Peter Butler was born in 1789 in Polaski County, Kentucky, and later moved to Barren County, Kentucky. He served in the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War of 1831. He helped survey and founded Monmouth, Illinois, where he served as sheriff, surveyor, mayor, county commissioner, and served in the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate. He came to Oregon in 1853 at the age of 64 as the head of the Butler Wagon Train along with wife Rachael Cook Murphy Butler and some of his children (Ira Frances Marion Butler, Margaret Butler Smith, Elijah Davidson Butler, Elizabeth Hannah Hutchinson, Eliza D. Butler Ground and Isaac Butler). Peter Butler died in 1856 and is buried with his wife Rachel in the Butler Davidson Cemetery near Monmouth in Polk County, Oregon.
John Murphy Butler was born in 1818 near Bowling Green in Warren County, Kentucky. One of the sons of Peter and Rachel Butler who stayed in Monmouth Illinois, the bulk of the letters are addressed to him along with his wife Eliza; he later shared them with his other brothers and family in Illinois. His family includes his wife, Eliza Smith and children McDowell (died in infancy), Lavina Matilda, Erastus, Granville, Isaac Smith, Ralph Otis, and Peter Franklin (Frank). He and his wife are buried in Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois. He died in 1864 after Eliza who died in 1858, leaving their young children in the care of a maiden aunt, Matilda Smith, sister of Eliza.
Ira Frances Marion Butler was the oldest son of Peter and Rachel Butler, born in 1812 in Barren County, Kentucky and later moved to Illinois. He served in the Black Hawk War with his father; as the county clerk (1841-1848) and county sheriff (1836-1840) of Warren County, Illinois and mayor of Monmouth, Illinois before joining his father leading a wagon train to the Oregon Territory. He served as president on the founding Board of Trustees for Monmouth University (1855-1882) and signed the charter creating Monmouth University, helping to bring the vision of establishing a Reformation college to life. He is credited for breaking the tie vote to name Monmouth and served as the first mayor in 1881. He also served three terms in the Oregon Legislature (Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1857-58) and as circuit judge for Polk County from 1878-1882. He lived to be 97 and is buried with his wife and most of his children in the Butler Davidson Cemetery near Monmouth in Polk County, Oregon.
Elizabeth Hannah Butler Hutchinson was one of the daughters of Peter and Rachel Butler who moved to Oregon with the wagon train in 1853. Elizabeth, (known as Lissie), was born in 1829 in Kentucky and married Thomas Hanna Hutchinson in 1851 in Warren County, Illinois. They had one son in Illinois (James Butler), one son in the Cascades before reaching Oregon (Robert Cascade), and one son in Polk County (Tom Otis). Her husband Thomas surveyed and platted Monmouth, Oregon, in 1855. He also signed the charter to establish Monmouth University and served as the secretary of the Board of Trustees. Lissie died in 1866 leaving custody of her young boys to her younger brother Isaac and Sarah Butler.
From the guide to the Butler Family Papers, 1835, 1848-1863, bulk 1853-1859, (Western Oregon University Archives)
