Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/511

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midst of a dense forest. They arrived there on 20 March, having travelled the last twenty-five miles of their journey on snow-shoes. Mr. Butler began to think seriously on religious subjects in 1790, became a Baptist in the following year, and in 1800 began to preach at Bolton, Vt. A Baptist church was organized in Waterbury in the same year, and he was its pastor for more than thirty years. He had been the first town clerk of Waterbury in 1790, and had been elected to the legislature in 1797, and he did not allow his ordination to the ministry to interfere with his public career. He was in the legislature eleven years, in the council fifteen years, was first judge of Chittenden county court from 1803 till 1806, chief justice of that county from 1806 till 1811, and of Washington county from 1814 till 1826. He was a member of congress from 1813 till 1815, a delegate to the Vermont constitutional convention of 1822, and governor of the state from 1826 till 1828. His administration as governor was marked by the suppression of lotteries, and by improvement in the state educational system. Gov. Butler was of the Jeffersonian school of politics, and was fifty-three years in the public service, not including the time when he held local offices.


BUTLER, Fanny Kemble, see Kemble


BUTLER, Francis, dog-trainer, b. in England in 1810 ; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 17 June, 1874. He was an accomplished linguist, and had been pro- fessor of languages in several educational institu- tions, but finally adopted the business of buying, training, and selling dogs of the choicest breeds. His ability in controlling and training them was remarkable. He died of hydrophobia from the bite of an animal he had undertaken to treat. He published " Breeding and Training of Dogs " (New York, 1857), an acknowledged authority.


BUTLER, Francis Eugene, clergvman, b. in Suffolk, Conn., 7 Feb., 1825 ; d. m Suffolk, Va., 4 May, 1863. He was for several years a merchant in New York city, where he was secretary of the New York Bible society, one of the founders of the Young men's Christian association, and an active friend of other religious institutions. When twenty-nine years old, he entered Yale with the determination of fitting himself for the ministry. He was graduated in 1857, and spent three years in the study of theology at Princeton, and one year at Andover. He supplied for a time the pulpit of a church in Bedford Springs, Pa., and afterward that of the second Presbyterian church in Cleve- land, Ohio. After his ordination on 16 April, 1862, he preached in the Congregational church in Pater- son, N. J. When the 25th regiment of New .Jersey volunteers was organized, he accepted the post of chaplain, and accompanied the regiment to Suf- folk, Va. In an engagement near that place on 3 May, learning that some men of a Connecticut regiment on the right were suffering for want of surgical assistance, he went to their relief, and was shot by a sharp-shooter and died the next day.


BUTLER, Frederick, author, b. about 1766; d. in 1843. He was graduated at Yale in 1785, and became a resident of Hartford, Conn. He pub- lished " History of the United States to 1820 " (3 vols., Hartford, 1821); "The Farmer's Manual" (Wethersfield, Conn., 1821); and "Memoirs of Lafayette and his Tour in the United States," with'plates (Wethersfield, 1825).


BUTLER, George Bernand, lawyer, b. in New Haven, Conn., in 1809 ; d. in New York city, 13 April, 1886. He came to New York at twenty, studied law, and became an associate of Daniel Lord. He was secretary and legal adviser of the Hudson river railroad company at its formation, and, after the completion of the road, joined in publishing the ".Journal of Commerce," being also one of its editors until 1857. He was attorney for A. T. Stewart & Co. for twenty-five years. — His son, George Bernand, artist, b. 'in New York city, 8 Feb., 1838. He began under Thomas Hicks to study painting, and in 1859 spent some time in Thomas Couture's studio in Paris. In the autumn of 1860 he returned to the United States and served in the National army during the civil war. losing an arm at the battle of Gettysburg. He returned to Eu- rope in 1865 and devoted himself to painting ani- mals. For two years he worked under Couture at Senlis, and spent the winter of 1867-8 in Italy. He then returned to this country, but in 1873 vis- ited Europe again, and was during the ten follow- ing years in Italy, chiefly in Rome and Venice. At this time he met Whistler, who exerted great influence on his work. Since 1883 he has been en- gaged principally in portraiture. In 1873 he was elected a National academician.


BUTLER, James Davie, educator, b. in Rut- land. Vt., 15 March, 1815. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1836, and at Andover theological seminary in 1840, having been tutor in Middle- bury in 1837-'8. He was professor of ancient lan- guages in Norwich university, Vt., in 1845-'7, and, after ordination in the latter year, was pastor of Congregational churches in Wells River, Vt., Pea- body, Mass., and Cincinnati, Ohio. He held the chair of ancient languages in Wabash college, In- diana, in 1854-'8, and in the University of Wiscon- sin in 1858-'67. Smce then he has devoted him- self to lecturing and occasional preaching. His best-known lectures are " The Architecture of St, Peter's," " Prehistoric Wisconsin," " The Hapax Legomena in Shakespeare." and " Commonplace Books." Prof. Butler has travelled widely, and has contributed largely to periodical literature.


BUTLER, John, soldier, b. in Connecticut; d. in Niagara in 1794. He was a well-known resident of Tryon county, N. Y. (a name then applied to the Mohawk region west of Schenectady), and commanded a militia regiment there. He commanded the Indians under Sir William Johnson in the Niagara campaign of 1759, and also in the Montreal expedition of 1760. At the beginning of the war he espoused the British cause, and was made deputy superintendent of Indian affairs. In 1775 he was one of a party of tories that broke up a patriot meeting in Tryon county, N. Y., and was active in the predatory warfare that so long disturbed that part of the state. In 1776 he organized a band of marauders consisting of Indians and white men painted like Indians, and commanded these at the battle of Oriskany in 1777. In July. 1778, he led the force of 1,100 men that desolated Wyoming in the famous " Wyoming massacre," and was guilty of the greatest atrocities. He fought Sullivan in central New York in 1779, and took part in Sir John Johnson's raid on the Schoharie and Mohawk settlements in 1780. After the war Butler fled to Canada. His estates in this country were confiscated; but he was rewarded by the British government for his services with the office of Indian agent, a salary and pension of $3,500 a year, and 5,000 acres of land. Butler's barbarities, though great, have been exaggerated. Some of the most atrocious deeds at Wyoming were due to his son Walter, a major in the British service, commander of a party of 500 Indians and whites, who massacred women and children at Cherry Valley on 11 Nov., 1778. Col. John Butler professed to be grieved by his son's conduct