise their daughter and son, and care for those of the elder generation who were all in need of assistance. This included Mary’s parents, Fred and Minnie BROADHURST, John’s foster parents, Mr. & Mrs. CLARK, and Aunt May BUTLER.
3) Unnamed Infant BUTLER b. between 1900 and 1904, Little Yadkin, Yadkin County, North Carolina; d. between 1900 and 1904, Little Yadkin, Yadkin County, North Carolina
4) Mary Hunt BUTLER b. 9 January 1905, Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 7 January 1980, Fort Meyers, Florida; buried Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Mary Hunt BUTLER grew up in Southern California, with her cousin, Maggie Lowber BUTLER Pollack Hawley (Maggie was widowed twice.) as her foster mother. Around 1927, Mary Hunt went back to Kentucky and North Carolina to visit and get to know the family she barely remembered. She married Isaac Burton JONES June 1927 in Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky. They had a son and a daughter. Uncle I.B moved his family to Fort Meyers, Florida. They purchased a Hunting Lodge on Pine Island. This is the business they operated for years. They also planted numerous exotic fruit trees and shipped their crop throughout the United States. It was there, I, my parents, and my younger sister visited them for New Year’s 1957. We were joined there for a New Year’s day celebration by my Uncle John and Aunt Gertrude COUMBE GLASS, my mother’s sister and her husband. Mary Hunt became a Christian Scientist as an adult. Unfortunately her faith created problems for her getting proper treated for the diabetes she developed later in life. Complications from diabetes were the ultimate cause of her death.
5) James Augustus “Jim” BUTLER II b. 1 January 1907, Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina; d. 4 April 1982, Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona; buried 8 April 1982, Rose Hills Cemetery, Whittier, Los Angeles County, California.
Known as “Baby Jimmy” all his life by the family living in North Carolina, Jim had been the infant child of Nannie MARTIN and James BUTLER when they died. He had turned 11 months old just days before his mother died. It was only two weeks later that his father passed away. He must have been under the care of his cousin Edmonia Vasti BUTLER quite a bit during this time because the following story is the one Jim shared with his family as being told on him when he was growing up. When he and his orphaned siblings arrived in Kentucky, the three older children were given Kimonos as a gift to use as bathrobes. As everyone was ohing and ahing over their Kimonos, “Baby Jimmy” announced he wanted his “Edmonia” too. He was missing his cousin who must have been like a mother to him from the time his own mother died until he was left in Kentucky with his Uncle William and Aunt May. When Jim was about twelve years old, he nearly died from sun poisoning. Jim was a fair skinned, blue eyed, blonde. He and a friend of his went fishing one summer afternoon down by the river. They fell asleep sitting on the river bank under the shade of a tree. When they awoke, nearly four hours had passed. The shade of the tree had moved and both young men had first and second degree sunburns. The doctor had Aunt May treat the boys with tannic acid. She brewed up very strong tea and used the tea bags to dab the tea over their burns. They continued this treatment for a couple of weeks. The tannic acid worked miracles. It soothed the pain, rehydrated the skin, and helped sped the boys healing. They both survived and unbelievably had no scaring. All of James’ and Nannie’s children suffered a variety of effects from being orphaned. Jim discovered early the “orphan card” was his “ace in the hole” and he played it well. Jim said he was able to get special treatment and others over looked his bad behavior because he was the “poor little orphan boy.” He spent much of his adult life, trying to make up for what he considered the sins of his youth. His foster mother, whom he called “Mother May”, made sure he was properly brought up in the Church of Christ. He knew the bible better and understood it more thoroughly than any other man I have ever known. When Jim was in Fort Worth, Texas working for the railroad, he became a Mason. This was the beginning of many years of service with that organization. When he received his 50 year pin as a Mason, he always proudly wore it. He received his 32nd degree in the Masonic Order when he was living in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. Following he became a Shriner in the Al Malaikah Temple. While working with a railroad construction crew outside of Fort Worth, Texas, Jim had a heavy rail dropped on his thumb. It crushed the digit. The doctor was concerned gangrene would set in if it was not amputated. Jim refused to allow him to cut it off. The doctor explained how difficult and painful his recovery process would be and made no guarantees his thumb would ever be usable again. Jim said he understood. The doctor managed to save it. However, the nail on his thumb had been crushed inward and was divided in the middle. From that time on his left hand thumbnail grew inward toward his bone from the center of the nail, but his thumb functioned. Since he could not work while he was recovering from this injury, he took up his brother John’s invitation to move to New Mexico and attend college. It was there he met Doris Matilda “Billie” COUMBE whom he married 4 June 1932 in Alamogordo, Otero County, New Mexico. Both of them had jobs as teachers the next fall in Dona Ana County. What neither had realized was, due to the depression, New Mexico was not allowing two people from the same family to hold teaching positions within the same county. After they married, this meant one of them had to find another job. Not wanting to ask his new bride to give up her teaching position, Jim opted to be the one to look elsewhere. He got a job in Otero County, over by Alamogordo. He would come home on weekends. Their first child, a daughter was born in El Paso, El Paso County, Texas. Being the depression, jobs were scarce, so Jim watched for a business opportunity to come along which would allow him to move back to Las Cruces. One did. He opened up a confectionary in the lobby of the Las Cruces Rio Grande Movie Theater. Billie would teach all day and then help in the confectionary in the evening, on weekends, and during summer vacation. One night, when the couple got home around 2am, they immediately collapsed in bed. Billie knew she would have to be up by 6am to get ready for school. At 2:30am, they were awakened by someone pounding loudly on their door. Jim answered it. It was two policemen who had come to inform them that the Rio Grande Theater was on fire. Billie was so exhausted she simply wanted to tell them “to just let it burn.” The Theater was saved, but the confectionary suffered a great deal of water damage. Most of their inventory was a total loss and their capital was gone. It was back to the drawing board. Jim managed to get a job with the U.S. Department of Fish and Game. However, the position required the family to move to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. While the family was living in a motel, before they located a home to rent, Jim returned from work one day to discover Billie and their year and a half old daughter unconscious. A gas heater in their motel room had malfunctioned and the room had filled with carbon monoxide. If Jim had not responded to his inner feelings of needing to go home early that day, both his wife and daughter would have died. House hunting became more urgent. Jim and Billie soon found a corner lot residence on Westminster Street providing them plenty of extra yard room. One of Jim’s tasks with the U.S. Department of Fish and Game was drafting drawings of wild life preserves his team had surveyed. After having been on the job for a couple of years, Jim was sitting on a tall stool at the draft table in his office, when the stool slipped on the newly waxed floored and came out from under him. He fell several feet to the floor, landing on his back rupturing a number of discs in his backbone. He was paralyzed from his waist down. The various doctors who examined him all said he would never walk again. Jim thought “I have to walk again. I have a wife and small child to care for.” He spent weeks in the hospital and then months in a rehap facility. Their second child, a son, was born in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah while Jim was recuperating from his injuries. He would place his son on his chest and raise him up into the air for exercise. Jim attributed his ability to walk again to the tenacity and conscientious efforts of his Rehabilitation Therapist. Jim’s unbelievably strong will and perseverance, no matter the challenge, was also a factor in his seemly miraculous recovery. Through his two serious injuries, Jim developed an incredibly high tolerance for pain. After more than a year recovering from his back injury, Jim managed to get a job with a civilian construction company in charge of building an airplane landing strip on Palmyra Island in the Pacific. It paid well because it was an overseas position. After having been out of work so long, Jim needed to rebuild the family’s financial foundation. He was quickly shipped out for the South Pacific. Billie was left in charge of moving their two children and household belongings to Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California. Fortunately, at the time she had a maid who assisted her with the transition. Jim was on Palmyra Island when the Japanese bombed Peal Harbor. The landing strip they were building was strafed several times. Thankfully Jim did not suffer any injuries. When Jim heard war had been declared, he immediately tried to enlist with the army unit there on Palmyra Island. Because of his back injury, he did not pass the physical. It was over a month before Billie knew he was ok and would soon be on a ship headed for Hawaii. The evacuation ship finally arrived at Palmyra Island in February. It took five days for the transit to Honolulu, Hawaii. When those being evacuated boarded the ship, they were told the ship was low on supplies. That night they were served finnan haddie (smoked haddock) for dinner. It was quite salty and was not to everyone’s taste. Luckily for Jim, it was one of his favorites. As it turned out, this was the only thing left in the ship’s larder. Therefore, for the next five days, all that was offered for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was finnan haddie. After Jim arrived home, he never had finnan haddie again. He obtained a position with a Los Angeles company which worked as a government subcontractor. Therefore, the family moved from Santa Cruz to Los Angeles. During the war, every time the requirements for enlisting changed, Jim would reapply for the service. He tried every branch. They all refused him because of his back injury. Then the company he was working for was bought out by Koebig & Koebig Engineering Firm. Jim worked for them for more than thirty years and even served on their Board of Directors for an extended period. Their third child, another daughter, was born in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. Jim joined Elks Lodge 99 in Los Angeles. For several years he was the scoutmaster for the Boy Scout Troop the Lodge sponsored. As Los Angeles grew and the area’s air quality continually declined, Jim and his family looked to the suburbs. Eventually, as freeways expanded traveling possibilities, they moved to Whittier and Jim commuted 35 miles each way to work. He ultimately was in charge of Koebig & Koebig’s Specifications Department. When the Construction Specifications Institute formed, a national professional organization for those working in the construction industry, Jim became an active member. It included engineers, architects, specifications writers (such as him), etc. When CSI began a national certification program, Jim qualified for certification under the “grandfather clause.” However, he felt so strongly about demonstrating his personal expertise, he also took the exam. He became the only double certified CSI member in the history of the organization. This group was the one that wrote the first set of national rules and regulations for the construction industry. They are the ones still doing this today. Jim received the honor of being named a Fellow of the Construction Specifications Institute. When he passed away, national officers of the association flew in from as far away as Washington D.C. to attend his funeral. Members of the local CSI Chapter acted as pall bearers. A CSI scholarship for engineering students attending Long Beach State College was established in his name. The final forty plus years of Jim’s life were spent in the same home. We believe it provided him that security all four orphans were seeking, after so much upheaval had occurred early in their lives. Ironically, the final illness that killed Jim was the same one that had taken his parents from him, pneumonia. He succumbed to heart failure from septicemia caused by the pneumonia.
6) Male infant BUTLER b. about 4 February 1908 d. about 4 February 1908
Nannie MARTIN Butler, was approximately five months pregnant when she contracted pneumonia while caring for her critically ill husband. Her physical condition caused her to go into premature labor. The baby did not live long. Nannie passed away a short time later and the two were buried together.
I descend through James and Nannie Butler’s son James August Butler II and Doris Matilda “Billie” Coumbe.
James Augustus BUTLER II (James Augustus, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, William, William “the Regulator”, Edmund "E") and Doris Matilda “Billie” COUMBE, daughter of Arthur Garner COUMBE and Gertrude Ethel HUGHES, b. 23 December 1905 in Vienna, Fairfax County, Virginia; d. 11 September 1983, Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona; buried 16 September 1983, Rose Hills Cemetery, Whittier, Los Angeles County, California. Billie’s father was a Major in the Army Air Corpse. He served the United States as one of its first Flight Surgeon’s. She considered herself an Army brat. A couple of years prior to Jim meeting Billie, her parents retired to Florida. Less than five months prior to her marrying Jim, her mother died. We know this was an influence on her decision to elope. When Jim entered New Mexico A & M as a freshman, he was closer in age to most of the seniors rather than the freshman. His brother John encouraged him to get involved in activities. He was active in the drama club and became a cheerleader. Being an outgoing, gregarious type, he quickly developed a large circle of friends. It was while he was leading a snake dance (which was sort of a rather long conga line) during a homecoming football rally on the main street in Las Cruces that he met Billie. He and another male cheerleader were heading up the line of revelers. He was perched on the other cheerleader’s shoulders as they wound there way between parked cars and in and out of doorways. He had been banged into door jams and conked in the face with tree limbs, but he considered it all part of the job. Billie had joined the line as it passed along the street where she was standing. As she snaked her way through the various obstacles the line was winding around, she bumped her knee into a parked car. Her knee was throbbing, so she decided to let the group leader know what a poor job she thought he was doing guiding this group around. She gave Jim quite a piece of her mind for not being more careful and concerned about those participating in the snake dance. According to Jim, this was the moment he fell in love with this sassy little lady. Billie was attending college at the Normal School in Silver City, Luna County, New Mexico. She and a few friends had come over to Las Cruces for New Mexico A & M’s homecoming festivities. Jim found out who she was, so he could properly apologize. He asked her out several times. He soon discovered she was quite popular and her calendar was socially full. He could not sing, but he wanted to do something that would make him stand out from the crowd. So he drove to Silver City, about 115 miles, with his wind up victrola (record player) and some 78 rpm records. (They didn’t have any other kind back then.) He set up everything under Billie’s dorm window (she was on the second floor). Then he proceeded to serenade her with all the music he had. She relented, found room on her busy calendar, and they started dating. She was still dating others. Jim decided the only way to insure he did not lose her was to propose. At first she said “No.” From that time on, he would ask everyday, sometimes two or three times in day. If nothing else, Jim was persistent and consistent. One weekend Jim headed to Silver City to make his daily proposal. Billie was out on a date. Jim located Billie and her date. She was amazed Jim would show up when she was on a date with someone else. She told him she expected to be in Las Cruces the coming week. She told him if she came back to Las Cruces on Monday, she would marry him. We think it was just to get rid of Jim for the time being. When she arrived in Las Cruces on Monday, Jim picked Billie up and rushed to the Justice of the Peace in Alamogordo. She tried to explain she was just kidding, but Jim said “a promise was a promise.” They got their marriage license, but had to wait until the Justice of the Peace settled a case he was presiding over. It was a disagreement between a farmer who owned a cow that had been shot by Mexican farm laborer. The farmer did not speak Spanish and the laborer did not speak English. As the farmer told the judge what had happened and the value of the dead cow, the laborer kept repeating “No entendimento, no entedimento.” In Spanish this means I don’t understand. As the trial drug on, Billie began suggesting maybe they should think about this a little more and come back tomorrow. Jim, being afraid Billie was going to change her mind if the Justice of the Peace did not render a decision soon, considered paying for the cow himself. About that time, as the laborer once again repeated the phrase “No entendimento, no entedimento” when the farmer stated how much he wanted for his dead cow, the farmer shouted back to the laborer, “I know you don’t intend to, but you **** well will!” Jim managed to get Billie to wait a little while longer and they were married that day. Billie married on a lark, Jim married for passionate love. It lasted nearly 50 years, only ending when Jim passed away. Billie had a hard time when her “O’Grady”, her pet nickname for Jim, was gone. She had a stroke just prior to their first Christmas apart and was gone a little over nine months later. When they eloped, she was confronted with having to call her father in Florida and tell him what she had done. This was only four months after he had lost his wife, Billie’s mother. She opted to tell her father she was going to get married on July 4th rather than tell him she was already married. That is why the announcements her father sent out gave that date. There honeymoon had to wait until Jim finished summer school that year. They also had to keep there marriage a secret from the community because the professor who was teaching the class Jim was taking, also had designs on Billie. He was hoping she would marry him. He told Jim that if he married Billie, he would flunk him. Jim needed this course so he could start teaching in the fall, so there marriage was not announced until after Jim’s class was over. Then they traveled by Billie’s roadster to visit relatives in Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida before returning to New Mexico. It was August when they arrived in Florida for a visit with Arthur COUMBE, Billie’s father. Jim had changed the date on their marriage license, so Billie would not be caught in a falsehood. He changed the date back after they returned to New Mexico. Also in Florida, while he was showing off his new bride to his sister and her husband, Jim got to experience ocean fishing for the first time. On the dock at Mary Hunt and I. B. JONES’ Pine Island Hunting Lodge property, Jim caught his first really big fish. He had enjoyed fishing all his life, yet this was a new thrill that stayed with him from then on. On there way home, as they were driving across Texas, an end of the summer rain storm came up. Jim very positively reassured Billie not to worry because, as he stated “It never rains west of Sonora.” Shortly after they passed through Sonora, they were hit by a gully washer. The road was a series of dips and hills. As the rain came down, the dips filled with water. By the third dip they came to the water was coming up over the running boards of the car. That is when they turned around and retreated to Sonora for shelter. Their suitcases had been tied to the running boards. When Billie opened her suitcase that night in the motel room, mudding water came pouring out. Nearly her whole trousseau had been ruined. For the rest of their lives together, whenever Jim made a positive statement Billie felt was overemphasized, she simply let Jim know by saying “Yes, and it never rains west of Sonora.” Billie got Jim to attend the Episcopal Church with her. On 29 December 1933 he was baptized at St. James, Mesilla Park, New Mexico by Rev. Hunter LEWIS. Two years later Rev LEWIS would baptize their oldest daughter, Doris Ann BUTLER at the same church. With Billie, her children always came first. Jim adored his children, but his world revolved around Billie. Doris Ann is the only sibling in the family to personally remember living in Salt Lake. She remembers her father rescuing a group of ducks that landed in a pond one evening to rest before they continued their migration south. That night the temperature dropped drastically, the pond froze and the ducks were stuck. Someone call the U.S. Fish and Game Department to inform them about this flock of ducks. Jim and his partner were sent out to investigate. Jim’s partner said they were goners and it was too risky to chip them out of the ice. Jim could not bear to just leave them there and insisted on trying to save them. There were nearly two dozen ducks they were able to get loose from the ice. However, they were suffering from starvation, hypothermia, and terror from the experience. His partner assured Jim they were going to die anyway and he was not going to waste his time caring for them. So Jim took them home in an attempt to nurse them back to health. He placed them in the basement of the family’s home. The heater was there and this area was warm. The maid’s room was also down there. Amazingly enough, most of the rescued ducks lived. As they got better and more active, they began making a mess in the basement. That was when Jim placed them in the dog run they had for the family pet, Whitey. In the spring, as flocks of ducks would fly over migrating to their summer homes, Jim would open the dog run so the ducks he had nursed back to health could fly up and join one of the migrating flocks. The ducks he had cared for would fly out, circle around with each flock and then return to the dog run every night. This went on for nearly three weeks. Jim believed they had gone out and visited with each passing flock, but were waiting for their flock to arrive, because finally one day this apparently happened. The ducks flew out, circled around the home several times and left with the flock overhead. However, Doris Ann recalls that each fall and spring from that time until they moved to California, ducks flying over the family’s home on their migration patterns and one flock which would always pause and circle the house for several hours before flying on. Jim figured they were just stopping to say hi and thank you. Jim and Billie were both athletic individuals. Jim loved to hunt and fish. He was quite an outdoorsman. They both enjoyed hiking in the summertime and skiing, ice skating, and tobogganing in the winter. On one hunting trip Jim was accompanied by both Billie and Doris Ann. Jim spotted a deer and fired once. The deer he shot at immediately fell down in its tracks. He walked over, set his gun down, took out his knife, stepped astride the deer, grabbed its head by the antlers and lifted it up to slit its throat. At that moment, the deer, which apparently was only stunned by the shot Jim fired, arose and started to run off with Jim on his back. Within a few strides, Jim had bounced off. He hustled back to his rifle, picked it up, and shot the deer for the second time. This time he made sure it was dead before he stepped over it again. That was the only deer head Jim ever mounted. It was his memory of the day he rode a deer. Doris Ann vividly remembers an incident on a toboggan when she was still a toddler. The family and a couple of friends were riding on a five man toboggan. Doris Ann was scooted up under the curve on the front of the toboggan. Her father, Jim was sitting right behind her. As the toboggan was speeding down a snowy slope, it hit a large bump and Jim flew up in the air and landed on the soft powdery snow directly in front of the toboggan’s path. Doris Ann was terrified as she watched the toboggan run over her father. The good fortune was the snow was so soft and deep that Jim was simply pushed down into the snow pack and was unharmed. Doris Ann learned to ski as a toddler. She enjoyed this activity with her parents. Billie and Jim both helped her learn to ice skate too. She recollects the year after her father’s accident, Jim created a special carrier for her baby brother from an orange crate and anchored it to a sled. Jim would place his young son in the crate and pull him around the ice skating rink when the family went skating together. James Augustus BUTLER III, Jimmie celebrated his first birthday after Jim had left for Palmyra Island. Billie did not want Jim to miss the experience, so she hired a professional photographer to make an 8mm movie of the day. It included pictures of the family playing on the beach in Santa Cruz, California. It also showed his son taking a large candle out of the center of the birthday cake and beating it to pieces. Doris Ann could hardly bear watching her baby brother destroy the delicious cake her mom had baked. They all ate crumbs. As luck would have it, when Jim received the movie film on Palmyra Island, he was unable to locate an 8mm projector anywhere to view it. He had to wait until he returned to the states to actually watch the movie Billie had made for him. It became one of the prized possessions of the family. Jimmie developed severe asthma when the family moved to Los Angeles and he was exposed to the area’s already growing smog problem. By age two and an half, Jimmie’s doctor told his parents they had to get their son out of Los Angeles or he would not live to age five. That summer Jim’s job took him to Catalina Island on a special War Department assignment for his company. As dependants of an employee working on a government project, Billie and the children were allowed to join him there for six weeks. When the family returned to the mainland, Jimmie’s asthma was significantly improved. The doctor said, whatever you did, keep doing it. During the following year, however, each month the severity of Jimmie’s asthma attacks increased. Fortunately for the family, the following summer Jim was once again assigned to work on Catalina Island. Unfortunately, the war was a year further along and heightened restrictions for travel to and from the island had been imposed. Unless you were an employee working on Catalina Island or you owned property on the island, you were not allowed to travel to and from the island. The family made the critical decision they had to buy property on Catalina. It was a matter of their son’s life. Jim and Billie had made an appointment with a real estate agent on the island. This enabled the family to travel by boat to Catalina Island. On the trip over, Jim and Billie started talking to a gentleman who was on his way to the island to list his mother’s house for sale. She had recently passed away. Before the boat arrived in Avalon, a trip of about two and a half hours, they had purchased the gentleman’s house, sight unseen. Their real estate agent was waiting for them on the dock. He took care of all the paperwork. Thirty years of memories were created by the family’s very special second home. When school let out for summer vacation Billie and the children headed for Avalon on Catalina Island. They did not return to the mainland until the day prior to school beginning again. Jim would commute back and forth on weekends. He also would take his two week vacation sometime each summer. Jim bought a boat he referred to as the family yacht. He explained that Webster’s dictionary said any boat, fourteen feet or longer, used strictly for pleasure was considered a yacht. Jim had a fourteen foot flat bottomed row boat that had been converted to an outboard motor which he used strictly for pleasure. It truly was his yacht. He named it the DJARB. It included the initials from the members of the family: D for both Doris’s; J for both James’s; A for Ann and Augustus – that covered three family members; R for Robin, the baby of the family; and B for “Billie” and BUTLER of course. To pronounce the name, the “J” remained silent. Our island home had a sign that hung out in front, “DJARB Harbor.” Fishing was Jim’s passion and he shared it with the whole family. In 1952 he caught a marlin. Jim’s picture with his prize catch hung in his office for years. The family also spent Thanksgiving and Easter holidays on the island as well. The family owned the home until the mid 1970’s. Jim and Billie sold it after their three children were grown, gone, and only able to visit a little each year. Billie had a major heart attack in 1973. It was a wake up call for Jim. He decided not to put off all the travel he had been promising Billie. Other than family trips to visit relatives, the only major trip the two of them had taken together was for their twenty-five wedding anniversary. They had flown to Hawaii. Their outbound flight left from LAX airport and flew to San Francisco and from there on to Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. When their turboprop airplane (it was before the time of commercial jet travel) landed in San Francisco, mechanical troubles were discovered. Their flight was delayed over eight hours while mechanics rewelded the prop back on the plane. Many of the passengers opted to wait for the next plane the following day or canceled their trips altogether. Jim reassured Billie, with this recent repair, this would probably be the safest plane flying. They were both relieved however when it landed in Honolulu. They also visited the big island of Hawaii while they were there. Billie had lived on Honolulu in the later part of the 1920’s when her father was stationed there. Jim had been there as he transited through Hawaii to and from Palmyra Island. This was the first time they got to visit the islands together. The Catalina house brought in enough money to not only cover some traveling expenses for them, but allowed them to take their grown children and spouses on several trips as well. They cruised the Mexican Rivera, and the South Pacific, traveling to Australia and New Zealand along the way. They even took a river boat cruise down the mighty Mississippi from St. Louis, Missouri to New Orleans, Louisiana. In the later half of the 1970’s, Jim and Billie traveled with a group from their church, hosted by Fr. Albert JENKINS and his wife Nancy. They went to the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany. Then the group went on to the Holy Land. Both Billie and Jim were symbolically rebaptized in the River Jordan. They also celebrated Mass in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jim read the lessons for Fr. JENKINS. Jim and Billie’s three children decided to give them a party for their fiftieth wedding anniversary. The invitations went out at the end of March. Then Jim and Billie went to Phoenix to visit their youngest daughter, Robin. Billie had purchased the material for her dress for their anniversary celebration and Robin was going to make the dress. Robin finished the dress at 3am on 4 April 1982. Barely twelve hours later Jim was dead. It was Palm Sunday. His funeral and burial took place on Maudy Thursday. Fr. Albert JENKINS performed the funeral Mass and gave the eulogy. He mentioned the incredible experience they all had had in the Garden of Gethsemane. The passion and skill with which Jim read the lessons that day brought Jesus’ presence to all who were within earshot. Many non-Episcopalians attending Jim’s funeral were amazed to find the church’s altar stripped and everything draped in black. Several of the mourners remarked they did not realize Jim was held in such regard by his church. The family smiled and thanked them for their kind words, but explained the honor was in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and not actually for Jim. We said if we had not known better, we would have thought Jim had planned things this way. Over three hundred people came from all over the United States, filling the church to capacity and creating standing room only. It was a fitting conclusion to an exceptional life.
I have the great honor to be the son of Jim and Billie BUTLER, James Augustus BUTLER III.