Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

EDWARD BUTLER

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



            Adversity borne with cheerfulness, and hardships endured with 
courage, developed in Edward Butler�s character traits of self-reliance and 
patient perseverance that made him one of the most honored residents of Yuba 
City and won for him the esteem of associates and a comfortable independence in 
the evening of life.  Few pleasures fell to his lot as a boy, for both parents 
died when he was only six months old.  He was born in County Orange, Ireland, 
during the year 1820.  There both of his parents passed away; and he and his 
only brother were brought to the United States by an uncle and reared in New 
York State. Edward Butler later went to Ohio and found work on a farm for a 
number of years and there married.  In 1852 he became a citizen of the United 
States, and the same year joined a party of emigrants and crossed the plains to 
California, where he engaged in mining for three years with considerable 
success.  He then returned to his home in Ohio, where he spent one year, and 
then with his wife and children he returned to California.
            Mr. Butler married Miss Charlotta Baker, a native of Ohio, and they 
were the parents of five children, four daughters and one son.  The three 
children who were born in Ohio and who accompanied their parents to California 
were Helen D., the widow of James Littlejohn; Emily Jane, who was first married 
to George F. Starr, and, some time after his death, was married to A. D. Cutts, 
who is also deceased; and Mary Alice, Mrs. S. E. Wilcoxon.  Two children were 
born in California:  Charles Franklin and Mrs. Ethel Grimm.  The long journey to 
California was made via Panama to San Francisco, and from there by river steamer 
to Marysville.  Mr. Butler located on a ranch ten miles southwest of Yuba City, 
where he bought 320 acres and engaged as a grain and stock farmer with a marked 
degree of success.  In his later years he sold off his land and moved to Yuba 
City, where he owned a small orchard, and later owned and conducted the Windsor 
House.  He passed away in 1893, survived by his widow, a remarkable pioneer 
woman, who is remembered for her fine traits of character.  She handled her 
husband�s business until past her eightieth year, and passed away on August 18, 
1913, at the age of eighty-five years.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p.  551-552