Submitted by Mike Miller
Butler, Thomas William,
successful and prominent planter of West Feliciana parish, La., was
born in Terrebonne parish, La Jan. 12, 1851, son of Richard E. and
Sarah (Ker) Butler, both of' whom were born in the state of
Mississippi. The founder of the Butler family in Louisiana was
Thomas Butler, a native of Pennsylvania and a son of Col. Thomas
Butler of the Colonial army in the American Revolution, and later of
the regular United States army. Col. Thomas Butler in later life
removed to the state of Mississippi, where his son, Thomas, married
Miss Ann Ellis and afterward settled in West Feliciana parish, La.,
where he became a planter and lawyer. In the course of his public
career Thomas Butler served on the bench as judge of the district
court and later as a member of Congress. Richard E. Butler was his
second eldest son, and became a planter of Terrebonne parish, where
Thomas William Butler, the subject of this sketch, was reared. In
later life Richard E. Butler, the father, returned to West Feliciana
parish, where his death occurred on his plantation. Thomas William
Butler was the only child born to his parents. He was educated at
Virginia Military Academy, from which he was graduated in 1873. He
devoted the activities of his life to the avocation of a cotton
planter in West Feliciana parish, in which business he achieved much
more than ordinary success. Mr. Butler was owner of the splendid
plantation known as "The Cedars," and had one of the most commodious
and altogether attractive plantation homes in that part of the state
of Louisiana. In 1881 Mr. Butler was married to Miss Sallie Fort, a
daughter of the late W. J. Fort, who was a pioneer of West Feliciana
parish and a prominent cotton planter. Mr. and Mrs. Butler had 3
children, viz.: Sarah D., Richard E., and Mary F. The members of the
family are communicants of the Episcopal church, and the Butler
family is reckoned among the most prominent, highly esteemed, and
influential in the parish. Mr. Butler never sought political honors,
preferring to devote his talents to a practical demonstration of the
great possibilities of cotton growing and other by-products of a
properly conducted Louisiana plantation, and in this field of
usefulness as a representative typical American citizen, he was
generously rewarded with the most substantial results of a wisely
directed and highly honorable life He died Dec. 15, 1913.
Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events,
Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3),
p. 79. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by
Century Historical Association.
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