HON. HILORY BUTLER. – Mr. Butler is the son of Roland and Luc Emery Butler. He was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, on March 31, 1819. He resided on his father’s farm, where he was born, until he was twenty-one years of age, when he came to Lexington, Missouri, with a neighbor’s family, and followed farming until 1852. In April of that year he started across the plains in company with his wife, with the train known as the Hays and Cowan train, and arrived in Portland in September of the same year. After spending the first winter in Portland, in the spring of 1853, he went to Olympia, and a month later to Alki Point, where he remained for three months. He then took up his residence in Seattle, and at that time purchased two lots on the corner of Second and James streets for one hundred and twenty-five dollars, which he has seen been offered one hundred thousand for.
He took part in the war of 1855-56. In 1854 he was elected sheriff of King county, which position he held for three years. In 1861 he was appointed Indian agent of the Duwamish and Muckelshute Indians, being relieved in 1862. A short time afterwards he was appointed deputy provost marshal for Washington Territory, which position he held until his time expired, or on the completion of the work. He also held the post of sergeant-at-arms of the legislature.
Mr. Butler has given all his time to working at different enterprises in Seattle, having built on his present property the first frame house in that city, and is now building, the fine Butler Block, He is now living in Seattle, and is without a family, his wife, to whom he was married in Lexington, Missouri, in 1848, having died in Olympia, January 3, 1870. She was Miss Catherine Hickman, a native of Hickman county, Kentucky.