Thad Butler
A vigorous and enterprising Marion business man, whose home has been in Grant County for the past thirty-five years, Thad Butler in the earlier years was prominent in connection with a number of the industrial organizations and promotions which characterized the great boom period of Marion's history. For the past fifteen years his energies have been chiefly directed to the manufacture and sale of musical instruments and music supplies. He has a splendid business in Marion, and also a large store in Kokomo, and his enterprise ahs been an important factor in Marion commercial history for many years.
Thad Butler was born in Wabash County, Indiana, in 1858, and came to Marion in 1878 to enter the employ of the Spiker & Harrison Carriage Company. Two years were spent with that concern, when Mr. Harrison moved to Logansport, and Thad Butler, though only twenty-two years old, took the factory, and went into business for himself. During the ten years he manufactured and sold carriages, he became personally acquainted with nearly every farmer in grant County. Then came the boom period in Marion history, and Mr. Butler turned his attention to real estate. In association with W. H. Wiley, he did much to locate the west side industry -the Malleable Factory and the rolling mills, and all were excellent establishments until fires and trusts consumed some of them, but he Malleable Factory is still a monument to his efforts.
While Mr. Butler has always been an active community business man, it is in connection with the Butler Music Company that he now cares to be remembered. Hs present business was established August 7, 1897, and has proved both profitable and pleasant. Mr. Butler was a member of the Chute & Butler Company, which manufactured organs at LaFontaine, alter moving the factory to Peru, where the Chute & Butler pianos were manufactured. The Butler, Stool & Bench factory in Marion is also his enterprise. For several years Mr. Butler operated a Butler Music Store in Wabash, until he sold it to his brother Tom. He is now owner of the Butler Store in Kokomo which is carried on independently of the Marion establishment. In 1913 the Butler Music Company in Marion placed four hundred and twenty-seven pianos, besides all the sheet music and other instruments handled by the concern. The Butler Store is well equipped, and a competent force is always at hand to look after the business interests of the company. While Mr. Butler is numbered among the original boosters of Marion developments, his efforts in subsequent years have not relaxed in that direction, and the Butler Music Company is not only a prosperous establishment, but is contributing to the larger development of Marion as one of the chief commercial centers in northern Indiana.
While the Butler family is not native to Grant County, it has a fine ancestral history. Mr. Butler is the oldest of three children born to John and Harriet (Wigmore) Butler. Harriet Wigmore Butler died in Marion, October 16, 1913. John Butler, ninety years of age, is still living, and is fortunate in retaining his mental faculties to a remarkable degree. The other two children are: Tom Butler of Wabash; and Miss Winnie Butler, of Marion, connected with the Butler Music Company as bookkeeper. In her effort to establish the line of family descent, in order to become a Daughter of the American Revolution, Miss Winnie Butler made an exhaustive study of both the Butler and Wigmore family history, and as a compliment to her brothers she presented them with copies of the family descent in artistic bindings, souvenirs which they all prize most highly.
There have been a number of Colonial and Revolutionary soldiers in the ancestry, and Miss Butler exchanged many letters with government, state and county officials while obtaining historical data of the family. Her father was born in Maine, and her mother in England. In establishing this family claim, Miss Butler discovered that the older ancestors never talked and the younger ones never asked questions, and yet she has accumulated a most interesting history. She found that both time and money had been spent by some members of the early ancestry in establishing facts, and in this family book Miss Butler wrote: "The work has been exceedingly fascinating, and I hope sometime to continue the search." In 1910 Miss Butler visited in Maine, carrying a camera, and she made many pictures of the Butler family homestead environment, among them the house in which John Butler was born. The Butler family tree is a result of Miss Butler's effort, and as she has made copies for each of her brothers, they have a priceless heritage.
Speaking of the Butler family in Maine, Miss Butler writes: "The history of our father's family in this country covers about three hundred years, and brings to mind very forcibly the strenuous military life of the Colonial and Revolutionary patriots. In our list of ancestors are the names of eighteen men from whom we are descended in direct line of these, twelve have military records. Our early ancestors were mostly English born and they all settled in the New England States. They must have been Puritans as they held office in a number of instances, and none but Puritans were allowed to vote much less hold office. The Butler family lived in Kennebunk York County, Maine, when the father was a boy, and they had lived in that locality for several generations. Our two great-grandfathers, John Butler, Sr., and John Butler, Jr., served in the Colonial and Revolutionary wars. Our grandfather enlisted in the war of 1812 as John Butler III. His business was that of shipbuilder.
Father left home at sixteen, going with a government crew to Louisiana to select live-oak trees for ship building. He returned to Boston by boat and wrote to his sisters. His father answered the letter, urging him to come home, but he never received the letter. The boat sailed out again and was lost at sea. As the family received no more letters, they finally believed that he must have gone down with the boat, that was wrecked. However, his father remembered him in his will, leaving a field which was a part of the Butler Farm. This has changed hands several times since and is now owned by a brother of the cousin who first wrote me. He said he thought his brother would give it up if we asked for it." Miss Butler further traces the career of her father to Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where he met Miss Harriet Wigmore in cherry-picking time, and on July 4, 1853, they were married and went to housekeeping. later came their removal to Indiana, with seven years of residence at Laketon, and nineteen years in Wabash. The residence of the family in Marion followed soon after the older son located here in the late seventies.
Mr. Thad Butler was married December 1, 1881, to Miss Winnie Fleming, daughter of Riley and Catherine (Harry) Fleming. They are the parents of the following children: Harry who died in 1891; are the parents of the following children: Harry who died in 1891; Bernice, wife of Earl Newhouse; and J. Edwin Butler, whose wife was Miss Clarice Hawkins. Mrs. Butler's mother, now the wife of William Hemphill of Washington, Kansas, is living, and since Mrs. Butler does not remember her own father, Mr. Hemphill seems like a father to her. Mrs. Butler is descended from a pioneer family on her mother's side, although her birthplace was at Mount Aetna, In Huntington County. Her grandfather, Jeremiah Harry, published the Marion democrat-Herald, in 1842, the first newspaper published in Grant County, and he was identified with much of the development of the community. He had one son Edwin C. Harry of Wheeling, West Virginia; and three daughters: Mrs. Catherine Fleming-Hemphill, mother of Mrs. Butler, and of George Fleming, who lived in St. Joseph, Missouri; Mrs. Cornelia Sanders and Miss Mary Harry. Only Mr. Harry and Mrs. Hemphill survive. Mrs. Butler with her children are the last representative of this pioneer family in community where they were so well known and connected with community affairs. there are three houses and Mrs. Butler and her son and daughter all live on the original Harry family homestead property. The Butler family stands high in the community life of Marion, and its accomplishment has served to enrich the business and social life of the city.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.