Butler, Thomas William; Terrebonne Parish; now West Feliciana Parish,
Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller



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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, mar
ried 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 Bu
tler 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.