Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/89

 BUTLER.

BUTLER.

of Dorothea Dix, gave $40,000 to found a hospital in Providence. The Butler hospital for the insane was opened in 1847. Mr. Butler's heir, Alexander Duncan, continued to patronize the hospital, giving fifteen acres of land, the porter's lodge, Ray hall, the David Duncan ward, and Duncan lodge. Mr. Butler died in Providence, R. I., Aug. 22. 1849.

BUTLER, Ezra, governor of Vermont, was born in Lancaster, Mass., Sept. 24, 1763, son of Asaph and Jane (McAllister) Butler. He was engaged in farming in early life, and served as a soldier in the patriot army when seventeen years old. In 1785 he was married and went with his bride through the wilderness to Vermont, where he had built the first house in Waterbury. In 1791 he joined the Baptist church, and in 1800 did his first preaching in the neighboring town of Bolton, later becoming pastor of the newly established church at Waterbury, where he continued as elder and preaclier until within a few years of his death. He was the town clerk, a member of the legisla- ture for eleven years, and a member of the council sixteen years. In 1813-'14 he was a representative to the 13th Congress, and served as county judge and chief justice until 1825, when he was elected first assistant judge. In 1822 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. In 1826 he was elected governor of the state and was re- elected in 1827 without opposition. During his administration he was active in forwarding the cause of education and in suppressing lotteries. He was a presidential elector in 1804, 1820 and 1830, a member of the committee that fixed the site for the first state house, and planned the state's prison and state arsenal. From 1810 to 1816 he was a trustee of the University of Ver- mont. He died in Waterbury, Vt., July 12, 1838.

BUTLER, Francis Eugene, clergyman, was born in Suffolk, Conn., Feb. 7, 1825. In early manhood he was a merchant in New York city, and interested himself in religious work. He was made secretary of the New York Bible society, was active in establishing the Young Men's Chris- tian association, and engaged in the manageinent of several philantliropic enterprises. In 1854 lie determined to devote his life to the work of the ministry, and after his graduation at Yale an A.M., in 1857, and three years at the Princeton theological school and one year at Andover, he preached at Bedford Springs, Pa., and in the sec- ond Presbyterian church, Cleveland. Ohio. He was ordained as a Congregational minister, April 16, 1862, and preached in Pater.son, N. J. In 1863 he joined the 25th New Jer.sey volunteers as chap- lain, and while attempting to relieve the suffer- ings of a wounded soldier of another regiment on a battlefield near Suffolk, Va., he was shot by a sharpshooter, and died May 4, 1863.

BUTLER, James Davie, educator, was born in Rutland, Vt., March 15, 1815, son of James Davie and Rachel (Maynard, born Harris) Butler. He was prepared for college at the Wesleyan semin- ary in Wilbraham, Mass., and was graduated at Middlebury college in 1836. After studying a year in the theological school of Yale college he became a tutor at Middlebury college, and in December, 1838, acting professor. In 1840 he was graduated at Andover theological seminary, and being elected an Abbott resident he remained at Andover until 1842. From June, 1842, he trav- elled and studied in Europe. He was engaged as a supply for Congregational churches in West Newbury, Mass., and Burlington, Vt. From 1845 to 1847 he was professor and acting president of the viniversity of Norwich, Vt. From 1847 to 1853 lie was pastor at Wells River, Vt., Norwich, Vt., and South Danvers, Mass. From 1852 to 1855 he was pastor of the Congregational church in Cincinnati, Ohio, resigning to accept the chair of Greek in Wabash college in Indiana. In 1858 he accepted a similar position in the university of Wisconsin, where he remained until 1867. After a year of foreign travel he spent a winter on the lecture platform. From 1869 to 1873, in the interest of a western railroad company, he explored, studied and described the region tlirough which the road ran. He then took vip his residence at Madison, Wis., and engaged in literary work, lec- turing and preaching. In 1854 he was elected a member of the American antiquarian society, the fifth to receive that honor, and delivered an address before that society in April, 1894, con- cerning the journal of Sergeant Lloyd. He also became a member of the Wisconsin state histor- ical society, of which he was acting president in 1897. Middlebury college conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. in 1862. His publislied writings include Deficiencies in Our History (1846) ; Incentives to Mental Culture among Teachers (1852) ; Nebraska (1873) ; The Aam- ing of America (1874) ; Governmental Patron- age of Knowledge (1877) ; American Pre-Revoln- tionary Bibliography (1879) ; First French Foot- prints beyond the Lakes (1882) ; The Hapax Legomera in Shakespeare (1882); Portraits of Columbus (1883) ; Tlie icords once used in Shakespeare (1886) ; Alexander Mitchell, the Fi- nd ncier (1888) ; Butleriaua, Genealogica et Bio- graph ica (\8S8) : Prehistoric Pottery (1894). and British Convicts shipped to American Colonies (1S96).

BUTLER, John Jay, educator, was born at Berwick, Me., April 9, 1814. He was graduated at Bowdoin college in 1837, and at Andover theologi- cal seminary in 1844, when he was elected profes- sor of systematic theology in Whitestown (N.Y.) seminary. lie was ordained a minister in the Free