Edwin Butler

Edwin Butler, publisher and editor of the Stark County News, was born at Kewanee, Henry county, Ill., January 9, 1841. Moving to Milan, Ill., he remained there until 1849, when he came to Toulon. Here he attended some of the many private schools then existing at the county seat, was a pupil at the seminary, and completed a four year's classical course at Knox college in June, 1801. During the next winter he taught the " Dutch Island" school in Essex township. On August 11, 1862, he enlisted in Company F, One-hundred-and-twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, was appointed second sergeant, promoted orderly, and served three years. In September, 1863, he was detailed to assist in printing the Athens Union Post in the office of the suppressed Athens Post. On the 17th the first number appeared, and contained a well-written salutatory, from which the following extract is made: "Our first issue of the Athens Union Post will present quite a different appearance to what it did, when Union was not attached to its title. . . . The former editor, Mr. Ivins, probably not thinking that we would want to issue the paper in his absence, took with him nearly all the matenal necessary to give it a genteel appearance." The motto of the new paper was "Our country, may she ever be right; but our country right or wrong." Mr. Butler worked faithfully on the Post until the sudden evacuation of Athens, when he was captured in the office. While with the rebels, he tasted the sweets of prison life at Atlanta, Danville, Richmond; from March to September, 1864, in their notorious hotel at Andersonville; next at Charleston, and then at Florence, S. C. In December, 1864, he contrived to make his way to Charleston with the sick and wounded, who were there exchanged. Once within the union lines, he made the first hearty meal since his captivity, put on a new dress, returned to Toulon for thirty days, and in one week increased fourteen pounds in weight. In April, 1865, he rejoined his command at Greensboro, N. C, and served until July. Returning, he worked on a farm, was elected county surveyor in November, a position he has since filled with the exception of two years. In May, 1869, he purchased Oliver White's interest in the News with Joseph Smethurst; early in 1870, purchased the hitter's interest, but in June, 1882, sold a half interest to James A. Henderson, who, dying in the fall of 1883, left the partnership to his widow. Mr. Butler was married in March, 1883, to Mrs. Maggie Porter, daughter of James S. Templeton, one of the early settlers of Toulon, who returned to his home near Pittsburgh, Penn. In 1872, he with Enoch Emery were delegates to the Republican National convention. ( Vide military and local history.)