Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/90

 BUTLER.

BUTLER.

Baptist church, Jan. 28. 1846. From 1854 to 1870 he was professor of theology in the New Hampton (N. H.) theological school; held tlie same chair in the theological department of Bates college, Maine, from 1870 to 1873, and was professor of sacred literature at Hillsdale college, Michigan, from 1873 to 1883. Under liis forty years of preaching, about five hundred students entered the ministry. In 1834 he assumed partial editorial direction of the Morning Star, the Free Baptist denominational organ. He published : Nahiral and Revealed Tlieology (1861) ; Commentary on the Gospels (1870), and Commentary on the Acts, Romans, and First amX Second Corinthians (1871). He received the degree of A.M. from Hamilton college in 1849, and D.D. from Bowdoin college in 1860. He died at Hillsdale, Mich., June 16, 1891.

BUTLER, Josiah, jurist, was born in Pelham, N. H., in 1779. He graduated at Harvard college with honor in 1803, studied law, and was admitted to practice about 1807. In 1809 he was elected a member of the legislature from Deer field, and be- came a leading member of the Democratic party. He was appointed sheriff of the county of Rock- ingham in 1810, and was removed from office in 1813 by the ascendant Federalist party and resumed the practice of his profession. He was clerk of the court of common pleas, and in 1815 was returned a member of the state legis- lature, and again elected in 1816. He w^as elected a representative to the 15th Congress in 1816, and was re-elected to the 16th and 17th congresses. In 1825 he was appointed by Governor Morrill associate justice of the State court of common pleas of New Hampshire, remaining on the bench until 1833, when the court was abolished. He died at Deerfield, N. H., Oct. 29. 1854.

BUTLER, Matthew Calbraith, senator, was born in Greenville, S.C., March 8, 1836; son of William and Jane Tweedy (Perry) Butler and grandson of William Butler, soldier and repre- sentative in Congress, and nephew of Andrew Pickens Butler, jurist. His father was a physician a naval officer, and a representative in the 27th Congress, and his mother was a sister of Oliver Hazard and Matthew Calbraith Perry, the naval heroes of the war of 1812. He received his prepar- atory education in the schools of Edgefield and at Liberty Hall, and entered South Carolina college in 1854, remaining there until 1856, when he began the study of law in the ofiice of his uncle, Hon. A. P. Butler. He was admitted to the bar in 1857, commenced practice at Edgefield Court House, was elected to the legislature from that district in 1859, resigning the office in 1861 to enter the Confederate service. He served with honor and distinction through the entire war, passed through the usual grades of promotion, and in

1863 received a major-general's commission. He lost his right leg at the battle of Brandy Station. He resumed the practice of law after the war, was returned to the state legislature in 1866, and in 1870 stood for election to the office of lieuten- ant-governor and to that of U. S. senator, but was defeated, the state being overwhelmingly Republican. In 1876, when South Carolina had two legislatures, he was elected to the U. S. senate by one faction, and David T. Corbin by the other, Butler winning the seat after a notable contest before the senate committee. He was re- elected in 1882 and again in 1888. He was com- missioned major-general of volunteers, May 28, 1898. and served in the war with Spain.

BUTLER, Marion, senator, was born in Honey- cutts tovvnsliip, Sampson county, N. C, May 25, 1863. He received the greater part of his preparatory education from his mother, and was graduated from the University of North Carolina, in 1885. He commenced a law course, but the death of his father obliged him to return home to assist in the support of his mother and his .six brothers and sisters. He taught in a local acad- emy, worked the home farm, and saved suffi- cient money to buy the Clinton Caucasian, a weekly newspaper, the only one published in the county. Later he removed the Caucasian to Raleigh, where it acquired a large circulation and became influential. He was elected a trustee of his alma mater. He joined the Farmers' Alli- ance movement in 1888, was appointed president of the county lodge, and became prominent in the Alliance work. In 1890 he was elected to the state senate, where he held the AlUance forces, and succeeded in bringing about a number of much-needed reforms. He became the president of the State Farmers' Alliance in 1891, was re- elected in 1892, became first vice-president of the national organization in 1893, and its president in 1894. Immediately after the adjournment of the Chicago convention of 1892 he severed his con- nection with the Democratic party, and began the work of organizing the People's party, con- ceiving and carrying out the successful campaign of 1894. He was elected to the United States senate in 1895, and in 1896 was chairman of the executive committee of the People's party at the national convention at St. Louis, July 24, where he declined the nomination as vice-presidential candidate on account of not having reached the legal age.

BUTLER, Moses, surveyor, was born in Ber- wick, Me., July 13, 1702; son of Thomas Butler, descended from the house of Ormond in Ireland. Moses is first mentioned in the colonial records in connection with the seizure of logs by the king's surveyor of woods, which aroused such a spirit of resistance that sixty pounds was voted at a