Dallas County AlArchives Biographies.....Butler, Walter Solomon February 4 1862 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 19, 2004, 12:07 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
   WALTER SOLOMON BUTLER is of Scotch-Irish descent, and is a son of John Miller
Butler, who was born in Autauga county, Ala., and died in Selma in 1865. He was
a son of Solomon Butler (whose father, John Butler, was one of the boy soldiers
in the Revolutionary war, having en-listed at the age of eighteen), who was born
in Edgefield district in what is now South Carolina, in 1797, and came to
Alabama and settled in Autauga county in 1817. John Miller Butler was a
carpenter by trade, and came to Selma in the "fifties." He was married to Miss
Fannie Sellers, a daughter of William Calvin Sellers, a well-to-do planter and
one of the pioneers of Lowndes county, Ala., having come from Georgia. She is
still living in Selma. They were blessed with six children, three of whom died
young. Of the three living, whose names are William Alva, Alfred Berry and
Walter Solomon, the latter (who is the youngest) is the gentleman whose name
heads our sketch. He was born at Selma, Ala., on Wednesday, February 4, 1862,
and was reared in his native town, receiving a fair literary education at Dallas
academy. As his father died when he was but little over three years of age, and
at a period when the ravages of war had left his widowed mother with five small
children and almost without means, he learned to work at an early age, and began
his business career at twelve as a newspaper carrier for the Selma Evening Echo,
which paper lasted only a few months; being thrown out of employment, he decided
to go in business on his own account in a small way as a newsdealer, and
continued in that line for two years, during which time he attended school
between the hours of 9 A. M. and 2 P. M., and pushed his business in the early
mornings, afternoons and Saturdays. Having a desire to learn the book and
stationery business, he entered the store of William G. Boyd as errand boy in
1877, and by close attention to business he was advanced until he became head
salesman. He was with Mr. Boyd for over two years, when, on account of ill
health caused by hard study and overwork, he was out of the store about eighteen
months, but at the end of that time resumed his former position with Mr. Boyd,
and remained with him up to his death in 1881. He was then for five years with
Robert S. Wetmore, Mr. Boyd's successor in the same business. In 1886 Mr. Butler
and Edward S. Gatchell formed a co-partnership and established themselves under
the firm name of Butler & Gatchell, for the purpose of carrying on a general
book and stationery business at 914 Broad street, where they remained for two
years, but as their business had increased so that they outgrew their original
quarters, they removed to the W. G. Boyd three-story brick building, it being
the same place where Mr. Butler had spent eight years in learning and mastering
his profession. He and Mr. Gatchell now have one of the handsomest stocks in
Alabama, and from a small beginning, with only two clerks, they now give
employment to a force of eight, and do a magnificent wholesale and retail
business in their own and adjoining states. In 1888 they opened a branch house
at Marion, Ala. (a small college town of about 2,000 inhabitants), but after
running it about a year they had the misfortune to lose their stock by a
disastrous fire which devastated one of the principal blocks of the town, so
they decided to employ their entire capital in Selma, and at this writing (1892)
are doing a safe and lucrative business. In 1888 (November 28), Mr. Butler
married Miss Annie Hubbard, of Montgomery, Ala., and their union is blessed with
one child, who is now a dainty little miss of sixteen months, but little Mamie
bids fair to become in Selma what her mother was in Montgomery-a beautiful woman
and loved by all who knew her. Mr. Butler is a charter member of the Alabama
Booksellers' association, also a deacon in the Christian church, recording
secretary of the Alabama Christian missionary convention, and superintendent of
the Sunday school. He has held various positions in the Y. M. C. A., being a
director for five years and vice-president of the association in 1890. He is a
member of the subordinate lodge, Central. No. 18, and the encampment No. 16, of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is honorary member of a number of
church and college societies. In closing this sketch we wish to say that Mr.
Butler does not claim to be a "self-made man," but attributes all honor to his
beloved and aged mother, who, by her teaching and example, sacrifices and
prayers, has made him what he is.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 847-849
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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