Captain Henry Butler

Captain Henry Butler, son of Justus Butler, the famous hotel-keeper of New Haven, Conn., was born in that city about 1793. When he was of age he married Miss Rebecca Green, grand daughter of Samuel Green, the "Cambridge, Mass., printer." Captain Butler, depending on the accounts of the West rendered by one Bogardus, a pioneer lawyer of Peoria, and Elias K. Kane, one of the first constitution makers of Illinois, left New York in June, 1835, traveled by boat to Chicago, and arrived at Wyoming in the fall. He was followed by his wife, three sons and five daughters, who took up their residence in the double log-house which the captain had built and prepared for them. In later years the brick residence was erected, and here the founder of the family in Illinois died, August 2, 1864, his wife following him to rest, November 30, 1865. In this county two of their children were born, Lucy, George, Samuel, Henry, Rebecca, Mary, Charles, Abby, Elizabeth, Albert, Virginia and Henrietta then made up the family circle. In 1839, William F. Thomas married Mary Butler, and the same day Ira Ward, Jr., married Elizabeth. In January, 1840, Oaks Turner, of Hennepin, married Rebecca G., Elizabeth married John W. Henderson, Henrietta married Thomas J. Henderson, and soon through the list. George and Charles never settled here; the former held a leading position in A. T. Stewart's house, New York city, for years; the latter is a lawyer of that city. Virginia, who in her youth was deprived of hearing, was educated by the Gallaudets; Abby died while yet an infant.