Cat Head Biscuits and Watermellon........

Dare Modean Butler was the fourth child of Tom and Lydia Butler, born on Feb 10,1916. As a young child Dare tells the story about She and Dennis. They were playing, but Dennis was told to chop some wood. Dare, not wanting to stop playing sat down on the chop block and would not get up. So Dennis hit her in the head with the axe. They didn't take her to the doctor, they only wrapped it up and put kerosene on it to stop the bleeding. Dare would tell the story and show the scar.

Dare was friends with Annie Sells. She had a brother by the name of Willie Sells, better known as Bill. She introduced Dare to Bill and soon after Willie Hodge Sells and Dare Modean Butler were married Oct.17,1937.

Dare was a devoted wife. She never worked outside the home and never learned to drive. She made most all of her clothes on a pedal sewing machine that Papa Butler bought for $2.00. This machine is still in the family.

The early part of their marriage they lived in a big house that was divided like a duplex. Bill's mother and daddy lived in the other side of the house.

Dare would help her mother-in-law cook Sunday dinner. They never knew how many people they were cooking for. They had no phone or electricity and cooked on a wood stove. Dare was a wonderful cook. Some of Bills favorite foods were biscuits, chocolate pie, and his very favorite was egg custard pie.

David, Dare's younger brother came to visit often. On one occasion Bill had to take some hogs to South Georgia. Well David had a very bad cold, but he wanted to go with him. So Bill convinced David to take a big dose of Castor oil and maybe he would feel better. Bill tells the story about how many times they had to stop along the road and let David jump out of the truck and excuse himself!

In the early part of 1938 Dare was expecting their first child. But there were complications. Dare had toxemia poison and their little boy was not to be. He died Nov14,1938 at childbirth. With Dare in Georgia Baptist hospital, Bill had to take care of the arrangements. The little boy was buried in Haynes Creek Cemetery near the big bell. For you that don't know about the bell, it was used to ring the age of the person that died and friends and family would come and help dig the grave. At a later date the baby boy was moved to the cemetery at Chestnut Grove Baptist in Grayson. The baby was never named. Only the inscription on the tomb read,"Budded On Earth To Bloom In Heaven"

Dare was devastated over the death of the baby. She would go to the field where Bill was plowing and sit at the end of the row so she would not dig up the baby. The doctor told her she would never go through a pregnancy again, but in July they were expecting again. Dare was again to go through more complications and delivered early on July 24, 1940 a little girl 4lbs 3oz by the name of Rachel Annette.

I remember David being at our home many times. Calling him David never changed. Even when he married, I still called him David and Aunt Martha.

I remember mother was afraid of two things,fire and water. She loved shoes and purses. She was a wonderful and precious mother. Always thinking of others before herself. I miss her everyday.

Rachel Sells Moore

Dare Modean Butler Sells b Feb.10,1916 d Feb. 18, 2001
Willie Hodge Sells b Oct. 16,1912 d June 28, 2000
Married Oct. 17,1937

Children Infant Son d at birth Nov. 14,1938
Rachel Annette Sells
Married Billy Moore June 23, 1961

Children William Darrell Moore
Denise Renee Moore
Married Roger Alan Camp Nov.20,1992

Children Jordan Travis Camp
Chasity Brooke Camp

Nathan Taylor Butler..A little boy gone too soon..

Nathan Taylor Butler was the third son and the fifth child of Tom and Lydia Butler. He was born at home May 10,1918.

When he got sick he wasn't allowed to go outside and play, so he watched what he could out the front window. Papa never let anyone touch his pocket knife, but when Nathan was feeling unusually bad Papa let him hold it and turn it over in his hand and look at it. Uncle Mac told me that he died in Papa Butler's arms Feb.5,1927. He was 8yrs and 9 months old. I found a copy of his death certificate. He died of Endocarditis...infection of the heart valves or lining around the heart. Today this can be treated with antibiotics.

To outlive your children is a special pain that I can not even imagine. Mama Butler always kept a large picture of her little boy Nathan in a concave black oval frame above their bed. I looked at it every time I went to their house and wondered if he would have looked like my daddy if he had grown up.

Tom & Lydia Butler..........

Tom & Lydia Butler 50th Wedding Anniversary

Dec. 27, 1958

Noby Butler Needam Tom & Lydia Butler

Tom & Lydia Butler w/ Mike & Tim butler

Tom Butler Family..........

L-R Ed Butler,Jimmy Martin,Rachel Sells Moore ,Hilda Reynolds Martin,Jerry Reynolds,Bill Sells,Charlote Reynolds Carruth,Linda Butler,Dare Butler Sells ,Robert Reynolds,Kenny Butler,Mike & Tim Butler,Dennis Butler,Gary Butler,Lydia Butler Anderson,Lyndall Brooks Butler,Mac Butler,Bud Reynolds,Steve Butler,Jewell Butler Reynolds,David A. Butler,Jeff Butler,Floy Norton Butler,John Butler, Wayne Butler,Martha Garner Butler,Dan Martin,Lydia Braswell Butler,Tom Butler 1957 Aunt Jewell & Uncle Bud's house,Tucker Ga

Pictures From The Past...........

Grandma Braswell,Tom Butler, Noby B. & Enoch Needam, Grandma Butler

Jonathan Braswell, Nancy Moon Braswell, Children-Zed,Mark,


Jonathan(deceased when this picture was taken), Lydia, Mattie Lou, Naiomi, Eunice

Jonathan N. Braswell b Feb. 9, 1855 d Nov.30,1921

Nancy Moon Braswell b May 8,1859 d July 14,1943

Parents Of:

William Zed b Nov.3,1879

Lydia Senora Braswell Butler(Mama Butler) b June 21,1882 d Sept, 21,1970

Jonathan C b April 13,1885 d Oct 22,1912

Eunice R. b Oct.6,1887

Henry Mark b Dec 11,1889

Margaret Naomie b April10,1881

Mattie Lou b Nov.21,1899

"What is to be, will be" Mama Butler

Mama Butler saved everything of any use. She had balls of tin foil, string, and rubber bands in the kitchen just in case she might need them. She made quilts from parachutes brought back from WWII. She could make a woman's skirt and jacket out of a mans suit of clothes. She took the mans jacket and cut it down to fit, and took the trousers and opened them up and pieced together a straight skirt. I know because she made my mom one after my parents got married. She took plain cotton string and crocheted it into a useful doily or pot holder. I saw her take little pieces of used soap that she had saved and put it together with homemade lye soap that she made in her kitchen.

She was a Primitive Baptist and that meant that "God was all power". Everything happened just as it should and what was meant to be would happen. If you were meant to go to heaven ,you would and if not..well that was just preordained that way. No need to try and talk anyone into being saved, because their fate was sealed from the start. I never heard her argue or debate anyone about religion.. and I never knew her to worry about anything.

She was resourceful and practical, down to earth and kind. She always smiled when she saw me and said"There's my namesake" I always felt special when I was around her. One time she told me that she never had voted (I guess it was that trust that everything would turn out as it should). She said she had never had an injection from a Doctor and since I had , I was amazed by that fact. I don't know if she knew how to drive a car because when they lived in Loganville my grandparents would walk to town from their house. She told me that in school she had studied the Blue Back Speller and that she wrote on a slate with chalk instead of pencil and paper.

One time I went to church with her at Haynes Creek . The choir sang without instruments with the men on one side and the ladies on the other. Their voices sang in the Sacred Harp style. The harmony was so touching it could bring you to tears.

The day of her funeral, we all woke to a mocking bird singing outside. Daddy said ,"mama always told us, never kill a mocking bird." When we got to the church, there was another one singing its heart out right outside the church. I knew that the mocking bird's song that day at her funeral was a sign that she was in heaven and everything was as it should be.....

Husband,Father,Farmer,Musician..Papa Butler

William Thomas Butler b Oct.17,1881 d Aug.17,1966
m Lydia Senora Braswell b June 21, 1882 d Sept.21,1970
Dec, 27,1908
Children
Edward Thomas Butler b Nov.1, 1909
Jewell R. Butler July 31, 1911
Dennis B. Butler Oct 13, 1913
Dare M. Butler b Feb. 10, 1916
Nathan T. Butler b May 10, 1918
William M. Butler b Nov.1,1920
John Eph Butler b Nov. 28, 1922
David A. Butler b Dec. 7, 1925 d Oct.17,1993
My grandparents were in their 70's when I was born. I remember Papa Butler would say very little, but when he did speak everyone listened. He had a walking cane that he would try and hook your ankle with to get your attention. He smoked Winston cigaretes in his favorite chair by the fireplace in their home in Loganville. He was a farmer and would sell his produce at the farmers market in Atlanta. They lived on 100 acres on Brushy Fork Road(now Old Loganville Road)on the Gwinnett Co. side of Loganville Ga. The farm was given to my grandmother by her Uncle Taylor Braswell. He gave a farm to my grandmother and each of her sisters. Daddy said Uncle Taylor would always have his horse and buggy ready at the front of his house in case he wanted to go somewhere.His house still stands on Ga. 20 South about 2 1/2 miles from Loganville on the left. One day I asked my dad what his father was like. He told me that he was a good man who worked very hard. Coming in from the fields ,all his clothes would be soaked with sweat. He would catch a possum and put it in a cage for a month to fatten it up. Then Mama Butler would cook it for him. People in the community would come to him to settle neighborhood disputes like land boundaries. When he was young he played in a band. These "coronet" bands sprung up all over America at the turn of the century. He played the drum. Times were tough during the depression and in 1929 cotton reached an all time high. Papa had a crop that was ready to sell and the price was going higher and higher. He decided to hold his cotton for one more day in hopes of getting an even better price,but the next day the stock market crashed and the price of cotton fell to only 5 cents per pound. Papa Butler was a member of Grayson Methodist Church as were his parents and sister Noby.

Patrick & Georgia's Children..........

Noby Francis Butler Needam
Enoch Needam

William(Tom) Thomas Butler Lydia( Littie) Braswell Butler

Patrick and Georgia Butler had 5 children.

William T. Butler b October 17,1881

m Lydia Senora Braswell b June 21,1882

Clayborn P. Butler b May 25,1883 d Nov,24,1884

Merty R. Butler b Aug.18,1885 d May 12,1887

Neasey L. Butler b Nov.22,1887 d May 4,1891

Noby Francis Butler Nov.20,1890

m Enoch Needam

She called Him Mr. Butler.......

Pictures of Georgia Robertson Butler, Papa Butler's mother

In the picture you can see Georgia sitting second from the left. She is in a black dress signifying mourning. Three of her children died young. Georgia's mother is sitting next to her with the white apron on , her name was Jane Reed Robinson m William Robinson 1854. (Seated left-right) Evie Robertson Green,Georgia Robertson Butler,Matilda Jane Reed Robertson, Melissa Robertson(standing left-right) Henry Green, Morgan Robertson,Lacy Robertson, Benjamin Franklin Robertson. Child -Unknown

Nathan Patrick & Elizabeth( Elizer) Georgia Robertson Butler

Mary M. Butler's Death Certificate

Mary Whitley Butler lived to be 92 years old. As was the fashion of the time, she wore black after her husbands death. She never remarried. Here is a copy of her death certificate. Cause of death "old age" and "dropsy"Notice her parents were born in North Carolina, Nathan Whitley and Lucy Uday.

William H. Butler b 1827 m Mary M. Whitley 12/05/1849

Children:

Nathan Patrick Butler b Oct 8, 1851 Elizer Georgia Robertson b Jan 19,1864 m Jan 16, 1881

Georgia Robertson was a teenager(17) when she married Patrick Butler age 30 in 1881. Still in the Victorian Era she addressed him as Mr. Butler as women of that time often did including their grown sons. The loss of three of her children was very hard on her. Aunt Jewell told me that especially the last one who died from pneumonia.

Two of Patrick and Georgia's children lived to adult hood. William Thomas Butler(my Grandfather) and Noby Francis Butler.

Ain't nothing left but the cryin'........

After the war Mary(Polly) M. Whitley Butler carried on with what was left of her life. She had a lot to be thankful for. She was in good health and she had her children who needed her. I am sure she received help from relatives also. They were not going to let her family starve. William(Will) and Mary(Polly) did not own any slaves. They were used to working hard and doing everything for themselves. Even though they could not read or write they managed through that hard work and determination. Later Congress and the state of Georgia approved pensions for confederate widows of $100.00 per year. By putting her X on the application Mary, got this pension. Mary lived with one of her children the rest of her life. She lived her final years in Centerville, Ga. with her daughter Rebecca Francis, who married Henry C. McCullers. Mary's son James Butler married Josephine McCullers, which produced many Butler/McCullers double first cousins. See this picture of a reunion held in 1918. Mary is the old lady in the front row. Rebecca is sitting next to her and her son James is on the other side.In 1911 Mary Butler, Fannie & Henry McCullers, Celia Butler, and Marie Butler were members of Rockbridge Baptist Church, one of the oldest churches in Gwinnett County Ga. May 14,1920 she died at the age of 92 and she is buried in the church cemetery on Hwy 124 in Centerville, Ga. Aunt Jewell said they called her "Big Mama".

William H. Butler B 1827 m Mary Whitley 1849

Nathan Patrick (Papa Butler's father)

Rebecca Francis (Fannie)

James W.

Joseph Henry

Nathan Patrick Butler b 1851 m Elizer Georgia Robertson Jan 16, 1881

William T. Butler Oct 17,1881

Clayborn P. Butler May 25,1883 d Nov.24,1884

Merty R Butler Aug 18,1885 d May 12,1887

Neasey L Butler Nov 22,1887 d May 4,1891

Nobie F.Butler Nov 20 1890

The three children between Papa Butler and his sister Nobie died young. The story has been told that one died from a pitch fork in the eye, one from falling into scalding water, and one from pneumonia. They are buried in Youth Ga in a Family cemetery ( Reed) on Gum Creek Church Road. Patrick and Georgia are buried at Chestnut Grove Baptist Church, Grayson Ga. It is well known in our family that Georgia called Patrick Mr. Butler...after all he was 30 and she was just a teenager when they married..........

The Yankees are coming........

1861-65 The death of William H. Butler in first months of the war must have shocked everyone who knew him into the reality of the nightmare they were all living. How the loss of his father affected Patrick, we can only surmise from the way it affects people today. Suddenly he was the man of the house at age 9. He may have been responsible for too much too soon. His mother would depend on him to be strong and his siblings would need him to help them understand why Papa had to go away. At least Will made it home, and hopefully he died in his own bed with his loved ones around him. I wonder if his mother and father came to Walnut Grove to say goodbye.
I have not been able to find his grave. I have searched for deeds, but so far I have found no property that they owned. They could have been living on the Whitley farm or perhaps they rented. I know they buried people the same day they died back then. My guess is he is in a family cemetery and it probably is Mary's family. I am going to keep looking, because I want to find his grave and put a marker there.
The next year Will's brother Nathan would die in North Carolina from disease or wounds I don't know which. Two other brothers would survive the war. In the end, Georgia would be where one of the final acts of cruelty would be played out with the arrival of William T. Sherman. Burning their way, the Yankees plundered wherever they went. Railroad tracks and bridges along with barns and livestock were destroyed. Churches became stables, and private homes were ransacked and burned to the ground. The civilian population was terrorized as the invaders swept through like a plague.

" The story is that one of the slaves led the mules into the woods to hide them from the Yankees, the sun reflected off his bald head as he disappeared behind the pines. That's the only story I heard about the war." (As told to David Butler by his grandmother)

What was left of home after Sherman was finished with Georgia was a desolate defeated land. Crops and animals were gone, homes were damaged or destroyed and people were hungry and tired. They must have resolved to take what was left and go on, because that's what they did.....

The Great Conflict..The Civil war

The children of Patrick and Jane Butler would be a generation that watched as America struggled to stay together. That struggle defined their lives and changed the destiny of each of them. They would witness suffering on American soil that took the citizens of Walton County Ga. to hell and back.

Their oldest son William H. Butler b1827 was our gggrandfather, Papa Butlers grandfather. I don't know what the H. stood for, maybe Hansard which was his mothers maiden name. The other sons were , Nathan D. Butler, James P. Butler, Milbury Butler, and Henry Butler. They had two daughters, Sarah the oldest b 1826 and daughter Cynthia C. Butler. I know just a little about William's siblings. Nathan enlisted July 17,1861 Company B 16 Infantry regiment and died of pneumonia in Goldsboro N.C. April 16,1862..never to see home again. James who was 10 years younger than our William enlisted 3/4/1862 Co. H. 42nd Regiment..he lived through the war and came home to his wife Elander (Ellen) Austin Butler who he married 1/2/1859. I have found no records on Milbury or Henry as of yet, nor of Cynthia. Sarah married John Marler and in 1880 Patrick is living with them in Jackson Co Ga.

William H. Butler married Mary M. Whitley in Walton county 12/5/1849. They called him "Will" and her "Polly".
William was a member of Co. H. 11 Ga Regiment Walton Co. Volunteers. The history of this regiment is well documented because the officers kept accurate diaries and journals of what happened. Most of the following account is from these writings which can be found in Wayfarers In Walton, a History of Walton County by Anita B. Sams.
At the time of his enlistment Will and Polly had three children, Nathan Patrick(our great grandfather), James William, and Rebecca Francis. Joseph Henry, the youngest would be born after William's death. Patrick our ggrandfather was 9 years old when his father went off to war.

Officers of Compny H. were Capt "Tige" Anderson from Newton Co and a veteran of the Mexican War, First Lieutenant Henry D. McDaniel, and Second Lieutenant Matthew Talbot Nunnally. Henry McDaniel would return to Walton county after the war and become Governor of Georgia and Matthew Nunnally would die at Gettysburg.
William was a Private, he was 34 years old. Late in June, 1861 William and The Walton Co Infantry left Monroe for Atlanta. That day the company was presented a flag that was hand made by a group of young women of the community. The banner was given in a ceremony on the courthouse square in Monroe before they left that warm summer day. Lieutenant McDaniel later sent it to his father and it is in a Georgia collection of flags at the state capitol. After the warm send off in Monroe the company boarded a train for Atlanta, then on to Augusta and Virginia. At a pause in Petersburg, Virginia a group of women appeared at the station and when the men got off the train the women prepared a breakfast that the citizen soldiers ate picnic style. Then they went on to Richmond to the camp site at the fairgrounds. From Richmond they were ordered to join General Joseph E. Johnston. Eighteen miles of the trip was made on foot through the Shenandoah Valley. The troops slept without tents and it would many weeks before they were to have shelter.
Fate would deny the Walton Volunteers from being a part of the first battle of Bull Run. Some say a railroad conductor was bribed to delay the train carrying fresh troops, and that he was later tried and shot. In any event the Walton Infantry was left stranded in an open field without food or baggage to remain until Sunday night when the battle was over. The victory was for the South and the delayed regiments reached Manassas Junction Monday morning in the hard rain. As they stepped off the train the wounded were being brought in. After a 6 mile march in mud without tents or blankets the rain came down on them until midnight.

" I saw part of the battlefield yesterday and of all the horrible scenes this has to be the most horrible. Our men who were killed have been buried and I saw their fresh graves, the dead of the enemy are still lying as they fell, some with their heads torn off and others with their bodies mutilated." (A Private to his grandparents in a letter from the Battlefield of Bull Run)

Here the war ended for William, as he caught typhoid fever and was discharged disabled August 10,1861. Sickness caused many to die and many to have to go home. Some how he made it to Walton county before he died. There at home in Walnut Grove Sept 18, 1861 Will , our gggrandfather left this world behind. Then our ggrandfather Patrick was an orphan at age 9 and his mother Mary(Polly) a widow. Their loss must have tested them in ways we can't know. With no husband to make a crop, they would have starved if not for help from relatives. Or did Patrick and Polly plow the fields themselves? We don't know what they went through the year that Will died, but it was nothing to compare with the years to follow, when they would have to face an enemy alone with no father or husband to protect them......

She was born in Africa....

She couldn't remember her mother, but Phoebe was born in Africa. At twelve she had a lot of responsibility. She watched the little white children while the grown women worked. Each of them had their ways. Keeping them entertained was easy enough. She would sing songs first and if they were fussy she would make funny faces. They would laugh so. Sometimes a story or game or melody would come into her mind from somewhere, but she couldn't quite recall it, so she would make up something to play or sing or tell.
She was small for her age and both of her two dresses were way to big for her. They hung on her shoulders and the hems were both frayed and dirty from dragging on the ground. The red clay would not wash out even if she boiled them in the wash pot. When she wanted to run fast, she would hold up the bottom of the skirt with one hand and run, her bare feet so calloused and rough on the bottom that rocks, briers or hot sand never even hurt at all.
She slept by the fireplace in the kitchen on a pallet that she rolled out each night after the cook fire died down. In the winter it was the best place to be, and in the summer the floor felt cool, but the kitchen stayed warm until morning.
It seemed that everything went well for her until some of the children took sick. Oddly enough whenever they were feeling poorly, she would be poorly too. She wasn't really faking, but the queasy feeling that came when the other children were ill just over took her. She always got to rest when that happened like the sick children, and Lord knows she needed it.
Years and years past and she never married. She never grew any bigger than when she was twelve. At 45 she still looked like a child.
One day she was free to come and go as she pleased, but she had no where to go and no one to go to. So she stayed. She stayed and watched the grand babies until her eyes quit working and her arthritis made running after children too difficult.
They buried her in a special place in the family cemetery on the old home place, way in the back with the others under a Sassafras tree.
One day her mother met her there and finally took her back home.

*Based on a true account of the life of Phoebe a slave who belonged to Mama Butler's family as told to my father David A. Butler by his cousin Paul Clay and his mother Lydia Braswell Butler (Mama Butler). Cemetery located on Hwy 20 South 3 miles out of Loganville Ga on the old Braswell Homeplace.*

Home Sweet Home........

Imagine building your home from the ground up without any of the modern tools used today. Slow and laborious work of felling trees and skinning logs. Trying to get a roof over their heads before the winter weather had to have been a top priority. Patrick Butler b 1760 and his wife Elizabeth Rebecca Fannin Butler lived in Elbert Co Ga the rest of their lives. They could have moved as they got Land Lottery draws, but they stayed. Perhaps Virginia to Georgia was far enough and they needed stability.



Nathan and his wife Mary Ann sold out in 1805 and left Elbert Co. We find them in Walton 1830. A younger Patrick Butler b 1799 d after 1881 m Jane Hansard in Elbert Co Ga. is also in Walton. This Patrick I know for sure is a grandfather of ours because in the census records his oldest son was Papa Butlers grandfather, William H. Butler.



Patrick Butler b1799 m Jane Hansard d After 1880 Jackson Co Ga In the 1850 Census he is living in Dekalb Co and in the 1860 , he is in Fulton county. He lists his occupation as - Carpenter
Aunt Jewell told me that someone in our family helped build the railroad and this Patrick sounds like he could be the one. The railroad was built during this era before the civil war and since he moved to Atlanta he could have used his carpentry skills for that construction.

In the 1880 census he is 81 and living with his daughter and son-in-law(John Marler) in Jackson county. That means that Papa Butler's father N. P. Butler would have known him(Patrick).

Children Of Patrick and Jane Butler- 1850 Census Walton
William H. Butler 24-Our gggrandfather
E. S. Butler 20
Nathan D. Butler 18
Cynthia C. Butler 15
James P. Butler 14
Milbury Butler 11
Henry H. Butler 10


This generation of Butlers would witness the greatest American tragedy of all time.. The War Between The States. Many of them would pay for this terrible nosedive our country took with their lives. Papa Butler's father would become an orphan at age 9 and have to grow up without a father. All of this generation of Butlers in Georgia would suffer and.. yet they would survive...We are here today because of their courage and determination to endure. The defeat of the South catapulted Georgia into horrors so unspeakable that I am convinced that whether we know it or not our grandparents and parents and even we still bear the scars of it in our unconscious. They knew as no other region of America the despair of the defeated. They knew the pain and loss of wealth, power, dignity, and even identity. All were striped away in the 4 years between 1861 and 1865.

From Virginia and the dreams of a better life in Georgia, our grandfathers and grandmothers dug in and reached down and put the dreams aside to mourn ..A mourning so deep and so wide it would swallow some of them up forever..............

Good help is hard to find.....

So far we have two sons of Zachariah that I am currently investigating that could be our grandfather after Zach.

Patrick Butler b March 1, 1760 in St Pauls Parrish Hanover Co Va married Elizabeth Fannin in Va , served in Capt James Anderson's company, Colonel Nelson's regiment, and in 1781 in Captain Brown's company. He was in the battles of Camden and Guilford.

Both Battles were lost to the British , but with such a high cost that British General Cornwallis lost 25% of his troops in the Battle of Guilford. The Americans were led by Nathaniel Green good friend of George Washington and his most trusted General.

After the war Patrick was awarded land in Georgia in Elbert Co and went there with his father Zachariah. His grave is in Elbert Co in the Butler Cemetery on the Dye Homeplace in Fortsonia Ga, south of Elberton in Elbert Co Ga along with his father Zachariah. Their wives and others are probably there too.

Nathan(iel) Butler b1769 Virginia married Mary Ann ? I have not found their marriage record, but I have copies of land transfers done in Elbert Co Ga that show his wife's name to be Mary Ann. April 20th 1805 Nathan and Mary Ann his wife sold over 100 acres for $250.00 to John Brewer on the waters of the Wahatchee Creek a branch of the Broad River.

So Zachariah and his sons and their wives and children came to Ga for their free land. They left Virginia and traveled by foot or horse or wagon to Elbert Co Ga.

A 200 acre farm needs at least 9 -12 adults to do the work necessary to cultivate the land, clear the land, raise crops, tend animals, build homes and out buildings, dig a well,
fortify the place against attacks by Native Americans and wild animals, chop wood to last through the winter, etc.
Zach, Patrick, Nathan, possibly another son....how did they do all that was needed to survive?

They had help...like I said before.
They brought all their worldly possessions from Virginia and that included their slaves..

Are you surprised, shocked, or maybe in the back of your mind you always knew that the possibility existed that our forefathers actually owned other human beings? I was not surprised, but I was sad that along with my pride in America I have to temper that pride with the knowledge about the sin of Slavery..Yes I call it a sin, because I believe greed was the seed that for some justified slave labor. Servitude was nothing new to the British. The social classes had rigid lines and people of higher social standing had always had servants who did the day to day work. The Lords ruled over the peasants, the land owners over the renters. Indentured servants worked for a craftsman or over lord for period of time and then they were free to go out on their own. Many people worked under the thumb of someone else to earn their passage to America. But agricultural cash crops like tobacco, corn, cotton, and rice needed lots of intense labor and the sin of slavery became an institution that provided that labor. .....In the end it would cost them almost everything.

So Zachariah, Patrick, and Nathan worked their land and they did not do it alone. We don't know who they were, but the Africans who came to Georgia with our Grandfathers worked side by side with the Revolutionary war heroes, and their wives building a new life in north Georgia..........

If you are King, you have to be careful..

If you are King you have to be careful that your food and drink are safe, just in case someone in the kingdom wants you gone. That's how the Butlers got their name. William The Conqueror brought with him the chief Bouteillier(Bottle) wine taster with him to England around 1066 or so.
Tasting the drink to make sure it was safe was an important job and your life depended on how good you were at it.Theobald Fitzwalter was created chief Butler of Ireland in 1177. The family started to use the name Butler at about 1220. The title the Duke of Ormond was bestowed on the Butlers in 1328.
Now what does that have to do with the Butlers in America? Well as time passed more and more families took the surname Butler because of their occupation in serving the rich and famous, then branched out on their own into Planting, Carpentry, and yes even clergy.
Zach lists his trade as Planter and that turned into Farmer. Many Butlers were small land owners, and share croppers. Share cropping is growing a crop on someone elses land for a share in it. If you did not own land of your own you could live and work another mans farm and keep a share of the crop you grew. Not a way to riches but of survival.

Check out the link on Agriculture in Colonial America.

Zachariah Butler b 1736 m Sarah Bowe d 1758, Then Mary Edwards
Sons
James b1758 m Sarah?
Patrick b1760 m Elizabeth Fannin
Nathan(iel )b 1762? some say 1768 m Mary Ann ?
Joel b
These sons along with other children followed our grandfather Zach to Georgia after the revolution. James and Patrick were Rev War vets also. Nathan shows as a vet of The Indian Wars.

I am confident that one of the above sons is our grandfather after Zachariah. I have some evidence for all three but Nathaniel is my best guess.
How could a family carve out a place to live and do all that work?
They had help.......

Irish Roots Or English Boots?

From the beginning of my search for our Butler ancestors I found over and over that they were Irish..do we have some red hair out there and a few short tempers? Are we great story tellers, musicians, romantics full of blarney ? Stereotypes filled my imagination. I spoke with a researcher who said someone told her a gggrandfather still had a little Irish brogue in his speech. Is that why there are so many Patricks in our family?
Now I learn that Zachariah Butler ,the first grandfather that I know belongs to our line.. may have Christopher Butler as his father a possible Englishman. Oh well, we may learn soon as the Butler DNA project is well underway.
If you are a male Butler I urge you to take the DNA test..lets see where our roots really are.
Lets start at the beginning as far back as I have found.

Zachariah Butler b1736 Hanover Co Virginia
The same year and county as Patrick Henry. Everyone in Hanover Co knew who Patrick Henry was, knew of his support for the revolution and many had heard him speak in person. At the Williamsburg website you can hear his most famous speech given. I urge you to listen and try to see why our ggggrandfather Zach joined the Virginia Continental line in Sept 1780.

Look at the copy of "The Size Roll" Zach and his oldest son James are the last two on the page. James outlived several wives and had over 20 children. He and most of them went to Alabama, where he is buried. I am not sure which son of Zach that we are decended from...Hopefully the Butler DNA project will answer that question. James was the oldest, then Patrick, Nathan and Joel. More on them later. Not everyone knows the height, eye and hair color of their grandfather born in 1736..we do. He was a planter, he fought for America's freedom and for that he was awarded a 200 acre plot of land on the banks of the Wathachee Creek in Elbert Co Ga. He, his wife and most of his children left Virginia and walked/rode to Georgia. They had guts to do that. North Georgia at that time was a wilderness. Trees as big around as SUVS. Wild game..bear,turkey,deer,mountain lion, bob cat, panther,and the unknown. Native American lands had been traded-taken- and pioneers were pouring into the southern colonies. The sides of his property say vacant on several sides with a Hickory tree as markers for the boundary. No neighbors for miles, no hospitals, no firemen, no police, no one to rescue or help..just themselves and no doubt their faith in God..who surely was watching over our grandfather as he chopped that first tall tree down and heard it fall in the forest so long ago.....