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Butler Family in census

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Article "The Butler Family is Counted" from SDHS newsletter insert that presents census information to illuminate the lives of William Butler, his three wives, and their children.
19KB; William G. and Emily Butler By 1850 Butler was suffering from financial difficulties stemming largely from the Panic of 1837, when land speculation and federal manipulation of currency caused widespread financial embarrassment even to many who had been quite wealthy. Unable to pay the taxes on most of the property he had owned in Saugatuck Village and environs, Butler moved his family to a farm in Manlius Township which he shared with John Barrager. Others in the Butler family include his third wife, Emily, and ten-year-old James G. Butler, the son by his second wife [Eliza] who had died in 1843. A daughter, Lucy, by his first wife, married in 1849 {see page 431}. Living next door to the Butler-Barrager household is English-born James Harris who had been a blacksmith in the Singapore and Saugatuck lumber mills. Notice that the census taker records that Butler still owns $5000 in real estate. William died as the result of a logging accident in 1857 and by the 1860 census Emily is living in Allegan, next door to the hotel with the Dawson family. She is 51, and, although no occupation is listed, she might have assisted with the household or the hotel.
21KB; Emily Butler died in 1864. 78KB; James G. Butler In 1860 James G. Butler (fifth line from the top) is 21 years old and his occupation is listed as 17KB; After his Union Army service was over James G. Butler returned to Michigan only long enough to marry Margaret Leggat of Grand Haven in 1868 and moved to St, Louis, Missouri, where he was engaged in the tobacco business. In this 1 870 census his occupation is listed as 16KB; In 1880 they had moved to Grand Avenue in St. Louis. James' occupation is listed as 15KB; By 1900 James is listed as 21KB; In 1910 James is 70 and his occupation is listed as 11KB; Lucy J. (Butler) Miner Lucy J. Butler was one of the children that William had when he and his first wife, Mary, first arrived in Allegan County. Lucy had been born in Pennsylvania before the trek west. On June 3, 1849, she married Clement Miner and, in the 1 850 census, the young couple is shown as residents of Allegan with a two-month old son. Clement is employed as a cooper. 15KB; Lucy had three children in quick succession, and died at the age of 28 on September 30, 1856, possibly as a result of complications following the birth of Mary. In this 1860 census Clement and his second wife, Caroline, are living in Allegan Village, with Lucy's three children. Note that Lucy's youngest two children are named for her parents. William G. and Mary Butler. 15KB; In 1870 the couple is still living in Allegan Village where Clement 8KB; In 1880 Clement and Caroline are still living in Allegan with 20-year-old Lucy, still

2023.50.111

No one caught up with the William G. Butler family in the 1830 census. In the 1840 federal census (see pp. 421-424) they are recorded as living in Newark (later Saugatuck) Township. In addition to William G. Butler, the first settler in Allegan County and the founder of Saugatuck Village, the 1840 census includes his second wife, Eliza, and two young children, and two older children from his first wife, Mary, who had died in 1835.

SDHS NL InsertsFamily History1830 Settlement, pioneer era

Winthers, Sally

Digital data in CatalogIt

Butler, William Gay 1799-1857Butler, Emily E. 1808-1864Butler, James Gay 1840-1916Miner, Lucy J. (Butler) 1828-1856Butler, Mary W. (?) 1805-1835Butler, Eliza C. (McKennan)1813-1843

More Butler family information from the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Socierty: "Butler Collection, 1734 to 1910: The collection comprises manuscripts and printed material including account ledgers, correspondence, estate records, land deeds, peddler's accounts, and ephemera, spanning 1734 to 1910. Principal contributors include Jonathan Cadwell (d. 1768), Zacheus Butler (d. 1791), Jonathan Butler 2nd (d. 1855), William Gay Butler (d. 1857), Maria Butler Welles, and Elizabeth Gay Sisson Hubbard. Collection topics include agriculture and industry, itinerant peddlers, westward expansion and the Connecticut Western Reserve, the Union Army, American Indian relations in Michigan Territory, and society in New York and Europe in the 1890s."

This information was OCR text scanned from SDHS newsletter supplements. Binders of original paper copies are in the SDHC reference library.

01/09/2024

10/30/2024